Focus Groups

We spoke to three focus groups, differing in age and gender, in order to establish what would attract and interest them in a school magazine.

Our findings:

Year 7 (group of seven):
Celebrity information such as one direction – including interviews, pictures, posters etc
Information about the school – feedback from school council meetings etc
Free giveaways like house points
‘Making fun’ of the teachers
Advertisements of the house point shop
Students’ achievements
What new books have been added to the library
A sport section
Exam section
Information on what awards students have won
Horoscopes
Games – crosswords, word searches
Agony aunt
Competitions
Interviews
Monthly release (all seven said monthly)
Canteen menu
Colour scheme – not school colours, bright seasonal colours

Teachers (two, female):
Mostly focused on students (maybe a bit about parents)
Students’ opinions on matters
Students’ creative writing, poems, pictures etc
Include the different ‘houses’ in the school
Encourage student contribution
Release of once every short term
Specific person or event on the front cover
Interviews with teachers
Problem page
Colour scheme: school or house colours
Opinion articles about life/nearby area
Educational articles
Polls/vox pops
Jokes/games to keep a light-hearted element
Information about the team creating the magazine
Letter from the editor
Comic strip maybe about teachers
Students’ letter page
Information about upcoming and past events (for the school and local area)
Different sections for lower and upper school
Adverts

Year 12 and 13 (three, males):
More pictures than text
Attractive female on the cover
Information about what’s going on in school
Gossip column
Either bold or school colours
Once a fortnight
Discount vouchers for the canteen
Canteen menu
Scores from school football matches
Reviews on school football matches
Information on situations and events that would affect pupils
Letters page
Opinion page
Problem page
Cartoons relating to the school
Music, games and film reviews

So...
I expected the three groups to come up with different opinions on what should be included in a school magazine as different ages and genders are interested in different things. However, they all agreed on a few things; problem pages, information/events about the school and a fun element such as ‘making fun’ of the teachers, cartoons, games and jokes.