Brentwood Preparatory School Incipe 2017-18

Brentwood School Preparatory 24 Charles Haskett, the founding editor of Incipe for 21 years compares notes with the current editors, Stephanie Crichton and Kristy Peacock. Interview with the editors - past and present How did you write Incipe? Usually by collecting in the material from staff and typing it out (most articles handwritten in those far off days) before sending it off to the printer, then in Romford. Google Drive had just been introduced into school so we created an Incipe Drive, where we stored all our articles in different folders, to ultimately share with the publishers. Where did you get your information and photos? Information from staff (including children’s work which would be passed on to me). Photos were usually scanned by the printer from the originals (I believe). We begged, borrowed and stole off the school’s media drive, bribed children with house points, called in favours from kind parents and hounded the teachers with endless emails! What was your biggest challenge? Receiving articles and reports from the staff. In addition, having the time to prepare Incipe – this was started during the summer holidays at the end of each academic year and took months as, to begin with, I typed out the articles etc before passing them on. We had many challenges! We, the emergency rookie editors, started in September, and the magazine was due to be sent to the printers just after half term. Neither of us were computer whizzes, we had never written a publication before, and with the brand new system of Google Drive thrown in - it was a steep learning curve! Why did the headmaster suggest a school magazine and what was its focus? Previously any Prep input was sent over to the Senior School where it became part of The Brentwoodian. Often it was edited and not all of the articles were included. Therefore it was suggested that we have our own magazine. Choice of names included ‘The Parrot’ and ‘The Rodent’ – historically, days boys were known as Parrots and the borders from the Prep, Rodents. I suggested Incipe as it is one of the two school mottos and basically means ‘to make a new start’, which we were doing. Its main focus was to report what went on in the Prep in any one academic year, together with examples of work from the pupils. It was more detailed and personal than the official Prospectus. The school magazine was already a well established tradition at the Prep, and had been in such capable hands for so many years that it was a privilege to ensure its survival in this digital age. We aimed to keep the traditional ethos of the magazine, but make it interesting and entertaining for past, current and prospective families. We wanted to showcase all aspects of the School; the buzz of the classrooms, the excellence and endeavour on the sports fields, the joyful music and drama lessons and the fun and laughter of enrichment week. How did you become the editor? The then Headmaster, John Marchant, asked for volunteers during a staff meeting; needless to say, nobody was prepared to take on the role. Some while later John saw me coming down the main stairs in Middleton Hall and asked to take on the role of editor, assuring me that it was not an onerous task and that he had once undertaken a similar role when at a previous school!!! History seemed to repeat itself twenty three years later! Some might say the two newest, most gullible members of staff got the job, but we like to think we were destined to answer the call of Incipe! Do you have a most memorable moment? A year after I retired and did not need to undertake editing the next copy of the magazine. Sheer bliss! Seriously though, probably not. It was rewarding to be appreciated though with an occasional ‘thank you’ from staff and some parents - and John Marchant and subsequent Heads usually sent me a written letter to thank me. It was even alluded to as part of the Headmaster’s Speech at Prize Giving! Our greatest and most memorable moment was opening our first box of Issue 24, the result of many hours of hard work. Do you have any advice for a future editor? Never volunteer! We couldn’t put it better ourselves Charles (although secretly we are quite enjoying working together on this!). A big thank you to last year’s readers For all your wonderful comments which cheered us. We never guessed that editing prose Would bring us so many highs and lows. For Incipe number twenty five We were inspired by our school’s archives. Look out for our logo amongst the pages And relive the past of our School through the ages. So our thanks to all who have contributed here It has been another exciting year, And now it is over, with much trepidation We hope you enjoy our latest publication. A Message from the Editors Our sincere thanks to all the children and staff who have contributed so generously to this issue. You know who you are and we could not have done it without you!