A thread on this morning's Twitter playground.
I regularly do voluntary assemblies in primary schools, teaching the kids about journalism, while also running workshops to write football match reports.
The reason I do this is to help with their creative writing.

I also want to actively encourage them to think about journalist and what we do. I tell them all the same thing. There is nothing stopping them from being a journalist. They can in theory start writing now, starting at the bottom as I did, writing for free.

I love journalism and the varied style of writing for different publications. I've been lucky enough to have bylines in every national newspaper in the UK. Not bad for someone from a middle-ranking comprehensive school.

The point being is that it takes hard work and patience. I remember covering a game in 2005, the same night as Chelsea v Barcelona in the Champions League, only I was at Canvey Island v Crawley in the Conference Cup.

We can't all start at the top. Work hard, keep going and don't listen to those who say you can't achieve your goals. I don't lecture those kids about how great I am because I cover some F1 race. I tell them about how good they can be, no matter what their background or disability