because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. learning languages in lockdown — the boom in the number of people learning welsh notjust in the uk — but around the world. now, here is the future. a special programme on this year's bbc young reporter competition — with kasia madera. hello and welcome to a special programme in which we'll be featuring some of the winning stories from this year's bbc young reporter competition. more than 2,500 young people aged 11—18 submitted their ideas, and 30 national and regional winners were picked from across the uk to film their own story with some of the bbc�*s programme—makers. this year, there were three categories — me and my world, coronavirus stories and uplifting stories. well, the winners were told they'd been chosen by some of the competition judges, and here's some of their reactions. i'm not calling you to find out more about your idea. i've come with some good news. are you ready? i'm delighted to say that... you are one of the winners... ..for this year's bbc young reporter competition! laughter all right, thank you so much. you have won. wow! i'm speechless, it'sjust... it's amazing. yay! congratulations! thank you! hope you're chuffed about it. yeah, i'm ready. congratulations, how do you feel? pretty amazing, to be fair. i can't stop smiling right now. oh, i'm so pleased! i'm really glad that my message got across, so, yeah. i'm really proud of you and everybody who worked with you. they will be really made up about it all. congratulations, and i can't wait to see your finished piece of news. thank you very much. oh. wow! _ laughter i can't stop smiling either! that was so sweet. their excitement is contagious. ourfirst report comes from 17—year—old hannah from south la narkshire. she chose to talk about the work that she's been doing in a care home during lockdown and the importance of helping others. dealing with death is quite hard to deal with because obviously, these people don't have their family with them when it happened because of lockdown, so having to die in an isolated place is quite tricky. it's really devastating. i'm hannah, i'm 17 years old and i'm a cleaner at a care home as well as a student. i was basically at school working as a lifeguard when the coronavirus hit. the council asked for people who would be willing to help volunteer for work, and areas that were needed. out of all the options i was given, i chose the care home. the cleaning isn't that bad. it's something you would get used to as you do it more and more, so i don't really mind it any more. i normally clean the residents�* rooms, so i would hoover and dust the main part of the room and then go into their bathrooms and give that quite a deep clean. i built a lot of good relationships with some of the people in the care home. you learn a lot when you work in there about their life experience in general, and we were the only people there to support them. a lot of deaths were very surreal and strange. it was quite hard to deal with, especially if you're a young person, you wouldn't expect it. that's why it made it a bit more shocking when it happened. it had a big impact on a lot of people in the care home. there were quite a few times, especially during the first lockdown, that i felt like i couldn't do it any more because it was just too much for me, especially dealing with death and just the work and how repetitive it was. but i pushed through it and i told myself that what i'm doing is good and it's helping people and i was there for a reason. i've seen a lot of people over social media and online that haven't followed rules and have posted about it and seen tonnes of people just really not caring at all about the situation. as a society, i feel like we should move forward and learn to look after each other and love each other more and definitely support those who need it the most, because i feel like we hadn't done that enough beforehand. iam happy. i feel like i've accomplished quite a lot and i think what i've done has helped people, and i'm really glad that i stuck at it. so are we. our thanks to hannah for sharing her story. our next report is from 17—year—old ben. he's an apprentice footballer at burton albion. ben made his report all about the pressures of trying to make it as a professional. here's his story. there's been a couple of lads recently who have been released by clubs who have taken their own life. that shouldn't be how it is. young people are often overshadowed on the mental side. you kind of see, you're playing football every day, what can be wrong with you? well, who knows what's going on inside? i'm 17 years old and i play for burton albion football club. i'm a first—year scholar at the moment, so it's my first year of two years. there's loads of pressures and different kinds of things going on. the football's kind of an hour and a half of your day. you're leaving school, you're leaving your mates, leaving your whole kind of last 12 years, almost, to come and play football. and if you don't get pro at the end of it, it's a big step to make. yeah, ijust kind of wanted to highlight the importance of the mental health side