Winners announced for the Tenth Edition of the El País de los Estudiantes initiative

The awards ceremony was held today for the tenth edition of El País de los Estudiantes the school newspaper program sponsored by El País and Endesa involving more than 9900 teams from all over Spain.

 The ceremony, held at the headquarters of the newspaper El Pais in Madrid, was attended by representatives from the winning schools from the 18 participating Autonomous Regions. Also on hand were Education Minister Angel Gabilondo, members of the collaborating institutions and the jury of journalists - chaired by José Manuel Calvo, deputy editor of El País - which evaluated the participating newspapers and chose the winners. 43,175 students spent the school year working as reporters, photographers and infographic designers as part of the program, just like in a real a newsroom.

 The Instituto Barrio de Loranca  (Fuenlabrada, Madrid) won first prize for their paper La Lente (The lens), while the Valencian school Pio XII and the Balearic school Santa Margalida won second and third place respectively with their newspapers Factoría de Noticias (News Factory) and L'enllaç.

First prize is a cheque worth 12,000 euros to cover the costs of a shcool trip, second prize is worth 9,000 euros and third prize is 6,000 euros. In addition, each of the three schools, received a further 6,000 euros for computer material.

The best Environment section also won a special award, the Endesa Sustainability and Environment Prize, which this year went to the school Cardenal Larraona in Pamplona (Navarra), for the section on environmental issues in their paper Tinta y Pluma (Ink and Pen).

As well as the above mentioned newspapers, the program encourages and rewards students' work through Special Awards in different categories, with a new one created this year: "Best Making Of".  Each project was awarded a € 150 voucher for purchases at Fnac.

• ● Best Report: Ruben Villareal and Sandra Diaz Chaves Moral from Colegio Patrocinio de San José (Valladolid) for their article "Charbile Carballo, finalists for the Breaking Barriers Award 2010"
• ● Best Interview (shared award):

- Celia Barquin Arozamena for her interview with Severiano Ballesteros. I.E.S. Miguel Herrero Pereda. Cantabria.

- María Reguilón Celis  y David Pereda García for their interview with Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba. C.C. Ntra. Sra. de la Paz. Cantabria.

- Maria Fernandez Maria Velarde Peñalba for her interview with Patxi López. C.C. Ntra. Sra. de la Paz. Cantabria.

• ● Best Infographics: Fabian Parra León, from IES Santa Margalida Balearic Islands, for his infographic Mur Trombe.
• ● Best Advertising: Daniel Pintado Mínguez, from Isabel Perillán y Quirós school in Ciudad Real, for his ad Muuuvisestar.
• ● Best Comic Strip / Cartoon: Francisco Naranjo Carrasco from IES Axati in Seville, for his his cartoon Battle of the Smartphones.
• ● Best Photography: María Pascual, from Colegio Conde Lucanor in Valladolid, for her photograph Recortador.
• ● Best English Section: Nuria María Pérez Mas, Mariana Paredes Raigoso, Javier Hermosa Muñoz, Laura Hermosa Muñoz and Sonia Sutil González, from Colegio Santo Domingo de Guzmán in Oviedo, for their article "A Fairy Tale."
• ● Best Making Of: the team behind "El ojeador inquieto" from IES Mediterranean.

El País de los Estudiantes is a national competition for students from the 2nd cycle of ESO, Bachillerato and Middle Level Professional Training, sponsored by El Pais and ENDESA. The participating teams have to design, write and layout a newspaper on paper, through a layout tool specially provided via the Internet and available at the website estudiantes.elpais.com. Under the guidance and supervision of a teacher, students become writers, photographers, lay out artists and subeditors.

More than 9,995 teams, 6,489 teachers and 2,646 schools have participated in this year's edition, illustrating the support and involvement the education community continues to offer this program.

El País de los Estudiantes also has sponsorship from the regional authorities the Junta de Andalucía, the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Government of Cantabria, the Government of Aragon, the Government of the Principality of Asturias and the Government of the Illes Balears.