Researching other peoples school magazines.

The following images that I am going to analyse are of school magazines. I am doing this because it will help me in my research to create my own school magazine.

• The lighting of the image is high key, this can connote that the school brings happiness to the students.
• The yellow ball can be a metaphor for the sun. This can show that there are big ambitions to reach and get the best grades you can get. This is included in this schools magazine to show what the school can do for students.
• The colour red is used throughout the magazine. This could be because red is used for love and this shows the love for the school. 
• The student shooting the yellow ball is smiling which shows that if you are at that school then you are safe, secure and happy. 
• The magazine has "issue 5: summer 10" - this shows that the school is very consistent with keeping parents and students up to date and that they have a good team of people in the school who are proud to represent it and work with them to keep everything up to date.
• The content is on the title page of the magazine instead of the inside cover, this could be because it makes the school look more inviting and intriguing so that the reader will open the magazine and continue to have a look. 
• The headline of the magazine is "Sports Overview a successful year..." This could have been used because it makes the school look good and interesting for students who like to be involved in physical activities and makes the students that are mentioned feel good for something that they have done to make the school look good. Also, the use of the ellipsis could have been used to make the reader want to read on.

• This magazine is plain and simple. This is effective because even though it appears a little boring and not very intriguing, it creates an effect that makes a reader want to keep on reading it. 
• The colour scheme is a dull creamy colour which is effective because it allows the images on top of the background to gain more attention. 
• The title of the magazine is 'The Loyolite'. This word looks similar to 'loyalty' which could suggest that if you go to this school you are loyal to it and it is loyal to you. 
• The magazine says '2008' which is good to have because it helps the frequent readers to see what issue they are reading and so that they know that they are up to date. Although - if this was my magazine I would include the issues number because it would be even more useful to the reader to have a specific idea of where they are up to. 
• There isn't any feature story which I think doesn't make it very exciting and gives the impression that you won't be reading much in the magazine accept for general notices. This could give the impression that the magazine will be boring. However, this could have been done to make the magazine cover appear like a cliff hanger which will make the readers intrigued to open it and carry on. Although, if I saw a magazine in a shop like this, with no feature stories around the side, I wouldn't be persuaded to pick it up and buy it because I wouldn't know what to expect. Even though, this goes back to my point about being more intrigued to pick it up and find out because if I were to buy a magazine that looked like this, I would have to open it first. 
• The images that are used are off sites on the school. Each picture has high key lighting which could connote that the school is happy place to be. However, this is contrasted by the dull colour scheme which can make people have mixed ideas about what the school is really like. Although, it could be an accurate interpretation because it could be trying to subtly get a message across that no school will be perfect. 

• The title of this magazine is 'Chosenhill'. The word 'chosen' could suggest that this school is a good place to be because it is saying that it is the chosen one.
• The image used is a boy who looks like he is posing in front of a part of his school. From one of the feature story titles saying 'Head Boy' makes him look like he is important to the school. However, his uniform is bad which could connote that he thinks he is too good for his role at the school. To parents or readers, this could suggest that if the head boy who is supposed to be a role model has his uniform like that then what are the rest of the school going to look like? For my own magazine, I would have every one who is going to be in the image/s, look their absolute best whether they are in the lower school with immaculate uniform or if they are in sixth form wearing really smart, sophisticated clothes. This is because it makes the students look like they are serious about school. 
• The feature stories are all to do with the school looking good because it shows that they get students participating within school activities. This tells the reader that the school is good at motivating students and that well motivated pupils will achieve good grades. For future secondary school parents, this is good because it will subtly persuade them to send their child to that school so that they will achieve good grades.
• The colour of the writing is mostly in white. This makes it look sleek and stylish which is a good look because it persuades the reader to read on because it looks good. 
• There isn't an issue number or date included which gives the impression to the reader that they aren't very consistent with keeping up to date with stuff. This could link into the picture because his uniform is messy which could portray that the school has a bad influence with being consistent in making their school look good.