Two years ago, in the regular autumnal rush for magazine articles, ("Anything, as long as it is printable.") I decided to write a short essay on the subject of "School Magazines."
I described the "School Magazine" as "a means by which way-out sixth-formers unleash their poetical efforts of the past year on their colleagues lower down the school, (and, as you may have noticed, there is a far lower percentage of verse in this issue than in earlier ones.) However, I added that "to us at the Salvatorian College, the School Magazine has a more personal meaning ........ " - but, that would be telling ...Suffice it to say that I thought it was more than my life was worth, to submit the article, in its original form, for publication.. But for my highly active sense of self-preservation, you might also have read the words: "this will be a magazine by the boys, of the boys, and for the boys, (and those parents to whom it is delivered in a readable condition)".

And so, I suppressed my article, and maintained an unmanifested cynicism concerning school magazines, until suddenly, last September, my tongue was painfully wrenched from where it had been firmly embedded in my cheek, by the suggestion that we, the Lower sixth, should produce this year's "Salvatorian".

For a month we were overjoyed - this was our chance to say what we thought, and have it printed. Enthusiastically critical articles flowed through thick and fact, until we realised (with a little prompting from above) that we were going too far. Years of pent-up cynicism filled the wastepaper basket, as we started toeing the party line (occasionally treading on it ..) Another early hope - that of writing reports as the events happened - fell by the board, and we found that the "regular autumnal rush for magazines" had merely been brought forward to the end of the Summer Term.

However, in spite of these instances of the disillusionment which followed our initial, idealistic fervour, we have produced a magazine of a new type. In content and quality it may well fall short of its predecessors, but in principle it is far superior - this magazine is "by the boys, of the boys, and for the boys" and it should be the prototype of a long line of new "Salvatorians" produced by the Lower Sixth, developing, expanding, and improving.

I should add that our youthful drive had to be guided and restrained by a member of Staff. However, it seems that he would think a vote of thanks to be strained and uninteresting- and in fact, his fear of public recognition has led him to wear dark glasses - but, we know who he was; and thank him for the guidance (and threats ...) which have made this magazine possible.

Finally, I revert to that two-year-old article-that-never-was which I closed with the words: "I fear that the Midlands Bank advert on the back cover will be second in interest only to that page near the front from which we discover who has been teaching for the past year ...." That shaft would have missed its mark - the advert was for Barclay's Bank, not the Midland ....


P.S. We enjoyed making it .... Hope you enjoy reading it ...

THANK YOU:

Mr. & Mrs. Buckler, who gave us a typewriter to work with.

Jason, who continued to work on the magazine, even after leaving the school for further education.

P. B1easda1e, who, as our Chief Reporter, succeeded in keeping Mr. C. under the impression that the magazine was progressing throughout the year, and emigrated to Darlington when Mr. C. discovered that no progress at all had been made.

Everybody, for reading it.



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