Youngsters at Caedmon school picked up the honour as part of the BBC's News Report School after beating off more than 300 schools in the country for their report on Whitby's fishing industry.

The film asks the question – Fishing Dead or Alive? – and features interviews from local fisherman on the current state of the industry in the town.

And after impressing the judges, Josh Walker, Charlie Dickinson, Emily Gray, Holly Yarker, Lauren Cole were picked out of a hat to travel to London and attend the glitzy ceremony later this month to pick up the award from Adam Fleming, a presenter on the children's show Newsround.

Sheila Sloan, who set up the link between the children and the BBC, said she was amazed the school scooped an award in their entry in the competition.

"It is the first time we have entered the competition, so to win an award out of 300 schools is really excellent and great for the children.

"We were not really expecting to do so well, as some of the other schools entries were really polished and produced on a media suite, something which we do not have.

"We are absolutely delighted and I must say thank you to the speakers who gave up their time and came in to speak to the children.

"It helped them formulate their own questions from primary research, which we wanted to encourage, rather than using the internet.

"We also had a man from the BBC come into the school who was really helpful for the children and he spent the day with them, giving advice on interview and video techniques."

She added the decision to focus on fishing came because it was something that allowed the youngsters could find a great out about.

"We wanted domething that went across various subjects on the curriculum including history, geography and English, which this subject did".

Despite the success, Mrs Sloan said she was still unsure which award the school had actually picked up after entering the film in three categories. "I entered the school for three awards, for the writing, the website and the video awards, and I'm not sure which we have won as they have not told us yet."

The success follows a practice news day the school held earlier this year, when students made a film about the Nambikki school in the Mettupalayam village in India, for which they have pledged to raise £600 a year to support.

"We only had quite a small group of about ten children for that film, but we decided that we would spread it out to as much as Year 8 as possible," said Mrs Sloan.