Amnesty's Young Human Rights Reporters of the Year include Fife student

Prestigious Awards Ceremony Recognises the UK’s Human Rights Journalists of Tomorrow - Fife Student Aine Clarke amongst winners

Amnesty International’s Young Human Rights Reporter of the Year reached its climax yesterday with the unveiling of the 2012 winners at a prestigious ceremony in London.

The competition attracted over 3,000 participants from all four corners of the UK and was split into four categories. The top three in each category were invited to the ceremony at Amnesty International UK’s headquarters in Shoreditch, along with a parent, a teacher and a classmate.

The competition was run in collaboration with the Guardian Teacher Network and the education weekly SecEd.

Aine Clarke made the 420-mile trip from Newport in Fife with her mum Sara and her friend Emily Davis and Emily’s mum Louise to receive the top prize in the Upper Primary category from Kathyrn Cave.

Afterwards, 12-year-old Aine, said: “I was absolutely shocked when it was my name that was read out. It was great. I never expected to win. The whole day was an amazing experience. ”

Shabnum Mustapha, Programme Director for Amnesty in Scotland, added: “Congratulations to Aine Clarke and all the other winners. It has been a fantastic competition with an incredibly high standard of entries and such a wide variety of human rights issues covered.

“Reporters play a vital role in shining a spotlight on human rights abuses and it is fantastic to see the future of reporting looking so bright.

“In just over two weeks’ time we will be hosting Amnesty’s Media Awards, which celebrates the work of professional reporters.We hope to see Aine and others who took part in this year's competition on that stage in a few years time."

Full list of winners

Upper Primary category: Winner: Aine Clarke (Newport Primary School, Newport, Fife); Runner-up: Emmet Carry Fennessy (St Georges RC primary, Enfield)  and Lorna Williamson (Bablake Junior School, Coventry).

Lower Secondary category

• Winner: Alice Reynolds (The Royal School, Haslemere)
• Runners-up: Georgia Gilholy (Paget High School, Burton Upon Trent) and Francesca Talbot (Benton Park, Rawdon, Leeds).

Upper Secondary category

• Winner: Heather Booton (Skipton Girls’ High School, Skipton)
• Runners-up: Ciara McKay (St Andrews Academy, Paisley) and Oscar Hutchings (Wellsway School, Keynsham).

Sixth Form

• Winner: Alice Woodhouse (Kings High School, Warwick)
• Runners-up: Stephanie Gabbatt (Bolton’s School Girls’ Division, Bolton) and Beth Rowland (Bablake School, Coventry).

There were six judges for the Upper Secondary and Sixth Form categories: Ian Cobain, senior reporter for The Guardian; Emily Drabble, contributing editor of The Guardian Teacher Network; Anna Perera, author of Guantanamo Boy; and Nicky Parker and Niall Couper from Amnesty International.

For the Upper Primary and Lower Secondary categories children were asked to write articles of between 200 and 250 words in length.

For the Upper Secondary and Sixth Form categories, pupils had to submit pieces of up to 500 words in length.

Amnesty International’s Media Awards takes place on 29 May.