Sunday, 10 March 2013

Analysis of St.James' High School newsletter

As a part of the research for the preliminary task, I shall look another school newsletter, that of St.James' Catholic High School. The initial impression of this newsletter is that it is quite formal in both design and content. Due to this, i can assume that the target audience for this newsletter is the parents rather than the students of St.James', which is also supported by the opening words being 'Dear parents/carers' which makes it quite clear who the newsletter is for. 


The first page is very formal and mature in it's style of presentation due to the large amounts of text and quite bland colour scheme. It opens with a message from the Head teacher, which is then followed by a prayer and  key information. There are some downsides however, especially in relation to the production of the newsletter, which has been created using software such as Microsoft Publisher or similar, making the text boxes, lines and inconsistent use of font come across as quite unprofessional, which is not what you want when trying to impress and inform the parents of your pupils.


Throughout the newsletter, the colour scheme is very inconsistent and bares little resemblance the school's colours. This can be seen in particular on the third page where several different colours are used, giving the impression that there is no formality to the structure, which instead just consists of random colours to try and attract the reader's eye, which is only partly successful. The main website for the school is predominantly dark blue, purple and gold, so to include colours such as red (as well as leaving a lot of white space), it can give the impression of unprofessionalism.




Furthermore, the images that have been included on page one and four, although useful in supporting the surrounding information, are not very professional. To combat this, a more professional camera could be used, which would help to create a more mature impression and feel to this newsletter. Overall, I believe that this newsletter was mostly successful in reaching it's target audience, the parents, but still has potential to enhance the overall structure and feel to the newsletter. I will take into account my criticisms, such as those about the lack of consistency of the colour scheme and unprofessional photographs, and make sure that I avoid these when making my school newsletter.











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