It’s time to get your young editorial teams together and start preparing for next year’s Scottish School Magazine Competition.
The awards, organised by the magazine industry in Scotland, the Periodical Publishers Association, are open to all secondary schools and attract entries from Shetland to the Western Isles to the Borders.
At a time when cross-curricular work is high on the school agenda, the magazines develop pupil skills in writing, editing, art and design, photography and enterprise. They encourage youngsters to be creative and self-motivated, to work as a team and organise their own learning. The project can be supervised by teachers, but the creative ideas, writing and production must be pupil-led.
In addition to showing a clear editorial policy, pupils are expected to develop a good business strategy with advertising and cover price. Magazines can also be online.
Winners of the different categories are offered work experience with magazine and design companies, and talks, tours and visits from the professionals. Finalists are invited to attend an awards ceremony at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, in June, and the team behind the 2011 School Magazine of the Year will be invited to the industry’s own Scottish Magazine of the Year gala dinner in November, where they can meet the editorial teams behind publications from The List to Clash to Homes and Interiors Scotland.
“Effective partnership working between school and employers is at the heart of our new approach through Curriculum for Excellence,” said Keith Brown, Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning, at this year’s school awards ceremony in June.
“The PPA Scotland Scottish School Magazine Competition is an excellent example of how these partnerships can help young people to develop their enterprise and employability skills.”
The competition is supported by the Scottish Government’s Determined to Succeed initiative and partnered by The TESS and many leading Scottish magazine publishing companies.
Teachers can register for the 2011 competition online and will be sent a new leaflet with the guidelines and entry forms. The closing date for entries is April 29, 2011.
gillian.macdonald@tes.co.uk
For further information, contact Kathy Crawford, PPA Scotland’s business manager:
kathy@ppascotland.co.uk
www.scottishschoolmagcomp.co.uk.
