It’s been one year since the Felixstownian was first published, and what a year it's been. In November 2019, the idea was first brought up by Mr Meitiner-Harvey, who wanted to start a school newspaper. I joined this team with a keen interest in the media industry and journalism, where I was then appointed editor of the Felixstownian. From the idea of a monthly paper copy to a magazine-style newspaper, we explored all options until we found the perfect one: a website. So, we gathered up many articles written by our team and got to work in designing the best website we could make, and slowly but surely the dream became a reality. In March 2020, we were hit with the struggles of lockdown, which put many obstacles in the way for our first publishing. We weren’t able to meet, meaning the process became a lot slower and less articles were being produced. However, on April 28th, we published the Felixstownian for the first time, with a range of articles, including: film, tv, sports and the environment. Over the course of lockdown, we had many articles sent in from both teachers and students, with one of our bigger projects being the recipe section - with many teachers and pupils submitting their recipes and bakes which they made in lockdown (a distraction from the monotonous reality). Then, nearing the end of April and the start of May, we set up a Twitter account in the hope of connecting to parents and those outside of the school - widening our audience. We continued to publish many articles and had so many contributions which were overwhelming. When starting a new academic year, our hope was to expand our team and the content we produced: the first stop was the year 7’s Freshers Fair. Connecting with many students and their passions, we nearly doubled the number of team members we had previously, and the interest only got better. Overtime, our team expanded to eighteen members (at the time of writing), and we added so many new sections (eg, politics), including our newest: Recap with Rylie. We have had so many vast projects too, with my personal favourite being the 24 Days of Christmas - an article released everyday in December until Christmas. Just after Christmas, we set up an Instagram account to connect with fellow students and to heighten the interest in the newspaper. From there, we set up interactive segments with our followers, including ‘Quirky Questions’ (a random question given to each member of our team per week) and ‘Weekly Wants’ (things which we are loving at the moment), with some of you sending in questions and responses. So, what a year it has been. Starting from a team of three to a team of eighteen, we have expanded both our content and team dramatically, and hope to continue with this in the future. For now, we wanted to celebrate our birthday with a bang, so we have set up a new inter-house competition for the students of Felixstowe School. Read the rules and theme on our Instagram, with the prize for the winning entrant being a free waffle / crepe from The Waffle Shack. Follow our Instagram and Twitter (@felixstownian) for more exclusive content, and email any enquiries to newspaper@fxs.org.uk. Thank you for all of your support over this past year, we hope to have many more successful birthdays and years. By Grace Wells
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