Ed wins the newsquiz champagne

From left: Carina Stathis, Freya Barnes, Alesia Fiddler, Poppy Atkinson Gibson, Ed Holt with the champagne, Luke Power, Olivia Christie, Olivia Day, Cameron Roy and Sam Lawley. Pieter Snepvengers, on the screen, did the last three days remotely. 

I said goodbye to 11 MailOnline young journalists this week. They had sessions with deputy head of video Olivia Bateman, audience development lead Nick Moar, global reporter Chris Pleasance and senior journalists Danny Hussain and Bridie Pearson-Jones. There was also a Q&A panel with some of last year’s trainees including Kitty Lawton, Hannah Mcdonald, Eirian Prosser, Nell Salvoni and Arthur Parashar. The trainees covered a breaking news story, created banners, wrote personality profiles and prepared newslists for their placements. Olivia Christie had four stories published. The first was about ‘green’ Oxfordshire council being accused of hypocrisy after it was revealed that 387 of its 420 vehicles are diesel-powered. Read it here.

Olivia also wrote a travel story about Barcelona banning cruise ships from its main port to help stop pollution. 

She continued her ecology theme by reporting on the University of Oxford's iconic Radcliffe Camera building being sprayed in orange paint. Her story went online and was a page lead in the Daily Mail paper too.

Olivia also wrote a Femail story about Spanish heir to the throne Princess Leonor turning 18.

Trainee Cameron Roy earned a byline on the banner on Tuesday. Cameron ran into the clashes in London between Palestine and Israel supporters and shot some amazing video. You can see it here. 

Last night Freya Barnes headed to Manchester to see S Club pay a tribute to ex-member Paul Cattermole as they started their reunion tour. Freya's story is here. 

Luke Power wrote a story about a £5,000 reward being offered for information on a human placenta being found in a Southampton park.

And Pieter Snepvengers followed up his story of last week with the news that indie-band Easy Life are to change their name after being threatened with legal action but easyJet's parent company. Read it here.

They are the first bylines of many and there are plenty more stories in the pipeline. On Wednesday the trainees had drinks with senior staff in the Greyhound. We finished the course, as always, with the newsquiz. The top scorer this week was Ed Holt with an impressive 23. Luke Power scored 21 and Olivia Christie and Pieter Snepvengers both scored 20. Ed was the top scorer over the three-week course and collected a bottle of champagne. The trainees now head off to their placements at the Mail in Dublin and Glasgow, the Liverpool Echo, the Press Association while some go to the MailOnline news and sports desks. They are a bright and likeable bunch who will undoubtedly do well. I wish them all the best of luck.  

*An updated version of the newsquiz will be posted on Friday.