Editorial Policy

Dear Reader,

Just thought we would give you an insight into what our editorial guidelines are for Speak Up. It’s important to know that our writers do all they can to stick to these guidelines to make sure a nice environment is associated with the site. We obviously want you to keep freedom of opinion and speech but we all have to remember it’s important to think of others and how our articles affect them. We aim to abide by the Press Complaints Commission Editor’s Code of Practice which all newspapers and magazines must follow in the UK. Aspects of this code include:

Accuracy: this basically means that everything we publish should be accurate and must not include any distorted information including pictures. This is so we can make sure you’re getting correct info. We will also make sure it’s clear when something is fact or our opinion.

Privacy: we promise to respect everyone’s privacy as we are all entitled to know whether images or articles about us are being submitted and we have the right to give consent for these items to be displayed. So hopefully that means no embarrassing pictures or stories of any of us, including teachers I’m afraid.

Harassment/Offensive Behaviour: it will be our highest concern to make sure that no one feels isolated or picked on by anyone in the Speak Up/School community. Any comments made will need to be appropriate and will not be uploaded if offensive or abusive behaviour is present. Remember to be nice as people spend a lot of time writing these articles, so if you feel an overwhelming urge to criticise, make it constructive but keep the compliments flowing.

When submitting articles, which we hope more of you plan to do, remember to give your work a quick check to make sure you’ve stuck to the guidelines as even though every article is proof read we’d much rather not need to change anything as this site is all about you and what you want to say, just say it appropriately. (Please check your spelling and grammar too!)  The same goes for images, make sure you don’t use anything copyrighted and ensure they’re suitable for the site. Now all that’s out the way, we hope to see our inbox filling up!

Many Thanks,

The Speak Up Team