of football. people think, "oh, you're a footballer, you're living life," and it's not that at all. you're going home, you're sore, you're aching, you've got to wake up the next morning. you've got to get through it, and... it's what you've got to do if you want to be a footballer. if you're not training well enough, you're out of the team, you don't play. it is hard. you're going home, you're not playing a tournament in 90 minutes and you're thinking, "well, what am i doing here?" so, yeah, i think highlighting the importance of that side of the game is vital. an academy footballer is... it's harder than people think. you're in every day, so it's monday to saturday, you've got gym training in the morning, you've got college monday, wednesday, thursday, you've got tactical sessions, you've got video sessions, you've got extras at the end if you want to do them. you'll be getting up early, getting home late — it's hard. at this club, if you don't do your work, you're not playing in the team. there's loads of different assignments with different teachers. it's a big part of the scholarship, doing the college work, yeah. yeah, it's not like anything else, i don't think. we're all mates, but you're fighting with each other. if he's taking your place as a pro contract, then you're not going to be happy. so, yeah, it's a bit fake in a sense that you're mates, obviously, but you want to be better than them and you need to be better than them if you want to be a footballer. i have got plans if football doesn't work out. probably uni. i've been looking at america and different english ones, but hopefully i'll get a pro contract. my whole life goal has been to be a footballer, so i'm trying to work towards that. yeah, i'm doing everything i can to do it. ben on the different challenges of becoming a professional footballer and i'm very pleased to say ben joins us now. firstly, congratulations and well done on winning the competition. fantastic story. you've completely opened my eyes and i'm sure many of the people watching today ofjust how challenging it is to go professional in a sport. yeah, i mean, i'm not sure people realise how hard it really is. they kind of see people who have made it and think they've done really well, they must be chuffed with themselves. they don't realise the hard work that goes into it. especially when it comes to professional footballers we see the glamour, the cars, the amount of effort you put into it, and there's a serious chance that you may not become a professional. that must be quite an eye—opener for many people. yeah, definitely. there's a lot of running that goes into preseason. you've got your gym work, your college work. there's a lot that goes into making a professional. yeah, i mean, doing the right things and getting all that done and stuff and getting yourself the best possible chance. that's what i'm doing and what the rest of the lads on the team are doing. talk us through the different pressures you face. on top of the actual sport, the athleticism, you also have to keep up with your schoolwork. it must be quite tough. yeah, your football is an hour and a half of your day and that's a highlight. you've got college stuff afterwards you've got to go to. you're doing stuff at home. some lads are doing it on the train and getting up at seven, eight o'clock the next day. get up and do the same again the next day. yeah, it's not rightly documented i don't think. i don't think people realise that's what you have to do. they think it's football, home, done. that's not how it works. it sounds relentless, but it does mean that by telling your story, you've opened this up to so many different people. tell us about the competition because of course, you filmed your story with some of my colleagues. how did that work out with you. it's quite surreal, to be honest. because i entered the competition kind of not thinking i'd win it. i entered it to try and get my message across. but kind of for myself more than anybody else. when nestor rang me to say i'd won, it was a good moment for me. having all the cameras at the game, doing all those little videos, it was really good. in terms of giving advice to any other young reporters out there who want to get involved, what would you say? what your tips? do it? what are your tips? ioo%, throw yourself into it. it's opened up so many options for me now if football doesn't work out. yeah, just throw yourself into it because you never know what's going to happen. you can't hold back thinking something might happen, something might go wrong. throw yourself into it and see where it takes you. we wish you all the best and thank you so much for sharing your story, it's been really fantastic to hear it. and also hear the pressures that you're under but also the positivity as well. good luck with it, ben. thank you and congratulations. thank you. how fantastic. let's turn now to a report from wilamena in cornwall. wilamena's desire to promote understanding about tourette syndrome made her one of the competition's regional winners. this is her story. cello plays five years ago, i woke up one day and i couldn't walk or even get out of bed