The talented kids at The Forest High School release the first issue of The Forest Scrub Turkey, Northern Beaches’ first ever teen mag.
In 2022, The Forest High School’s English Faculty has been running an exciting new elective for Year 9 and 10 students. The course, Digital Dynamites, gives students the opportunity to develop their digital literacy skills in areas such as advertising, social media, and journalism.
This technical writing elective has been tailor-made for the students by Sarah Peachman, Head Teacher of English, and I, Lauren Weatherall, EAL/D Co-ordinator. I also teach the class. Our inspiration originated in a desire to see students engage in topics of personal interest and learn skills appropriate to our technological age. The capstone of Digital Dynamites has been the inception of The Scrub Turkey, Northern Beaches’ first ever teen magazine.
Inspired by The Tawny Frogmouth, Scrub Turkey aims to emulate Tawny’s focus on the local community, adapting it to suit an adolescent readership, and produced seasonally, four times a year, aligning well with each school term. The class was lucky to receive several visits from Frogmouth creator Liam Carroll who shared insights into the world of media and journalism and was instantly impressed with the young media moguls’ Scrub Turkey name. “That is gold. Everyone will have to pick up a mag with such an awesome title,” he told the Dynamites. “You’re off to a flying start.”
In terms of creative process, students began by researching a topic for their articles. These articles reflect each writer’s interests, likes, writing styles and personalities, and as such cover a wide range of issues. Readers of The Scrub Turkey can expect to find all sorts of journalism represented in its pages, from reports on war in Ukraine to tips on the best snacks to eat at the cinema.
Tamar, a student in the class, said her favourite thing about writing for The Scrub Turkey is the opportunity to reach an audience with ideas. “We get to share personal thoughts and opinions on our chosen topics.” Iszy, another student, believes she has come to appreciate the importance of keeping the audience in mind. “It’s important to write local stories that are relevant to the Northern Beaches. Things have to be relevant to the readers.”
For our dedicated English students, their aim was to collaborate and create stories, articles and artworks to inform, educate, entertain and help build a strong message of community pride, well-being and revolution for Northern Beaches kids. With a goal to promote “back to print” and a “culture of reading” the students have worked tirelessly to make this magazine a success through their own innovation, entrepreneurship and ingenuity.
Launching in November, with the support of our wonderful The Forest High School P&C, Kelly Bar-Jones P&C President and Nathan Lawler school Principal, this project has had ongoing involvement from Northern Beaches Council, Dean Wells at Arcade Studios and The Forest Police to ensure its long-term success and sustainability in giving students a community voice and platform for activism, fun and unity.
Learning important communication skills through the study and practice of digital media, students are developing their collaboration, confidence, and creativity, while also creating something to educate and entertain the community. Stay tuned and make sure you grab a copy of the next issue of The Scrub Turkey!
To learn more about The Scrub Turkey, contact Lauren at lauren.weatherall@det.nsw.edu.au, and if you’re looking to advertise, this is a great way to connect with local residents.