The document describes a preliminary task to create a school magazine cover and contents page in preparation for a controlled assessment. It discusses researching other magazines to determine design elements like consistent theme, logo placement, and headline styles. Sketches were created for the cover and contents page layouts. The process of designing the cover in Photoshop is then outlined, including cropping and adjusting an image, adding a gradient background, inserting the magazine title and tagline, and including cover stories. The student learned about magazine design conventions and gained experience using Photoshop that will help with their main assessment task.