due to disabling and violent full body tics. eventually, i got diagnosed with tourette syndrome at the age of nine. what age did you first get diagnosed with tourette syndrome? i was five years old when i first got diagnosed with tourette's. i started having my first symptoms when i was two. most people with tourette�*s have what's called a co—morbidity. that could be ocd, adhd, anxiety or depression. the co—morbidity that i have is anxiety and ocd. turns out i'm not the only one. adhd. ocd as well. ocd, adhd. what's really extraordinary is that you don't seem to tic very badly. when you are having your cello lessons — i have a government—funded scholarship to attend a specialist music school where i board away from home and learn cello and percussion to an advanced level despite my disability. the moment my fingers touched the piano or the keyboard, it- completely disappears. they... they go away. my focus is for playing the drums. it almost overtakes the tourette's. even though tourette�*s can be hard, i try not to let it stop me from reaching my goals, even if myjourney of getting there is slightly different from everyone else�*s. talk to us and treat us like anybody else. we've created such a stereotype in the media. how can we undo this? people don't understand the unknown, and that's what is stressful to people who have tourette's. has your tourette�*s changed at all as you got older? yeah, yeah. they're always... even each day has its ups and downs. i started just making small grunting noises from my throat. _ as i got older, they became more physical in my legs _ you name it all, i have all the tics. with tourette�*s, expect the unexpected. how do you think your life would have been different or where would you be now if you haven't discovered the world of music and how that help to cope with your tics? i honestly think i'd be either in one of two places. i'd be dead or injail. tourette�*s isn'tjust the swearing disease that the media portrays it to be. i want it to stop being the punch line of every comedian�*s jokes. i want people to learn about what tourette�*s actually is. this is the real tourette�*s. thanks to wilhelmina for sharing her story. the competition was judged by panels ofjournalists from across the bbc who looked at the story ideas and decided on the national and the regional winners. newsround presenter ricky boleto was one of the nationaljudges this year. and roisin hastie, who works at bbc newsbeat, was one of the regionaljudges. i'm thrilled to say they both join us today. my goodness, what a tough competition! not only extremely high standards, but also, this year's competition was amidst coronavirus. the timing and everything else, just talk us through your experience. that's it because every year, we have entrants and they always surprise us. i have to say i was worried this year because for most young people, their world has got so much smaller over the last 12 months. as the global pandemic turned their lives upside down, but instead, what we got our fascinating insight onto how young people cope and how the relationships have changed but also what makes them tick. a few of my favourites have to be shireen, who said she didn't like her dad before lockdown, but the relationship has completely changed. they bonded. we also had some really strong journalism from some entrants who had something new for the table. we heard from is—year—olds zoe, who want to talk about the lack of support for teenagers who lost loved ones during the pandemic. but then still had to sit exams. that's something i've never really heard of before. we have refreshing stories about how young people are coping, notjust hearing the negative things about them going out, partying, and maybe some people ignoring the rules. but also how they've continued to work like 17—year—old hannah, who has been working throughout the whole of the pandemic. hearing those positive stories too. incredibly difficult to pick winners this year. incredibly, and i have to say i really admire how you judges have done it because they brought some stories to our attention, this is incredibly personal as well. how do you choose a story? what stands out for you? what's important when it comes to storytelling? we tend to look for things that we haven't seen, when we think we've not really heard that story told, and that's what we love about young reporter, they bring a fresh perspective to the bbc. it's so important that those stories get out there. we might look at things where somebody shows a realjournalistic nous. and they wanted to investigate it. dog barks i think you've got a bit of help from your pet there. we can hear the pet, it's wonderful! when it comes to advice from anybody who wants to get involved in the competition to take part, give us a tip. what's the one thing they really need to think about? i think the most important thing for this competition is not feeling that you have to have a polished story that is ready to go. the whole point of the bbc young reporter competition is to just have that nugget of something new that we haven't heard of before, maybe. then we will do the rest. we will help you. it's