Aquila Magazine – Lucky 13!

Aquila Magazine is a subscription publication for children aged 8 – 13.  In an subject area where magazines often open and closed in only a year, it has bucked the trend to reach its thirteenth anniversary.

Aquila was the brainchild of educational specialists working with gifted children. It was originally launched by a large international educational publishing company, however low returns on this original project soon showed the magazine could not sustain the profit margin required by a large corporation.

A small group of committed individuals who were already involved in the production as designers, writers and editors decided it was a project worth sustaining and formed the independent company New Leaf Publishing Ltd to take over Aquila. At this point the magazine became truly independent.

This independence means that it can stick to three simple principles;

1. No Advertising, because parents worry about advertiser's influence over children, and because children are quick to recognise that a magazine is a vehicle for advertisers rather than a reader-centred publication.
2. Fun, because many parents worry about their children being pushed too hard at school, but don't want them spending their limited free hours watching cartoons or playing mindless computer games. Aquila provides lively non-academic articles and activities that inspire children to read, think, act and respond. 
3. Responsiveness, because both adults and children contact the magazine and their views are built into the editorial process.  Says Editor Jackie Berry, "They tell us what they want to see and what we get right, or wrong.  Our readers don't hesitate to signal their views, which we relay in the letters page, and this keeps our focus on target." 

Aquila allows families to nurture values which, perhaps, go against the tide in today’s media dominated world. It aims to encourage high achievement by offering a mixture of extension material – encouraging broader views rather than specialisation, and is recommended by many support societies, such as the National Association for Gifted Children, and described as ‘the best enrichment material available for the able child’ by Professor Joan Freeman - praise and recognition indeed.   Maybe however, higher praise comes in the words of one young reader;

“Your magazine is brilliant, please don't change it and whatever you do, DON'T put in pop stars or anything like that. Most 'pop' magazines are really tacky and not worth what they cost”.

Aquila are holding a ‘Be a Reporter Competition 2006’, with the winning entry of this exciting competition being published in the June 2006 issue of Aquila. The subject to be covered is ‘Climate Change’.  Entrants are asked to write an article on any aspect of the subject - maybe their home town has suffered flooding, or they could write about the hurricanes in America.  What are people doing about climate change? Not just world leaders and big organisations - how about a recycling project at school, walking to school to save fuel, and remembering to turn the lights off at home?.

As well as seeing their work published the lucky winner can also enjoy an exciting weekend course at Kilve Court Residential Education Centre in Somerset.
For more information or to subscribe to Aquila visit www.aquila.co.uk

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