The BBC Young Reporter News team have been meeting on Thursdays to write and produce news stories. Here are some of our December stories:

Christmas Traditions Around the World!

by Courtney Rollins, Year 10

There are many ways to spend Christmas but have you ever thought that other countries have many different Christmas traditions than ours?

Here are few!

In Korea, you spend Christmas with your romantic partner as it is a bit like Valentine’s day - but if you are single there is something called ‘Single Christmas’.

In Japan, many eat KFC instead of Christmas Dinner and instead of turkey you have Christmas cake but it is not a rich fruit cake it is a sponge cake decorated with strawberries and whipped cream.

In Russia instead of celebrating Christmas on the 25th you celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January.

In China they celebrate by hanging paper lanterns around the plastic Christmas tree called the “Tree of Light”, some families add paper chains and flowers in festive colours to the Christmas tree.

There are many different ways to celebrate Christmas as we don’t always celebrate the same way, some of us eat chicken and a proper Christmas dinner and others eat KFC and cake!

Can Climate Change be Blamed for Venice Flooding?

by Sujal Bhattad,  Year 9

On 29th November the sea levels rose dramatically in Venice, even though it is a place you travel by boat not by cars!

Many think Global Warming is to blame for the strong storm surge and the tides which were measured more than 1.94 metres - the highest since 1966. The floods peaked at 6 ft.

St Mark’s Square, the main tourist area, was submerged by more than 1 metre of water. The estimated amount of the damage cost was over 1 billion euros.

Famous museums and churches like the ancient Santa Maria Assunta Basilica, and the Santa Maria Fosca church, were flooded, damaging their beautiful mosaic floors and walls.

The yellow floodgates from the ‘The Mose Project,’ built in 1984 were not strong enough to hold back the strong tides.

I asked a number of staff and pupils what they thought. Matthew McGrath said “it is a terrible disaster!” Miss Bowden said “I have been to Venice and it is awful that these lovely buildings have been damaged.” Mr McClelland said “it is very shocking that the beautiful architectural buildings are being destroyed.”