a difficult thing, it's quite imposing. to think i'm going to get my story on bbc news. the most important thing we can do is really get your story and help you to tell it, so if you have got something that is new, something we haven't heard of before, then don't be afraid. i think a lot of young people think bbc news isn't necessarily for them. apart from newsround and newsbeat, you don't always hear from young people on other platforms, but we're saying no, share your story with us and hopefully will not be getting more young people applying again for the next competition. we really hope so. when it comes to the next competition, i'm assuming you will bejudging. yeah, it's always a massive highlight. i love being a judge because i think it's so important that the whole process, the whole experience. we and up creating with them and it ends up being on bbc output. that confidence is important for the younger generation because they need to know that being a journalist is an option for them. when i was younger, i felt like the bbc was such a dream that i might never be able to achieve, but this gives young people the confidence that your voice will be heard and you can tell your story. absolutely. what a lovely thought to end on. i think we all felt like that, really. thank you so much both of you for being such fantastic judges, for sharing your experience and for bringing such amazing stories to our attention. next we have a report from 13—year—old declan from nuneaton. now, declan wrote about how his love of fishing has totally transformed his life. if i'm everfeeling worried or anxious, i go to the pond and fish. fishing helped with anxiety and stuff because i can just get out of the house and forget my problems. in year 6 i got hit by a car and i was on crutches, so i couldn't do any physical activities like play football, so i was feeling quite sad when it happened. with the crash and moving to a new school, it was almost creating anxiety for me because i had to make new friends, so it was actually quite hard. just going out and just fishing was quite relaxing. watching your surroundings, ducks, birds, it's quite therapeutic for me. it gets exciting when i catch a fish. my favourite thing about fishing is that i can bond with my dad and granddad. both my brothers, they both play sports that my dad used to play, so i felt quite left out. so, by discovering fishing, and that my dad likes it, was actually quite good because we can bond over it. we can talk about stuff like my dad's work or my school. during lockdown, i participated in the get fishing award and was the first to complete it in the country. jimmy willis started the award. what we wanted to do was instead a people fishing once, we wanted to install that angling habit, which is where the get fishing award came from. so there is a bronze award, a silver award and a gold award. through these awards, within three sections, within three sessions, you've got the basis to get out on your own. it's all green, it's fresh. the sun is out. who wouldn't want that? _ it does have that - therapeutic reference to it. especially over the last year, we've noticed the mental benefits and we're hearing from so many people how much it is helping them. i've been going fishing during lockdown. do you know how many other people have been? we have seen a big increase withjunior anglers. i think it's officially, according to environment agency fishing licenses, it's about 115,000. angling as a whole participation has increased, which is fantastic to see. i would say to young people just to go out and try it because even if you try it and don't like it, at least you did something. but if you try it and like it, that's good. great advice there from declan. try it even if you don't like it. now to 15—year—old shireeen who chose to talk about something close to everyone�*s hearts — living through the coronavirus pandemic and the experience of lockdown. her story looks at how being at home with her family has brought her closer to her father. apparently, i was a very silent child and a very good child. which is not what i am now. this is me when i was four. it was my first day of school. i don't remember my dad being there. i think my mum definitely took me. i always gravitated towards my mum, and i thought that was all i needed. i didn't spend that much time with my dad because he was always busy with work, because he's a doctor. i knew he existed but didn't really care! that sounds really mean! but like he was just there. that picture looks very forced. i don't really look like i want to be there. my dad doesn't look like he wants to be there. laughter i think about my relationship with my dad. it was probably at its worst. we used to argue a lot. i just wasn't close to him. from this evening, i must give the british people a simple instruction, you must a stay at home. i wasn't really looking forward to spending that much time with my dad. he has asthma, and he had to get an assessment done and they found out he was high—risk so had to stay home. one day, when i was sitting down and stressed with my work, i was upset and my dad was like, "do you want