December 2023 marks the grand return and the re-establishment of “The Pilot”.

The Pilot is an academic journal compiling of a variety of outstanding works produced by Chigwell School students (Year 7 – 13). The overall aim of The Pilot is to celebrate the scholastic excellence of students from all areas across the board. From computer coding (python) to the presentation of masculinity in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. These phenomenal works are all collected and arranged by the editorial team – consisting of nine Year 12 students, who are all top achievers regarding their academic fields.

The Pilot is aiming to release an online edition on a termly basis, the first publication was on 18th December 2023, and it was seen successful. However, the journey towards this final outcome was challenging for the editors.

“At the very beginning of this project, Mrs Rea encouraged us to talk to the Heads of Departments, who would have held access to exceptional students works.” Said Tom, an editor of The Pilot. “Lily and I decided to jump in to one of the Heads of Departments meetings to introduce the concept of The Pilot, that was really nerve-wrecking as I have never spoken in front of so many teachers before.”

“I am certainly proud of the final piece we managed to pull off as a team, although we are hoping to include a more diversified student works in our next edition. For example, we are looking to include MFL (Modern Foreign Language) achievements.” Said Manraj, an editor of The Pilot.

The Pilot team is now preparing for their second edition to be released around Easter. The editorial teams have already met and had outlined ideas moving forward. The re-establishment of The Pilot has now become another hot topic among members of the Chigwell School.

“We hope to be able to produce a paper copy at some point in the future.” Said Julianna, an editor of The Pilot. “I think this journal is so meaningful and I do hope we can continue this project down to the younger years.”