A grand tradition continues

By Education Gazette editors

Issue: Volume 93, Number 10

Posted: 16 June 2014

Reference #: 1H9ctB

Since 1907, the School Journal has delivered New Zealand content to motivate, excite, and engage students across the curriculum. For the first time, the School Journals are available in digital form as well as print, giving you more ways to use these resources with your students.

School Journal still going strong

The School Journal is now in its 107th year and still going strong. It continues to be proudly written, edited, and illustrated in New Zealand, ensuring Kiwi content for Kiwi kids. The School Journal is part of the Ministry’s suite of curriculum resources, and publishing services are provided by Lift Education. The texts are still produced and developed by the same editorial team: Susan Paris and David Chadwick (who have been the editors since 2005 and 2012 respectively), with additional support from Hōne Apanui and Emeli Sione.

In direct response to your feedback, the journals will be available in print and digital formats. From now on, both the Junior Journal and School Journal – as well as titles in the School Journal Story Library – will not only be distributed to your school in print, but will also be available on Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) as downloadable PDFs. These will include PDFs of the whole journal – plus separate PDFs for each individual item within a journal. At the Ministry, we have further research underway to explore ways of taking advantage of the digital environment to make content more accessible and interactive. We will keep you posted about this.

In the meantime, we publish eight issues of the School Journal each year – and by now you should already have received the first new issues for 2014, which have a major focus on the First World War.

The content coming up later in the year includes a look at the Christchurch rebuild and a thought-provoking article about mahinga kai (wild food).

Each year two titles in the School Journal Story Library series are also published. This year’s titles, edited by Alex Collins, are: In the End – a First World War graphic novel by Mal Peet; and Explorers of the Sunrise – by Jeff Evans and Dr Damon Salesa. Explorers of the Sunrise explores the peopling of the Pacific by the Polynesians, and includes a short piece on a recent voyage to Rapanui, which recreated a historic expedition by Polynesian voyaging canoes.

The School Journal is a fantastic showcase of Kiwi creativity that draws on the talents of award-winning New Zealand writers, illustrators, and photographers to bring the curriculum alive. Each issue is supported with carefully designed teacher support materials which scaffold instruction for priority learners and are available online at Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI).

Junior Journal – next issue published shortly

The Junior Journal is published twice a year and is also edited by David Chadwick. In the next issue, Junior Journal 48, due out to schools soon, look out for the article about Torty, the 200-year-old tortoise who was rescued by a New Zealand stretcher-bearer in the First World War.

More Māori and Pasifika content

The School Journal also has a proud history of publishing Māori and Pasifika writers and illustrators. For instance, writers such as Patricia Grace and Witi Ihimaera published some of their first stories in the School Journal.

In May, the editors began a series of workshops designed to foster a new generation of Māori and Pasifika contributors. Working with writing mentors Joy Cowley, Witi Ihimaera, and Lani Young, six new Māori and Pasifika writers have started work on material for the School Journal.

In 2015, Gavin Bishop and Gus Sinaumea Hunter will also begin mentoring a number of new Māori and Pasifika illustrators. It’s exciting seeing a new generation of contributors coming on board to shape the School Journal for the next generation of readers.

If you, or anyone you know, is interested in joining this programme, and has a talent for writing or illustrating for young people, Lift Education would like to hear from you. Please contact Alex Collins at alex@lifteducation.com with a CV, a sample of your work, and a list of any illustration or design courses that you have completed.

Help us shape the future of the School Journal and its companion resources in the Instructional Series

We’d love to hear more of your thoughts, feedback, suggestions, and ideas regarding the journals and other parts of the Instructional Series.

Lift Education will be collecting feedback for us, so contact them by emailing feedback@lifteducation.com

Also, we’re looking to establish a pool of educators that we can test initial ideas, advance illustrations, and draft story concepts with. If you’re willing to participate, please email: feedback@lifteducation.com and include “Feedback Pool” in the subject line.

Thank you – your feedback genuinely helps shape the future of these resources.

We’ll keep in touch as things continue to progress. In the meantime, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new journals.

Ka kite anō

To order resources please visit: Down the back of the chair website(external link). Or contact by email orders@thechair.education.gov.nz or by phone 0800 660 662 or fax 0800 660 663 for free.