Our Month in Review

Moments away before signing off for 2023, we’d love to share with you what we have been up to for the past month, and look forward to welcoming a thrilling year full of new winners, captivating speeches and many more students trained thanks to our inspiring trainers and our team for making all this possible!

So, here we go:

Jack Petchey’s Speak Out Challenge launched its first Regional Finals events of the academic year 2023-24. The Regionals Finals were hosted in Waltham Forest, Islington, Hammersmith & Fulham, Camden and Hillingdon and were met with great success; incredible audience turnout in host schools, with the attendance of Mayors and Local MPs to celebrate the local students’ achievements, and our personal favourite, the presence of Alumni of the programme, Regional Champions from as far back as 2008, honoring us by volunteering to judge. Read more on alumni involvement here.

Speak Out Challenge: Our Regional Programmes

Yorkshire

• Recorded feedback from 316 participants so far, we love seeing the impact our programmes have on students!
• We only have 23 workshops remaining for Yorkshire schools for 2023-2024, so any schools wishing to take part should sign up here. Workshops are free and subsidised.
• We will be announcing the venue for the Yorkshire Speak Out Challenge Final in the new year! Stay updated!

Birmingham and Coventry

• Delighted to be continuing our work in the Midlands for 2023-24 and will be announcing the venue for the Final in the new year. Delivered with links to the Skills Builder framework, the programme is highly subsidised and workshops are booking up. Contact us soon or fill out this form if you are a school in Birmingham, Coventry or Solihull.

Sussex SOC

• We are fully booked in for the Sussex programme and the feedback so far has been great. We have been delivering the programmewith links to the Skills Builder framework for the time (after a successful pilot last year in the West Midlands)
• We have received amazing feedback from teachers so far: “Our trainer was absolutely fantastic! She was warm, welcoming and approachable throughout the session, which helped students with anxiety and special educational needs participate in the workshop.”

Suffolk SOC

• We have received funding to deliver a brand new programme in Suffolk and workshops are already booking up. Get in touch if you are a school in Suffolk who would like to take part, there are only a couple of spaces remaining! The programme will culminate in a live Final – watch this space as we announce the venue in the new year.

Anglia Ruskin University SOC

• For the first time, we will be working across Cambridge and Peterborough, delivering our speak out challenge programme to selected schools. We are excited to be working in partnership with the university to deliver this programme, including two events in the summer! Workshop delivery will start in early 2024.

Southern Universities Network Speak Out Challenge

• This programme has proved very popular amongst the eligible Southern Universities Network schools and we are now fully booked. We have delivered 6 workshops so far since September and will continue delivering across Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight in 2024.

Culturally Speaking

• Just in time before Christmas, we delivered our first visit and workshop for this exciting culture and heritage programme. Year 8 students attended The Museum of the Order of St John to discover its stories and themes. Within a few days, we attended the school, working with the students on their communication skills and crafting speeches inspired by themes and experience from their visit. All students thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Their teacher said “they have all told their form classes what they learnt in the workshop, and they were thrilled to have received the certificates.”

Speaking Up for Trees and Nature

• We are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with the tree council and will be delivering 17 workshops from January-April 2024.

Social Enterprise Programme

We’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to make an impact and have had great experience working with adults in corporate settings, charity volunteers and youth ambassadors and councils. Our workshops have been really well received and whether it’s helping a team communicate more clearly with each other or a charity ambassador speak out about their charity’s message, it is always rewarding helping people speak out and be heard!

So, as you can see, we’ve been keeping busy delivering programmes across the UK, reconnecting with Alumni, and preparing for an excellent, thrilling 2024 ahead!

Have a good rest and see you in the new year!