It has been said the future of a nation lies in the hands of its youth – and this week the Ham&High looks to tomorrow as we hand over the reigns of our newspaper to young journalists for the landmark Young Readers’ Edition.

The 20-page edition – included at the centre of this week’s paper published tomorrow – has been compiled entirely by young people aged six to 17 and is published to mark Local Newspaper Week celebrating the regional press.

The Ham&High was overwhelmed by the hundreds of stories, pictures, poems and letters sent in for the special edition – and we appointed 13-year-old editor Josh Rosen to help us choose the most unusual and captivating reads.

Josh, a Highgate School pupil, said: “I think it’s important for kids and younger people to be involved with their community and newspaper. Often there’s nothing that really brings them in and doing something like this helps because it brings you together with the rest of the people in the community.

“People have come up with lots of different and interesting ideas of what could go into Highgate to improve it.”

Josh was selected as guest editor after securing an interview with executive editor of The Times, Daniel Finkelstein, who revealed how he became fascinated by journalism after the Watergate scandal of the 1970s.

The Young Readers’ Edition was developed in partnership with the Highgate Society and our sponsor Hotblack Desiato to offer the next generation of local writers, roving reporters and community activists a voice in the Ham&High.

Kirsten de Keyser, chairwoman of the society, said: “I’ve been absolutely overwhelmed in the interest and the amount of young people from different organisations who responded so enthusiastically and the breadth of material they provided.”

On the pages of the Young Readers’ Edition you will find horror stories (lots of them), poems, pictures, and reports and the opportunity for creativity and innovation was embraced by all our young journalists.

The edition also caught the imagination of national media as guest editor Josh and Ham&High editor-in-chief Geoff Martin were interviewed on BBC Radio London 94.9 this morning.

Mr Martin said: “I was hugely impressed not just by the quantity but the quality of the submissions and it’s just a shame that we couldn’t fit everyone in. That just gives us a good excuse to think about doing the same thing again in the not too distant future.”

Our young digital editor Logamathangi Surenthiranathan, 22, a video assistant at Exposure youth media, will also be taking control of the Ham&High’s website and Twitter and Facebook pages tomorrow.

Log on to the Ham&High’s website to watch Loga’s film about youth and the media. She will be leading comment and discussion about the Young Readers’ Edition.