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TWO YEARS OF WRITING FOR THE STAG

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HOROSCOPES

HOROSCOPES

As The Stag magazine nears its three year anniversary and we celebrate the publication of our 18th issue, I thought I’d write a little about how the publication has changed over the past two years.

When I joined the team in the Michaelmas Term of 2021, we all agreed that brilliant articles weren’t always getting the traction they deserved within the school body, largely due to lockdown printing budgets and only one year of experience behind us. And, of course, we had yet to ensure the regularity of the House Reports which are now probably our most popular regular features, together with the Horoscopes!

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The Stag is, by nature, a pupil magazine written by and for the pupils, so something had to change

So the question is… what have we done over the past two years to enact positive change?

1) Marketing - The copy in your hands has also found its way to each of the ten houses,

By Polly Symes

Tim’s Cafe, and even the reception, thanks to post-Covid printing allowances For a magazine to be read, it needs distribution! We have also discussed the concept of a ‘Stag Instagram’, but e-safety concerns have, for the moment, prevented this idea from taking flight

2) Visuals - The current Stag model, collated collaboratively on Canva, is photo-based with large fonts, hopefully making the articles more readable for our increasingly shrinking attention spans, thanks to TikTok and the like! This has helped both writers and editors to get a sense of the magazine as a whole, before it goes to print

3) Expansion - With 34 articles in our most recent issue of the Stag, that’s clearly a big increase in range from the 17 articles in the first issue that I was a part of

4) Pupil Voice - The thing I am most proud of, however, as both contributor and reader, is how the Stag has now become an almost entirely pupil-led magazine.

This is thanks to our new model of having two Year 12 pupils be the ‘Senior Pupil CoEditors’ each year.

Growth in pupil voice has also been highlighted by our particularly strong group of Year 12 pupils, especially the two editors: Tom Müller-Broich and Sophie Stevens

As a pupil editor (I write from experience), you ‘ re responsible for running meetings, taking minutes, editing the paper, and chasing up late contributors (under the guidance of Miss Curren). While it’s an incredible and incredibly fun opportunity, a significant amount of confidence is required to send reminder messages to your peer group!

However, the magazine still has some way to go in terms of representing the pupil body.

1) Representation - Currently, the contributors are largely Year 12 pupils studying English Literature at A level, many of whom are girls. However, to make a magazine that speaks to every single pupil, we need to have every year group represented Not only that, but the magazine could do more to represent the sciences, maths and technology Which is why we need YOU to submit ideas and request articles, because this is YOUR magazine as much as anyone else’s!

2) Freedom of Opinion - Finally, the most crucial point, as far as I am concerned, regarding the future success of The Stag relates to freedom of opinion.

In the end, this is a pupil magazine, so, barring unkindness, disinformation, or anything which goes against the school values, The Stag publication must continue striving to be entirely pupil led, and to publish what the pupil body wants to read (and wants to write)

So, to wrap this article up Spot us in the café once every half-term, as we celebrate having published a new issue, or come to the Seminar Room in the English Department at 2.40pm on a Wednesday afternoon to witness a meeting ‘in action’ There is no such thing as a ‘bad idea’, and you don’t require any experience at all to join the team thestag@eastbourne-college.co.uk

And if you cannot attend these, just drop a Teams message to Tom Müller-Broich, Sophie Stevens or Miss Curren - we’d love to have you!

And remember: a thriving magazine is the symbol of a thriving culture, and YOU have the opportunity to be a part of it.

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