The first people we interviewed were a group of younger people, Year 7 girls. They gave us an idea of what the younger age group in the school would like to see, to enable us to include something for the whole range of people involved. Their ideas included;
Year 7
- Celebrities; They would like to see celebrities included in their magazine and news about them, for example, One Direction seemed to be the main people they would like to see. Most people in that age range like One Direction so it would appeal to alot of people, however, some people are the total opposite in opinion so it wouldn't intrest them. An example of this would be the upper years, they may not have the same opinion and everyone likes different styles of music and celebrities so if we were to encorpriate this, there would need to be a range so overall a wide range would be appealed. Including aspects that arent just school based will attract more people because it'll be intresting to them, not boring. People often buy magazines usually sometimes purely for one aspect or article.
- Events Page; Another initial idea was an events page. They would like to see a page informing them of upcoming events in school or possibly out of school to inform them of whats happening as sometimes messages fail to get across to students. Including this in the magazine would be a quick and easy way to get information out.
- Teachers; One idea was to make fun of teachers or include teachers aspects in the magazine, such as interviews with them. Possibly 'a day in the life of..' with a humourous aspect will attract people to buy it because they can see what their teachers go through.
- School council; Another idea they had was to include information about what has been said at school council meetings as an easy way to communicate with people in the school and get the information across easily. The magazine can also be a way for students to get their ideas heard, and across the school will be heard.
- Achievements; Achievements such as sports results and individual achievements was an idea the focus group had. For example, in school there are many individual achievers such as people reaching international level in selected sports. Interviews and recognition in the magazine could continue to motivate them to do well and so people know how theyre doing and how much talent there is at school. It will also enable there to be a unity across the school because people in other years will be able to see what people are doing.
- Stationary/House Point Shop; Including this in the magazine will emphasise the house point system and house system we have in school. If people understand what is avaliable, they may be more enthusiastic. For example, year 7s are most intrested in gaining house points and the lower school which is why they would like it to be included. However, this may not be the case for upper school who aren't really as intrested, this may be a trigger to enable there to be newer ideas put forward to encourage students.
- Revision Sessions; The year 7 focus group thought of this for the upper school, so we could find a way to include what would attract everyone. In the magazine there could be a section set for informing people about revision sessions and extra curricular to enable people to attend. This will help them in the lead up to their exams. Even though year 7s are less likely to have these, they sill thought it would be a good idea for the upper school, showing the good attitude across the school.
- Horoscopes/Games Page; These are both aspects of magazines that are regularly included in magazines. By including these into a school magazine, it gives it a fun aspect and not only school related. People from all different age ranges will be intrested.
- Agony Aunt; Once again relates to different magazines but also gives people an oppotunity to talk about their problems and hopefully get them solved. It will enable us to see issues people have and problems and to try and solve them in school. This also intresteds many different age ranges.
- Canteen Menus; Another idea the year 7s had was to include the canteen menus to show people whats coming up in the next few weeks. People all across the school have the school food so it will attract students across school and teachers while advertising Cucina. To add, people could write in ideas they have, continually improving the school food.
- Colour Scheme; This focus group decided they didn't want the school colours and would rather deviate away from these and wanted neon colours to be the scheme. However, this may take the aspect of the school magazine away as one of the key points to showing unity in the school is the colour scheme.
They also said they'd like it to be released monthly. This is gives us a short period of time to produce, but it could possibly give us time to get more information for each magazine.
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The second focus group we looked at were two teachers from the school. It was important to recieve the views of different people in the school so we could make sure we had a wide base. Teachers
- Students Opinions; The teachers first idea was to include students opinions in the magazine. This way they would be able to see what the students thought and be able to get a better idea of what they can do to improve things around school and in school. This will also include everyone across the school and what they feel, including sixth form.
- House Reports; House reports would help to continue to enforce the house system throughout school. They thought it would be a good idea to let people know what different houses are getting up to and what they are doing around of school. This can also improve the competion between houses, eg; house point competitions. This may be aimed at the lower school however, rather than the upper school.
- Teachers Interview; Like the year 7's, they agreed that a teacher interview would be a good idea to give them an insight into what they do and to create a humour aspect once again.
- Problem Page; This is also like the 'agony aunt' idea, relating back to people writing in their problems they have and hopefully getting them solved without actually saying who they are if they're afraid. Once again, it relates to all years across the school and includes everyone.
- Government Issues/Environment; This will possibly relate to the upper years, not lower school but the idea of putting in issues that will affect students to inform them of whats going on in that aspect.
- Upper School/Lower School Sections; They also had the idea of having different sections for upper school and lower school to make sure that each area has aspects of the magazine that appeal to them. For example, things that lower school may want, may not appeal to older students. This way people get everything they want. For example, information on revison sessions would be more based for upper school.
- Events In The Area; This would improve peoples participation and involvement in activities and events in the local area because they will have more knowledge on whats happening. People may not attend events because they don't know they're happening, this way students will be informed regularly.
The teachers also agreed with the other focus group in the aspects of a letters page, problem page, house colours and schemes, a letters page and events coming up around school. This means we can gain a overall idea of what to include because there is enough ideas that overlap in peoples thoughts so people will agree with whats included and it will attract more people.
However, they said they would like the magazine to be released termly rather than monthly. This is a good idea because it gives us enough time to produce and gain more ideas so the overall quality will be better. It also gives us a chance to gather achievements and inform people of what is going on throughout the term.
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The last group we interviewed was three sixth form male students, allowing us to gain an idea of what the male students would expect, this is important considering they are a minority.
- Pictures instead of text; The initial idea they said was that they would prefer more pictures rather than text because sometimes too much text can put people off because they don't want to read lengthly passages.
- Attractive Women; They said this would attract them to buying the magazine, espically if we included celebrity attractive women because this is what they'd look for. Obviously because they are male, there are different aspects they would prefer to have included to attract them.
- Bold Colours; Bold colours would attract people to the magazine, rather than school colours, however, the school colours would give the magazine its idenity. Although, to include what they would like, along with the teachers opinon of themes each issue, we could do themed colours each month.
- Match Reports; Due to them playing football for the school academy, they would like to see match reports included of their success so the school can see what they're doing and how their getting on. This would also help them to become more involved in the school, due to them being a minority it would link well.
- Reviews; To also add more aspects that would attract them, they had the idea of including music reviews and reviews on games, for example, playstation games as this is a point that attracts many guys. They would have something that appeals to them.
- Edgy; A good idea they also had was to make the magazine 'edgy'. What they meant by this was to add contraversional articles in the magazine, eg; top ten rules to break. Although, this would just be for humour, it may be hard to include.
They said like the magazine to be released every fortnight, which is far sooner than the other focus groups said which was interesting.
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Overall..
By having three focus groups it enabled us to get a large range of results to work with to get the best possible outcome because we can find common ground that will mean everyone would be happy to purchase and be happy with the final product.
There was alot of common ground, such as the menu for the canteen, interviews with teachers, gossip coloumn and also to include the house system. This means that we can include what everyone would like in it.
However, by using males in the school, we also gained an idea of what they would like which means we can also base the magazine on them as well as females. We now know the ways in which we can do this so it will be attractive to students, both male and female.
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