School Journal
Guidelines for School Journal (including Junior Journal)
Contributions from freelance writers are a highly valued source of material for the School Journal. We receive hundreds of scripts a year, and, although we are pleased to consider every one submitted, we unfortunately do not have time to comment in detail on individual scripts. Many New Zealand writers have had their first work for children published in the Journal, and we are keen to encourage new writers to contribute material.
These guidelines will tell you something about the School Journal and give you an outline of our requirements.
About the School Journal
Editorial considerations
Length limits
Fiction
Traditional stories
Non-fiction
Genres
Photographs
Drama
Poems
Writing by students
Activities
Illustrations
Presentation of scripts
Submitting attachments by email
Dealing with your script
Copyright
Address
About the School Journal
The School Journal is a magazine for New Zealand schoolchildren. It is published by Learning Media for the Ministry of Education and is distributed free to all schools in New Zealand as well as to schools in the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea. Small numbers of orders are taken from schools in the United States, Canada, and Australia, and libraries and interested individuals may take out a subscription (for subscriptions contact Customer Services on 0800 800565 or +64 4 4715549).
The publication has two main uses. It is a magazine that children can read for their own interest and enjoyment, and it is a classroom resource, used in the teaching of reading, social studies, science, and other subjects.
The Journal is published in graded parts and contains material appropriate to the interests and experiences of these age groups:
Junior Journal: (two issues a year) 6- to 7-year-olds
Part One: (five issues a year) 7- to 8-year-olds
Part Two: (four issues a year) 8- to 9-year-olds
Part Three: (three issues a year) 9- to 11-year-olds
Part Four: (three issues a year) 11- to 13-year-olds
Material for the Junior Journal should be addressed to the editor of the Junior Journal. There are two editors of the School Journal; one for Parts One and Two and one for Parts Three and Four. You may direct work to a particular editor if you wish, but this is not essential. The editors together will decide on the appropriate level of your work.
Editorial considerations
In selecting and shaping items for the School Journal, we bear in mind the following points:
- The function of the Journal is, above all, to foster a love of reading. It seeks to help children understand themselves, their families, and the wider social and natural environment in which they live. We also look for international material that introduces issues and concepts which may be outside New Zealand children’s immediate experience, but which in some way connects with their lives. At the moment we are particularly in need of material from Asia and the Pacific.
- The Journal reaches children from all types of homes, from all parts of New Zealand, and from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Our readership also has widely differing abilities and interests. We seek material that will reflect this diversity.
- Unlike much of the reading matter published for children, which is often designed to be read aloud by an adult, items for the Journal should be able to be read and understood by children with minimal assistance.
- Material for the Journal should deal in situations within the range of children’s understanding, but equally our readers should not be patronised or thought incapable of the full range of human emotion.
- The Journal is kept as a resource for up to ten years, and so we
seek to provide items of lasting, rather than topical, interest.
Length limits
A rough guide to the usual lengths of Journal items (other than poems and activities) is as follows:
Junior Journal: 300-400 words
Part 1: 300-700 words
Part 2: 500-900 words
Part 3: 600-900 words
Part 4: 700-1200 words
Fiction
We seek fiction in a variety of genres, for example: short stories, diaries, letters, cartoon strip texts, folk tales, and fables.
We look for the widest possible range of fiction – stories that will entertain children, excite them, move them, make them laugh, and make them think. We also try to publish some fiction that has scope for readers to take differing points of view or help them to understand personal or social problems. However, we avoid stories that are too obviously written to put across a message.
There is always a need for more material with an authentic Māori or Pacific Islands voice. We often receive material with a quiet, rural flavour, but we are short of contributions with a contemporary, urban setting and a punchy pace. We would welcome more fiction set in the school context. At Part Four level, we seek fiction that acknowledges the increasing sophistication of 11–13-year-old readers.
In general, there is no formula for successful fiction, but it should have the following qualities at least:
- A theme that will interest children and in which they can recognise elements of their own experience.
