The document provides research and templates for a school magazine project. It includes examples of successful magazine covers that feature prominent mastheads, catchy headlines, and eye-catching images. It also offers templates for a magazine cover and contents page, highlighting elements like the publication date, main stories, and secondary articles. Suggestions are given to improve clarity and reduce visual clutter. Overall, the templates and examples aim to demonstrate best practices for designing an effective school magazine.

1. School Magazine

2. For our preliminary task we were told to create our own
magazine cover and contents page for our school, which
features a medium close-up photograph of a student
which we took personally, plus some suitably laid-out text
and a masthead (etc.). I intended to make my magazine
look classy and different to normal school magazines.
There would be appropriate stories for my school and
suitable giveaways/snatches that the students will find fun
and useful.

3. On the next few slides will be all the research I’ve
done for my preliminary task.

4. Date:
Let’s us know when the magazine was published and the
type of edition let’s us know what sort of things they’ll
need to purchase for the future. For example as this is a
summer edition it’ll tell you about up and coming sports
clubs and events and when the school will be closing for
summer
Main Image:
This shows the main story which
is featured in this particular
magazine. The publishers make
it a bigger than the other stories
on the front cover so that us (as
an audience) know that there’ll
be a lot of information/advice in
this section.
Secondary Stories:
These are the other key
stories that are found in this
magazine. The secondary
stories are normally the
ones that are important to
look at but not as
important/significant as the
main story. This is portrayed
through smaller text,
however the page numbers
are shown in bold so that
the reader will see that first
and flick to those pages.
Masthead:
The title of this
magazine is shown in
bold writing, capital
letters and a vibrant
colour. This is
because when you’re
searching a magazine
rack the vibrant colour
will catch your eye
more than a plain
black headline would.
Strap/Sell Line:
This part of the magazine
has to be persuasive and
positive. As it is aimed at
parents the message
should be clean and clear.
As you can see the
message here is ‘Helping
you make the right choices
for your children’,
meaning that this
magazine is all about
giving parents tips to
helping their children
through school.

5. What is on the front cover?
On the front cover is a
picture of a girl who must
be going into her exam
period as the title of this
story is ‘Exam Choices’.
This is on the front cover
because exams are very
important and significant
for a young adolescents
future life. A lot of parents
would and children going
through exams would read
this so that they know what
they’re in for and to gain
some advice on how to
handle themselves
throughout it.
What is good about this magazine?
There are lot of bright colours meaning that
this magazine will catch any possible readers
eyes. Also by having such a big moment in a
child’s life as the main story will be a big catch
for many parents and students out there.
What is bad about the magazine?
I feel that in order to make this
magazine a bit better the publishers
should add a few more images.
Although there is a huge image right
on the front I feel that by giving a
few more images of other stories it
will make the audience want to
purchase the magazine even more as
they’ll know a bit more about what’s
going on in the magazine.

6. Masthead:
By having big bright ;letters
and numbers it attracts us
to the magazine more. If
they were to have a plain
and ordinary black title it
would be boring, meaning
that nobody would want to
buy it. Also, by the title
being specific to a certain
type of audience (16-18
year olds) it means that
they’ll get a lot of people
wanting to buy it in order to
help them through 6th form.
Main story/Image:
You can tell this is the main story
as the pink writing (title) is bigger
that the others, signifying that this
is the article that’s it’s featuring the
most of. Although this is a good
idea, to some people it may not be
very clear as all the main/key
stories that are featured in this
magazine are printed in yellow and
fuchsia pink. Following this the
main image is of two school girls
that are either already at sixth form
or are just going into. This shows
that the magazine is just mainly
based for sixth formers (apart from
the title) as they're not wearing
normal school clothes indicating
that they’re higher up in their
education.
Date
As this magazine is from October
time it signifies that it is a new
term and all the children have just
recently come back to school. This
means that the magazine may have
various features on starting a new
school or how to cope with a new
term (especially if you’re going into
GCSE period)
Secondary Stories:
These are the other main
featured stories in this
magazine. Although they
follow the colour scheme of
this magazine they stand out
as much as the main
headline does. This means
it’s not clear enough and
people may get confused.

7. What is on the front cover?
On the front cover is a picture of two
girls who are in who are either already
in sixth form or just going into. On
this magazine they’ve decided to use
the colours pink and yellow. These
are very bright colours which stand
out on the magazine, attracting
attention.
What is good about this magazine?
I think the bright colours are a big hit with this
magazine. As they’ve used bright and vibrant
colours it attracts the audience’s eyes to this
magazine an makes them want to open it up as
they’ll be intrigued by the colour scheme.
What is bad about this magazine?
Personally I think that there aren’t enough
images on the front cover. Although there is a
main image that takes up the whole page it has
no relevance to the actual magazine apart from
them looking like they go to a sixth form. Also
as all the headings of the key featured articles
are in the same colours, fonts and very similar
sizes it means that it can be quite confusing to
the reader.

8. What do you expect to seen in a school magazine?
Sports results? IIIII
New music reviews? I
New film reviews? III
Editorial II
Articles about school life? IIIII II
Upcoming events in school? III
Message from the Head? IIIII
New school offers in shops? IIIII II
How much should a magazine cost?
Free? IIIII II
Paid?
How often should a school magazine be published?
Daily? I
Weekly? IIIII
Monthly? IIIII III

9. What is successful and what has the student done well?
On the front cover the masthead is very prominent and
visible as they’ve made it pop out of the page through the
boldness and capital letters used. Also it’s prominent
because it’s been laid out in a different way to the other
headlines so we look at it more for being different
What could be improved?
They could have a barcode on the fornt cover and maybe
less images on the contents page so that it’s not as
confusing.
Have they fulfilled the brief?
Yes
Do you think you are able to produce similar work?
Yes I think this would be challenging yet creative
What skills do you need to improve to produce such work?
I need too be able to use photoshop and my time
management skills.

10. Front Cover Template Contents Template

11. Front Cover Contents Page