Helping to edit has been such a brilliant experience for our students; we have loved the opportunity to both be part of the creative process and to provide editorial comments. We particularly enjoyed Scoop’s theme this month - The Future - which gave us a great excuse to escape into a utopian future, away from any present strife. In fact, some of our Year 8 students were so inspired that they have decided to create their own school newsletter - thank you Scoop for lighting a fire in our budding young journalists!
Alice Fisher, Head of English
We’re thrilled to have Westbourne House School guest edit Scoop and have its readers as its editors for the first time. They have taken part in such an enthusiastic way by contributing ideas about what the future will hold, taking part in a debate topic about the dangers of robots and giving editorial feedback on the magazine at different stages.
Scoop’s Editor-in-Chief, Clementine Macmillan-Scott
Dear Scoopsters
by Westbourne House School
All the pupils at Westbourne House School have loved editing this issue about the future and you'll never guess what... our Year 8s have been so inspired by the creative process that they are going to create their own school magazine.
Every pupil in the prep school has been involved from Year 3 to Year 8, and we have shared debates, opinions and ideas about the future, which has been very thought-provoking and uplifting.
The future is a fantastic theme, which has transported us out of the confines of lockdown and given us the chance to dream big about the future, get excited, as well as talk about our concerns for the planet.
We really enjoyed the story about Mrs Grimes and the students and all the hand-illustrated pages, which are stunning and give us a colourful buzz.
We are also especially proud of Year 7 pupil Elizabeth and her poem 'Smog Filled Skies And Poison Cars'. She talks about the future and how we now have a chance to do our 'bit for the Earth... giving it a rebirth'.
Right across the school we all want our future to be kinder... to one another and to the environment - we hope you will join us.
Happy Reading!
Westbourne House School
“Guest editing a magazine is a new experience for all of us. It created illuminating discussions about the future across the whole school - Years 3-8 - and opportunities for intellectual playfulness, creativity and original thought. It has been fantastic to have this positive focus and a new experience in such challenging times. Well done!"
Headmaster, Martin Barker
The Future
by Clementine Macmillan-Scott, Scoop Magazine
Now we have reached the end of the year, ironically it is a time to try to look forward. It has been a crazy and maddening year but one thing we might all agree on is the need to look to children for their perspective.
In creating our next issue all around ‘The Future’ we very much felt we needed to ask our readers and our audience to take part. In a first for the magazine, we have not just one guest editor but a whole school. The pupils were asked to send in their ideas around the theme of the future and we also ran a poetry competition and a debate. In all honesty it was a sobering moment when the ideas and the poems came in as we had a huge mix of world views! Some of the poems asked us to look into a world where robots had taken over and the planet was in tatters but we also had some very beautiful voices writing about hope and one of these was selected as our winner.
The whole school came together to give us their feedback on the pages of the magazine. As always, the kids who read SCOOP have an amazing understanding of design and content and these pupils really picked up on the way we were presenting ideas. Future magazine editors and designers in the making.
This had to be an issue about the future that lies ahead for our readers more than anything. It is an issue about the way things are changing, from Covid through to climate change. It is an issue about how as humans we have always needed to look forward and how even though the future feels uncertain now it has always felt this way, and it has always been shaped by people of strength and imagination – from politicians and writers to a young boy walking home.
I can’t wait to see this issue in the hands of children and their families, dreaming of what lies ahead and making plans for their part in the future.