- A good shape. The opening should both give some clue as to what the piece will be about and make even casual readers want to read on; the body of the text should maintain interest without flagging; the conclusion should be satisfying.
Traditional stories
Retellings of traditional stories often have strong appeal to young children. It is important that traditional stories be told by those to whom the stories belong, although they might be recorded by another writer. If you are retelling a story from a culture other than your own, you could consider co-writing the story with a local person. In any case, please include with your retelling the sources that you have used in researching and writing the story.
It may be wise to check with us first that the same stories have not already been published in the journals.
Non-fiction
Children are interested in a full range of non-fiction subjects. The main thing to remember is that the material must be presented in such a way that children will want to read it – with or without teacher direction. We seek non-fiction (including photo-articles) that takes a “child’s-eye” view of events, phenomena, experiences, and activities. We are always looking for material to support the New Zealand curriculum statements.
It is important to remember that the Journal is not intended to be an encyclopaedia, and we look for particular rather than general treatments of subjects. For example, a general item on flight would probably not be suitable, but a piece on the construction of feathers or an interview with a child who makes and flies their own model planes might be.
Genres
The Journal seeks to present readers with models for their own writing. For this reason, we look for non-fiction in a variety of forms: reports, recounts, diaries, letters, explanations, biographies, autobiographies, instructions, and interviews.
We are always short of biographical writing and profiles. This could include writing about role models, inventors, young achievers, authors, artists, and other adults already established in their fields and familiar to our readers. We are also always short of items incorporating debate and argument, on subjects that interest children.
Whatever non-fiction you choose to write, it may be wise, before you begin, to contact one of the editors with a suggested outline of what you intend, explaining what the focus of your material is to be and what ground you will cover. We are always willing to make comments on your proposals and to discuss the kinds of approaches that have been successful.
Photographs
We usually prefer non-fiction articles to be accompanied by photographs. They should be good-quality colour transparencies or prints. If you supply prints, don’t write on their backs, and don’t trim or crop the prints. When you are getting your film developed, specify “prints from negatives” rather than digital prints.
It is better for us to scan prints from 35mm film or transparencies than to try to use low-resolution digital images. Sometimes excellent articles have to be turned down because of poor quality photographs, particularly digital ones.
You should aim, in your sequence of photographs, to cover in detail the same ground as your script. Ideally, they should show action or tell a story. If there is a person at the centre of the article, that person’s face needs to be seen clearly in at least some of the photographs. Take plenty of shots, including horizontal and vertical formats, and a variety of close-ups and long shots.
We cannot accept photographs for publication unless we have written permission to use all images of people who are recognisable in the photographs. For images of children, parents’ or caregivers’ permission must be obtained. We can supply you with copies of the necessary forms.
For more information on photographs, read the Suggestions for amateur photographers and Preferred formats
Drama
Plays are always among the most popular items published in the School Journal. A Journal play needs to work at several levels: as a story that a child can read, as a script for a play reading that a group can enjoy without rehearsal, and occasionally as the basis for a full-scale production.
Because of their necessarily limited length, plays for the Journal are best written in one scene only. We look for a range of cast sizes, but we are especially interested in plays with 5-6 characters, suitable for use with a reading group.
The setting is not necessarily limited by the fact that the play is staged in a classroom – children have a great capacity for improvising. You may also like to write your play for audio or video recording or for puppetry.
Give your play a firm plot with a dramatic climax. Remember, too, that a dramatic presentation is not just a matter of characters exchanging pieces of dialogue. It should also be absorbing for an audience to watch.
Dialogue should be natural sounding, crisp, and to the point. There is no room for long, involved speeches in a play where all the other actors are urgently waiting their turn to speak. Characters should be strong and well-defined by their dialogue rather than by instructions on their dress or movements.
Keep directions to a minimum. They tend to hold up a playreading and confuse young readers, who sometimes read them as part of the script. The dialogue itself should express mood and can very often be used to imply movements.
Lively, inventive language is always a bonus as is contemporary subject matter.
Poems
The best poetry for children has a quality of directness about it. We look for fresh perspectives, memorable images, sharpness of expression, and an appreciation of sound, shape, and rhythm.
Writing by students
Where possible, we try to publish students’ own writing in the journals. It is not possible to deal with “class sets” of work, and so teachers should be strongly selective when suggesting that students send us their writing. We suggest that no more than 5 pieces of work be submitted at a time. Before submitting class work to the School Journal check to see whether we are calling for submissions for the Journal of Young Peoples Writing. Our website will advertise this, or you could contact us.
Activities
These continue to be popular. They may centre around contemporary themes and “kid culture” or draw on material from the past. There is always the opportunity to present science and technology experiences through activities. We look for contributions that are fun, cheap, and achievable for children working unassisted. Activities should be able to be carried out with easily available materials.
Illustrations
Almost all items are published with accompanying illustrations by freelance artists. These are normally commissioned by us at the production stage, and it is rare that illustrations (apart from photographs) are accepted with a manuscript. If you wish to be considered as an illustrator, you should read the Artwork Guidelines
Presentation of scripts
We prefer scripts to be typewritten, double-spaced, and printed on one side of the page only. You should also include an appropriately sized self-addressed stamped envelope in case of your script’s return. (Overseas contributors: please remember to enclose international reply coupons rather than stamps.)
If you are sending scripts by email, please include a mailing address as well as a return email address. We have certain parameters for attachments, please refer to the section “Submitting Attachments by Email” for further details.
Let us know if you are sending us work that has already appeared elsewhere, and please don’t send us work that is currently being considered by another publisher.
Submitting attachments by email
You can use any application you wish to create your work, you just need to use the Save As function to ensure it is saved in the correct file type before sending it to us.
When naming the file you must use one of these file suffixes: .doc .rtf or .txt. Make sure that the file name isn’t excessively long (ie: stay under 15 characters) an example would be: ‘Windy Day.doc’
Photographs need to be supplied as ‘photograph name.tif’ (as large as your camera can take), or ‘photograph name.jpg’ at 300 dpi and with minimal compression. See Preferred formats
Dealing with your script
As soon as possible after receiving your script (normally within five working days), we send you a letter (or an email) to acknowledge its arrival. We try to inform you about acceptance or rejection as quickly as possible, though due to the large number of manuscripts we receive, this reply normally takes up to 12 weeks. If you have not had a reply from us after three months, and wish to submit your manuscript elsewhere, please feel free to contact us and enquire about your script.
We receive hundreds of scripts a year, and although we are pleased to consider every one submitted, we do not have time to comment in detail on individual scripts.
Our prime concern, with scripts that we accept, is the needs of the children who will be reading your work. Sometimes, considerable changes are necessary in the light of these needs or to work in with our publishing programme as a whole. In such a case, we will send you an edited copy of your script showing how we would like to present your work. If you are unhappy with this, you should write back as soon as possible so that a compromise can be reached or other material can be used in its place.
Copyright
For all freelance contributions, we contract first publication rights, a translation option, and a republication option.
By granting us first publication rights, you retain the copyright in the material, but you may not sell it in any form for publication elsewhere, in New Zealand or overseas, until it has appeared in the Journal or until the Journal relinquishes its first publication right.
By granting us a translation option and a republication option, you allow us to reuse your material (subject to the payment of an additional fee) in any one of several ways – in translation into Māori or a Pacific Island language, in the form of a CD or electronic storybook (CDROM), or in a special edition or anthology. Accordingly, if you wish to sell the work elsewhere after it has appeared in the School Journal, you will need to inform us of the fact. It will usually be at least a year before your script appears in a Journal. On publication, we send you three copies of the Journal concerned.
Address
Send your scripts to:
The Editors
School Journal
OR
The Editor
Junior Journal
Learning Media
Box 3293
WELLINGTON
Phone: (04) 472 5522
Fax: (04)472 6444
Email: schooljournal@learningmedia.co.nz
or juniorjournal@learningmedia.co.nz