Swan Valley School Yearbook Wins First Place for Page Layout

SWAN VALLEY - Entourage Yearbooks announced their seventh Annual National Yearbook Competition awards, recognizing Swan Valley Elementary School with the distinctive First Place for Page Design.  The nationally sponsored contest conducted by Entourage Yearbooks judged school yearbooks in many facets including creativity, originality and journalistic relevance.  Hundreds of schools entered across all fifty states at the Elementary, Middle School, and High School level.

"I'd like to offer my sincere congratulations to all of the schools that completed yearbooks and submitted entries into the yearbook contest this year," said Entourage's President Elias Jo. "Putting together a great yearbook takes a lot of time and dedication.  The award winners represent schools that clearly went above and beyond on their yearbook and deserve recognition for their hard work.  I'm personally blown away by the level of achievement this year."

This achievement recognizes Swan Valley Elementary School for putting together a notable yearbook at the Elementary School level.  Their entry was submitted at the end of June 2017 and was officially awarded Nov. 1.  The Swan Valley Elementary School yearbook was selected from hundreds of schools who had submitted entries from around the country.

Swan Valley School started using Entourage five years ago. Before starting yearbooks with Entourage, the school had not put together a yearbook since the early 1990s.  All the yearbooks are available at the Swan Valley Community Library for the community to view and for future reference.

"Every year we try to put together a book that will be a lasting memory for the students and also help the students to learn a bit about photography and design.  Working with elementary aged students to create a themed yearbook can be challenging but we are able to create a book the kids can be proud of," said Jenny Kauffman, Swan Valley School's yearbook advisor. "The kids were thrilled to hear that we won first prize for page design.   I think it will inspire them to work even harder on this year's book."

Started in 2011, this is the seventh year that the annual Entourage National Yearbook Competition has been held in recognition of schools with yearbooks created by students and school volunteers. To participate, schools had to submit their yearbook content into categories for overall yearbook theme, page design, photography and cover design.  This year, more than 800 schools entered the competition.

Schools were judged at separate levels: elementary, middle school and high school. Judging of the contest entries was based on a balanced rating across the dimensions of creativity, originality and journalistic relevance. Page layout design is judged based on the overall layout design, the use of innovative techniques, and the use of captions, headlines, and graphic elements.

Winners that place in the top three of each category receive various prizes like cameras, yearbook cover upgrades, and Columbia Scholastic Press Association membership. Kauffman said she doesn't know what prize they will receive.