A TAUNTON college student has come up trumps in the BBC Young Reporter of the Year competition, winning the award for the South West region.

Oscar Coveney, who attends Richard Huish College, has now been set the task of making a short film for BBC Points West to feature in one of their shows.

More than 2,500 people between the ages of 11 and 18 submitted their entries in the hope that they would get the chance to have their stories made into a short film and shared by the BBC, with the help of their programme teams, producers and reporters.

Entries were carefully judged by a team of editors and presenters from across the BBC, including Huw Edwards, Laura Kuenssberg, Alex Jones (The One Show), Greg James (Radio 1) and others.

They eventually narrowed the entries down to have 30 winners from around the UK.

Competitors chose what to base their story on from three categories; ‘Me and My World’, ‘Coronavirus Stories’ or ‘Uplifting Stories’.

Oscar chose to focus his story on how he has grown up witnessing transphobia towards his mum, and he will now have the chance to translate his story from writing into film, working alongside BBC Points West.

The report will be produced following the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.