Mansfield pupils praised for unique lockdown magazine project

Practical work skills students proudly display their creative pages with staff and principal Andrew Cropley (centre, top)

Production of a 28-page magazine called Initiative became an extended project for level one practical work skills students at West Nottinghamshire College.

Together with their tutor they planned the design, content and themes and learned how to write an article.

Articles included topical news items about Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter, while other pages were dedicated to informative pieces on cyber safety and sexual health matters.

Britney Godfrey, 18, worked on the sexual health article.

She said: “I did some research when we were still at college in the health and wellbeing room’s literature to gather my material for the sexual health article I’d planned.

“We worked well as a team to put this magazine together. Once we’d figured out who was writing what articles it ran very smoothly.

“I can’t wait to come back to college next academic year to start my new course in animal care.”

On Monday, July 6, the class met with their tutor, members of the additional learning support team and the executive team, together with the college principal Andrew Cropley.

This was the first time the group had met outside of the lockdown and it provided an opportunity for the group to be thanked for their hard work on the project.

The principal praised the group for their initiative and creativity in producing the magazine and thanked staff for their support throughout lockdown. He awarded each student with a certificate of achievement.

Tutor Tracy Meldrum said: “This originally started out as a media option and was an unaccredited project to promote teamwork and collaboration. We extended the project during lockdown and it really came together.

“Every single student has shown enthusiasm and they took responsibility for their own article. It’s made them more confident using Microsoft Teams. I’m very proud of how the magazine looks and they should also be proud of what they’ve achieved.”

The magazine can viewed online at www.wnc.ac.uk/documents/applicant-zone/initiative-magazine.pdf.