How the talented young writers at Laude school in Marbella are learning how to turn a phrase and even invent new words. Olive Press Editor Jon Clarke is impressed
DICTAPHONES set, pencils at the ready, the four house teams at Laude school were sent off to dig into a variety of issues affecting pupils, both at school and out there in the wider world.
Everything from Hurricane Melissa to the spectre of A.I. and from Remembrance Sunday to the Louvre jewelry heist were tackled across four varied magazines.
Part of the annual inter-house magazine competition, the Marbella college gave each house an entire day to plan and structure their publications.
This began with electing their topics, then choosing their budding young reporters to go out researching and interviewing.
Next, they needed to pull their articles together, have them edited, then sub-edited before being laid out by the designers… and all this with the help of artists to highlight them.
Following the structure of a professional newsroom, each magazine editor needed to check the articles for clarity, tone and accuracy, before planning the content running order.
With a surfeit of staff – the envy of all modern newspapers and magazines today – each house, North, South, East and West, had around 20 members of the team.
Pulled in from six years of the school, they particularly loved the idea of grilling their teachers on a range of subjects, including travel plans and sporting knowledge.
And, boy, did they bring up some interesting info: such as how many solar panels are on the roof of the school, what music styles are most popular with pupils and three Olympic sized pools of ice are lost from the poles every second.
And on the subject of the world games, we also learnt that at least two teachers had no idea how often the Olympics take place, or in which country the first one was held in.
We also discovered that Corsica is in the Alps, yellow isn’t the easiest colour to produce a magazine in and, best of all, a brand new word: Atomspheric.
Yes, proof reading was one important discipline occasionally missing.
In terms of design and creativity, a couple of magazines really stood out, while the artwork and photography in most was particularly impressive.
Head of Secondary Joseph Short said: “We are so proud of our student teams as they have shown amazing skills in putting these magazines together. “Congratulations, in particular, to South House who were the overall winners, their magazine was amazing!
“We are lucky at Laude to be able to give our students these opportunities for independent learning that goes well beyond the classroom walls. We already look forward to next year’s efforts!”
LAUDE MAGAZINE COMPETITION 2025
WINNER
South (8/10)
While an unexciting cover and generally white on blue isn’t easy on the eye, the all-round content and environmental theme stands South Mag a head and shoulders above its three rivals.
An impressive 10 more pages than some of its rivals, it has a good mix of topics, highlighted with good photos and artwork.
I liked the fact it had a content page, bylined its writers and its graphic designers showed some real talent.
I also enjoyed the opening article by Hind and Malak on the environment, nicely linked to Jane Goodall, although it needs a standfirst to explain who she is and that she recently died.
The opening photo at the top is well chosen and laid out with a big punchy headline over it, plus a nice inset pic of Goodall below. Some excellent facts such as the 6,500 billion tones of ice lost in 2023 being equivalent to three Olympic pools every SECOND!
I also liked the A.I. article, which is topical, as well as what the school was listening to in terms of music.
The interview with Mr Reeves was clever and its headline was enticing as well as the use of photos of both him and where he walked… although I didn’t know that Corsica was in the Alps!
On the subject of spelling is ‘Labyrinlnth’ correct? Am I missing something?
The tips to do well in Year 12 gave an education feel and it was great to have so many quizzes and searches to hold the reader up.
RUNNER UP
East (7/10)
By far the best front page. Really excellent with its Dickens theme and with pull out quotes from both Mr Short and Ms Palmer.
Unfortunately it couldn’t keep up with the same level of content as South, although I liked the general clean style.
The welcome page was good although there needs to be some understanding of Upper and Lower case letters.
The schools events section was well handled and detailed, although it was let down with grammatical mistakes and spelling.
Sadly going through the magazine, the spelling and grammar only got worse and I suspect the Proof Reader was off sick. I mean ‘Wolrd cup’ (come on!!!). And someone pls explain that etcetera is shortened to etc, not ‘ect’. And please make Christmas ALWAYS Upper Case!
Either way, the World Cup 2026 review looked good layout wise and was an interesting read.
Nice to have photos of interviews but where were the actual interviews? At least Ana at Safeguarding got given a few quotes.
The article on the Louvre heist was interesting and the artwork towards the back was the best of all the magazines. Good to have lots of quizzes and word searches.
ALSO RANS
North (6/10)
A nice clean looking magazine, which was by far the best for grammar, if not spelling, highlighted on page 2 with the word ‘Atomspheric’ which I actually like, truth be told.
The events section was a good idea and I liked the fact that all writers were given a byline.
The sports section was the best of the four magazines and the great photos of football games in the playground showed nice movement and the joy of these games.
The interview section gave us a little snapshot of the lives of Ms Chillaron (capital C please) and Jaime Romero, although I’d have liked to see a few more questions.
Well done for remembering Remembrance Day and well done to Joana (or is it Joanna?) for coming up with the excellent idea of a sports quiz for the teachers. The best idea of all four magazines… and Wow, did Mrs Litchfield and George Y really get ZERO right?
West (6/10)
While the yellow look made this a very hard magazine to read it had a good variety of content and was best for its spelling. Well done Mr Proof Reader!
The interview with Ms Garcia was good and I also liked the appeal for Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa. It needed pics, but the sentiment and message was good.
Needed a pic of Mr Prentice for the interview as it was a bit lost.
Good ideas on the bike article, as well as the fun facts (some good ones there) and solar panels.
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