You’ve all recently
celebrated one year of the Hampstead Trash – what have been the highlights from
the last year?
Remaining founders: Firstly, the initial set up of
the blog, as that was a lot of fun to do, and also it set in stone from the
outset what we wanted to achieve.
All: The SLUDGE obituary article, which got Kinnan,
our former leader, in quite a bit of hot water, was fun to read, and the media
and public attention, that we came to know as Trashgate, that it brought with
it reaffirmed and solidified what the blog was about. Equally, Mailmerge, as it
has been dubbed, was a turning point for the blog, as it proved that, whilst
still being largely satirical and about the student voice, we were here as well
to show the school in its true colours, and to openly correct the misgivings
that have been able to occur without the presence of the blog.
How does it feel to
reach the one year anniversary, in a year where your editor Kinnan was reported
to police by the school after revealing his identity on the blog.
It feels like a true achievement, despite all the ups and
downs. Certainly Kinnan being treated in such a malicious way by the management
made us feel that he had been unjustly treated, and also made us fearful that
for doing the right thing, we would be punished. However, this made us even
more determined in continuing our work, until Hampstead is a school where free
speech of this level is openly accepted.
What are some of your
plans for the blog in the next year?
We don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but with
a year under our belt, we are striving even harder to build an open forum for
student views to be heard and seriously considered, since the current School
Council has continued to be inept and have little motivation to generate any
true change. We also want to involve students more with school activities, as
there is currently a silent majority that have no representation.
Finally, we are making plans to motivate students in other
schools, that have to suffer the same problems, to do as we have done, with our
guidance, as we believe the problems we experience are not unique.
How long have you all
been involved with the blog? Since the beginning?
The Editorial Team were founding members along with Kinnan,
so we have been here since the start, and have taken the helm since he has
left. The other writers have come to write in the months since Trashgate, when
there was a surge of student opinion as a result.
Why did you get
involved with this blog in the first place?
The Hampstead Trash Blog started up as an idea for a Student
Union, alike the ones in Universities, after a general discontent over the
decisions by the school's Senior Management. This idea never picked up, and for almost a year after,
nothing was done.
In February 2013, Kinnan, along with the founder members,
thought of a Blog, to satirise the school, alike how Private Eye satirises
Parliament. It was also founded to act much like a student newspaper for the
school, since our student newspaper currently stands at one issue, that had
many issues, the main one being it having nothing to do with the school (e.g
the whole page of One Direction fan fiction).
The newer writers, whilst still believing in the same goals
and general principles that the founding members carry, maintain that they are
part of the blog to exercise their free speech, or to satirise events that they
personally have found worth satirising.
After you all saw the
school’s action against Kinnan, do you have any concerns that involvement on
the blog will come back to haunt you further down the line, say at uni or in
your careers?
A quote from the Head that definitely haunts us is that he said:
“If he had been younger, he would have been expelled”. This worries us partly
because this man, who is responsible for the education of over 1,200 students
would be willing to derail their educational career during, for instance, their
GCSE’s or A-Levels, hence our strong anonymity policy.
And what are some of
your aspirations for the future?
We pride ourselves on the fact that we have many various
students, who are interested in many different things writing for the blog. It
is not like an English student club; Kinnan, for example, got a C in English
GCSE, and now studies Maths. Very few of our writers would consider any further
work in either satire, politics or writing in the future, which brings many
varied perspectives on internal school politics.
After revealing some
of the school’s errors and misconducts, do any of you feel bad about the work
you do on the blog?
No. We support the teachers and the work they do, because we
can see every day that they work hard to make sure students succeed. Despite
censorship, we know there is a general readership in the staffroom.
We always make sure that no teachers, bar the Head, are
mentioned by name, and we only publicly reveal misgivings because that is the
only way we know that something will be done about them. It is not us that is
at fault when we reveal any misconduct, it is the school, and therefore it is
them that should bear the consequences for their misgivings.
“We are making
plans to motivate students in other schools, that have to suffer the same
problems, to do as we have done, with our guidance, as we believe the problems
we experience are not unique.”
This is really
interesting. I appreciate you are currently in the planning stages with this,
but how do you envisage going about doing this with other schools? Will you
focus just on Camden’s other schools for the moment or will it be any
school?
We have had a few requests from students that attend
schools as far as Wales, who wanted to set up something in likeness with the
Trash. Now we feel we have the ability to guide other students in doing the
same thing.
We have been in contact with students in schools in Camden
and elsewhere, and if any readers of this interview want more information about
setting up their own Trash, they can contact the Trash through email or social
networks. Any blogs that do arise in other schools would become part of the
Trash Network, and would be endorsed by us.
I also just want to
unpick this statement a little: “Despite censorship, we know there is a general
readership in the staffroom.”
What does this
censorship consist of?
As we have reported on in numerous articles, the blog
is blocked on school servers, disallowing anyone to view our blog in school,
which means in the parameters of the school grounds the school is disobeying
Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the UN convention on the Rights of a
Child, which the Management supposedly endorse. Under reasons for blocking the
site, there are none, as it does not come under pornography of any type, it is
not violent and, as of Trashgate, doesn’t use offensive language. However, if
you wish to view how to make a pipe bomb or learn how to clean you bong, you
are fully able to.
I know you’ve touched
on this a bit but: why is writing for the blog worth the risk at all?
We are serious about getting the best out of our school in
terms of education, and are motivated enough to act upon that. Also, we have
invested our time in the school as students, so we all want the school to
benefit from us, so the next generation of students can enjoy Hampstead as it
should be.
In the Ham and High article, a spokesperson for the school is quoted saying: "As a rights respecting school, there are many channels through which students can express their views, including school council and suggestion boxes." This seems to be another amazing feat of incomprehension by the school's management, as, and as we have said in the past repeatedly, the blog was set up out of frustration that these channels are not taken seriously. It only takes to look at a Leaked Minutes to see our standpoint on the relevance, or rather irrelevance, of the School Council. The phrase 'falling on deaf ears' comes to mind, as it is one thing to set these systems in place, and it is another thing entirely to action them.
The Management has taken their usual stance of stonewalling the Trash, despite us trying to improve the school, as they are so narrow minded that they will not accept that their school carries faults, and that we are here, willingly, trying to solve said problems. If the school Management had any sense they would be lapping up our input, as it is very uncommon to get so many students motivated enough about their school to try and induce change.
Also, returning to the whole "Rights Respecting School". We did say in the interview that the school have broken, and this is just over the Trash, Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the UN convention on the Rights of a Child, which the Management supposedly endorse. Does that sound like a Rights Respecting School to you?
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