an omelette?" he would make food quite often and i would make it with him. that's when i realised i liked my dad too. he helped me with my work a lot, especially with biology. he knows a lot about biology. i got a really good grade. we watched masterchef. the whole shebang. we're going to cook omelette. when the restrictions were a bit less restricted, we went to dover. when i look at those two pictures, it looks completely it looks like completely two different people. i think it's just amazing to see. i look more comfortable with him and much happier. so does he. my dad was looking for a newjob, and he got an offer to do interviews. when i got back from school, he told me he got the job. i cried for the whole day. it's been months. it's been a month. we whatsapp call every day. hello! hello. how are you doing? i'm all right. i walked around glasgow city centre. it looks like a mini london. what have you been doing? i got an electric whisk. did you do anything with it? it's really fast. obviously, i'm doing this for the bbc. they want to know how you found the lockdown? and is getting closer together. yeah, the lockdown was really stressful. we have to be kind. we have to be human _ we have to understand each other. i tried to be a good father. we managed to iron out some of our differences — i didn't know that they were so deep—seated. looking forward to see you guys. bye! he's gone. there's always something you can find in common with your family. after all, they are your family. they love you. they can be taken from you at any time. i think it's lovely to have my dad as my best friend. that's lovely. shireen�*s was our final report in this special programme, but you can watch many more of the stories and learn all about the bbc young reporter competition by going online at bbc. co. uk/youngreporter. and throughout the year, the young reporters will continue telling their stories for the bbc, so do look out for them. if you'd like to, do get involved. from me and the bbc young reporter team, goodbye and thank you for watching. some pretty high temperatures for the time of year where we had these sunny skies across parts of eastern scotland and down into north—east england. that frontal system i showed you as the stripe of cloud on the earlier satellite picture producing the odd spot of rain and as we go through this evening and tonight, that weather front will push its way southwards, out of scotland across northern ireland and into england and wales, much of the rain fizzling away. behind the weather front, rain fizzling away. behind the weatherfront, if rain fizzling away. behind the weather front, if anything, rain fizzling away. behind the weatherfront, if anything, this skies tend to clear out a little bit. where we have those clearer skies by the end of the night, parts of southern scotland, the far north of southern scotland, the far north of england, could get down to around freezing, so the potentialfor a touch of frost in these areas. not as cold elsewhere. tomorrow the remnants of the weather front could bring rain first thing for south—west england and parts of wales and that should clear. in many areas, we will see more sunshine tomorrow but a slight change in the wind direction will make it cooler than today across parts of eastern scotland and north—east england. ten or 11 degrees rather than the 15 some sixteens we have seen during today. as we head out of sunday into monday, high—pressure still in charge. there are frontal systems waiting in the wings out west. they will eventually bring something of a change. but notjust yet. monday another fine day for most, the best of the sunshine to be found across england and wales. a bit more cloud into northern ireland and scotland, the odd shower especially across western scotland, more of a breeze here as well. those temperatures generally around 11, 12, 13 degrees. looking ahead to tuesday, lots of fine weather with the spells of sunshine. more in the way of cloud and the odd shower across western and the odd shower across western and north—western areas in particular. temperatures of 11—12 for most. here comes the first frontal system pushing in from the west bringing rain especially into northern areas through the middle part of the week. it does generally turn more unsettled later in the week. and a bit coolerfor a time across northern parts of the uk. this is bbc news, the headlines at 6: reaching a milestone — half of all adults in the uk have now had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. the health secretary hails "a phenomenal achievement". the vaccination programme is our route out of the pandemic. it will help us to protect people, and we know that these vaccines protect you, and they also protect those around you. protesters opposed to the coronavirus lockdown march through central london. police have made several arrests. europe braces itself for a third wave of coronavirus infections, with fresh lockdowns in france and poland. government science advisors warn that summer holidays overseas are "extremely unlikely" this year because of the risk of travellers bringing coronavirus variants back to the uk.