The KEGS Ambassador; The Independent Student Newspaper of King Edward VI Grammar School. It's a bold claim, but one that we like to think holds true. Now in its fifth year, our student newspaper is entirely student run. The students write all the articles, put together the layout and, crucially, take full editorial responsibility for the content; there is no external editorial control.
The most recent issue featured articles about the US election, Vladimir Umanets and yellowism, Adam Smith and the invisible hand, punk, a review of Hockney's iPad art, a piece entitled Are the Liberal Democrats Really Necessary? Plus there's a critical appreciation of FIFA13, a regular head-to-head (H2H) debate feature, a guide to KEGS banter and, for the first time, Cake Corner, set to be a regular column. It's eclectic, interesting, funny and all-in-all a great read. Publication day sees a frenzy of mass reading in the canteen, in the sixth-form centre and in the staffroom.
Arriving at KEGS and seeing the students' passion for debate, their love of banter and their immense capacity for leadership, I saw that we had a great opportunity. Taking inspiration from the fabulous Spectator newspaper run by students at Stuyvesant High School in New York, we launched a competition to design the paper, come up with a name and to set the initial editorial tone; now we have established a process that sustains a regular publication of high quality that has no teacher input of any kind. The basic logistics needed to be ironed out at the beginning but actually my students sorted this out quickly. They hold regular meetings, use Facebook and email to communicate with one another and liaise directly with our reprographics technician.
The key to the success of the newspaper is to establish a trust relationship with the students involved so that they know the boundaries of their independence and know where their responsibilities lie. The editorial team is appointed and led by the editor in chief, a student selected by an interview with me and the outgoing editor.
Over the years we've had some challenges, mainly with jokes that cause offence, notably a series of Prince Phillip 'gaffes' that were lifted from The Guardian. The question arose as to whether recycling racism was appropriate even if the aim was to ridicule it. One of our parents didn't think so. This is where we enter Leveson territory – freedom and responsibility are two sides of a coin. We've had a few other similar challenges but I've been determined that students should be allowed to learn from experience, not always be protected and restricted. In truth, I would be accountable if they went way off the rails, but I trust them enough to be confident this would never happen. In fact, a popular regular feature is the Ahead of the Times column that ridicules my educational jargon and my attempts at wisdom in assemblies. It is good satire, not crude and offensive, so I laugh at myself with them. So far…
The biggest challenge has been to create a product that had mass appeal across the student body with enough it in for everyone, without resorting to the 'rag mag' humour that would generate the twitchy urge to revert to staff censorship or risking turning people away with a series of intellectual essays. Some early issues were dry and overly worthy and the punters started to turn away. Over time, they have found the balance and the readership has increased significantly.
Current editor, James, told me: "A student-run, student-censored school newspaper is like a glimpse inside the collective school mind; I think it's fantastic. To be the man in charge of a potentially dangerous project puts a lot of pressure on me, but it's positive pressure; everyone knows that the publication truly belongs to the pupils of the school, and that's something to really celebrate. It's also great preparation for the real world, when teachers won't be around to guide and prompt us."
So far, he's done a superb job – and the most recent issue came out in the last week of term. Access to the full back catalogue of issues is available via my blog here.
Tom Sherrington is the headteacher of King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford. He blogs here and you can follow him on Twitter @headguruteacher.
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