Speak Up

Speak up is a largely sixth form student project encouraging free speech and the airing of views and opinions. The outcome is this online magazine. This project is run by students for students and is based on their views.

We felt that “Speak Up“ would be a good name for our project because as we’re attending the Billericay school, we the students should have a say in all aspects of our school. We’re a very large school with lots of proactive students and groups of students with lots to say. The magazine will, we hope, encourage the sharing of views and give students the chance to ‘speak up’ about things that interest or concern them.

We started this in 2008 by randomly putting a shed in the playground to get people talking. Students queued up to have a look inside and express their opinion about a range of things. Groups then worked hard developing ideas and articles for the magazine. Since 2010 contributions have mainly come from sixth form students a group of whom edit and maintain the site. We also have a Speak Up club for younger students.

In order to make “Speak Up” sustainable and in-sync with the students of Billericay school, the sixth form editorial team will spend time at the end of their stint at Billericay  school working with the new bunch of Speak Up sixth formers. In addition, we work closely with the “Student Voice” and “Back Chat” teams to make sure that this project stays run by students, for students. Any interested parties are able to become part of the editorial or web team. In addition, anyone can take part by submitting articles or adding to the comment blog.