Special School Sixth Formers Publish Doctor Who Themed Achieve It! Magazine

David Tennant is one of many Doctor Who related celebrities to appear in a new and innovative one-off magazine available next month. The Sixth Form Enterprise group from a Welsh special school, Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn in Swansea, are launching the Doctor Who-themed magazine to raise money for charity. The students are publishing the magazine in association with Character Options as part of their course work towards an Agored Cymru Qualification in Running An Enterprise Project. The pupils have written, designed and published the one-off magazine themselves, while Character Options have sponsored the printing and production costs. All proceeds from sales of the magazine will go to the Wales Air Ambulance Service.

The magazine includes interviews with:

• David Tennant
• Tom Baker
• Peter Davison
• Colin Baker
• Brian Blessed
• William Russell
• Katy Manning
• Russell T Davis
• Dan Starkey
• Sophie Aldred
• Rula Lenska
• Mike Collins
• Anjli Mohindra
• Louise Jameson
• Bonnie Langford
• Helen Griffin
• Mike Tucker
• Sarah Louise Madison
• Anneke Wills
• Yee Gee Tso

...plus a never seen before short story by Mike Tucker

The 100 Achieve It! magazine will be available from the school from the 2nd July and costs £3.50. Contact them here. The official launch will be on the 3rd July 2013 at an event at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay.

Ysgol Pen-y-Bryn is a local authority maintained school for 114 pupils in Swansea. The school, which has a unit for autistic pupils, educates pupils, aged 3-19, who have a wide range of additional learning needs. Each year the Sixth Form run a variety of Enterprise Projects, to gain new skills, learn about enterprise and gain an Agored Cymru Qualification. With this year being the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the group decided that to create a one off magazine based on five decades of the Doctor’s adventures would be a perfect fit and approached Character Options to help fund production, which the company was more than happy to help with.

Mark Hunt, Brand Manager at Character Options, commented: “We are delighted to be involved in Ysgol-Pen-y-Bryn’s Enterprise project. Looking at the work they have achieved to date, we know it’s going to be an amazing magazine that will be enjoyed by all that are lucky enough to own one. It’s packed with nearly 100 pages of facts, features, interviews and graphic work and the quality that has been achieved is remarkable. We are therefore proud to fund the print production which we know in this auspicious year will be in high demand.”

James Williams, Community Co-Ordinator at the school said. “We are delighted to be working on this Doctor Who project with Character Options. Many of the pupils have an affinity with the series especially as its home is just down the road in Cardiff, and I am extremely proud of the work they have created. But like all projects, funding is required and this allows us to give our pupils new experiences and learn new skills that they can take on with them to college. We therefore would like to thank the team at Character Options for their incredible support, not only financially but also their knowledge of Doctor Who. Over the next few weeks a great deal of work needs to be achieved and we look forward to working even closer with the team in seeing the final magazine come to fruition.”

Thanks to The Doctor Who Site