The School Magazine celebrates its centenary

The NSW School Magazine Book Week cover featuring a sketch of a boy and a girl in a library readingThe School Magazine, originally subtitled ‘ A Magazine of Literature for Our Boys and Girls’, has been published continuously by the New South Wales Department of Education since its first issue of a 16-page monthly publication in 1916, and is the longest running children’s magazine in the world.

Centenary celebrations this year, include the publication of a new anthology For Keeps, featuring some of the finest writing and illustration from the magazines’ pages, and a birthday party with hundreds of invited students at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney on 2 August 2016.

Visit or subscribe to The School Magazine

Centenary ambassadors

The following children’s book writers and creators (and including Robyn Ewing AM below) are The School Magazine Ambassadors for the centenary year. Watch short videos of the ambassadors and others speaking about The School Magazine.


Tohby Riddle

Tohby Riddle

Libby Gleeson 

Libby Gleeson

Ursula Dubosarsky

Ursula Dubosarsky

Robyn EwingRobyn Ewing AM (left), former PETAA President, PETAA life member since 2006, and one of The School Magazine‘s ambassadors, on the importance of the school magazine:

‘When I was a child there wasn't a lot of books for children around, and I was someone who loved reading and one of those kids who used to hide under the cover to read … I don't remember us having a lot of money when I was young and I don’t remember a lot of books for children around. We didn’t get a library at school until year three. Even though we've got fantastic books for children in this country, not every family yet understands the importance of literary texts for children and they're not necessarily in every home. And yet the research shows that that is one of the strongest indicators of success in later life, even though we have so many other resources multimodally, it's the books in the home and what you do with them, the sharing, the reading of them that is so important.’

Source for quote above and image of 1955 cover (Photo by Linda Morris): 'School Magazine turns 100 with a push for new readers' by Linda Morris in The Sydney Morning Herald 2 August 2016

NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli cuts the 100th birthday cake for the school magazine

NSW Education Minister Adrain Piccoli prepares to cut the 100th birthday cake for The School Magazine at the centenary event held at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney