Behind the school newsletter
A new issue of our school newsletter is published every month. The pages look simple, but several steps happen before readers see them. First, ideas are collected from different classes. Not every suggestion becomes an article: the editors ask whether the topic is useful and whether enough information is available. Next, a draft is written. Dates and names are checked against reliable sources. If someone is quoted, the team checks that the quotation keeps the person's meaning. Photographs are used only with the necessary permission. A picture found online is not automatically free to copy. The most difficult step is choosing a headline. Last month, a draft headline said, 'No More Homework!' The article was actually about one optional homework task during a project week. The editors changed the headline because the first version could mislead readers who did not open the article. Mistakes can still happen. When an error is found, the online issue is corrected and a short explanation is added. Our newsletter is not valuable because it is perfect. It is useful because readers can see how information is checked and how problems are corrected.