Speak Up is a learning project which works with nearly 150,000 young people in 55 schools and 11 areas of the country over three years.
It’s a co-created initiative that gives young people a voice. Uniting schools, students and communities, the program is about celebrating creativity. Working with local artists and teachers, the students make work that is about issues that they want to explore and together they create a piece of work that allows them be heard.
Speak Up has taken place in selected schools across England and was delivered in partnership with the National Theatre. From 2022 to 2025 Speak Up has engaged with 140,000 young people in 55 selected secondary schools nationwide. Speak Up is a free secondary school programme that sees young people working in collaboration with local artists and teachers to co-create artistic responses to issues that are most important to them. The programme encourages new ways for young people to think, see and bring about change. Speak Up is generously supported by The Mohn Westlake Foundation, who share our belief in the power of youth voice and working with young people to enable positive change in their lives, schools and local communities.
Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch proudly collaborates on Speak Up with 5 local secondary schools:
St Edward’s CofE Academy
The Brittons Academy
Lime Academy Forest Approach
Hornchurch High School
Sanders Draper School
Want to see our previous work?
Visit the YouTube channel
Explore some of the work created in Speak Up Listen Up! | National Theatre
Intersted in seeing our upcoming work?
Visit Eventbrite for tickets to our next sharing event.
Quotes from our local schools:
“The programme has been a real highlight of the year and very enjoyable!”
“Absolutely brilliant! Superbly well-organised and really fun and engaging for our young people.”
“it’s been a successful year and weekly workshops have been varied and of such a high quality.”
“It’s been fantastic for our students to see the myriad of artistic projects taking place at the QTH – from young infants to families and more senior citizens. A great environment to be creative in!”
“Speak Up has definitely been the highlight of the year!”
“It’s clear to see what a phenomenal impact participating in the project has on the young people in our local area”
“It was brilliant to sit in our theatre and see it absolutely full to the brim with local young people who were all buzzing to be in their local theatre and hopefully this can foster a lifelong feeling of QTH being a home and a place for them to come and be themselves.”
“It was powerful!!”
Quotes from the young people involved in Speak Up
“Speak Up has helped me to speak up and to feel confident. I can say what I am feeling”
“Speak Up is about speaking up in your own level, be yourself, and be brave – be strong”
“In Speak Up, I feel I can be myself and I won’t be judged”
“It has been an honour to have been a part of it.”
“I am proud of coming together, creating a comfortable, supportive community where our voices are heard and creating new friendship and relationships”
“[It feels like] Everyone being a community”
“I can do the things I’m scared of and be brave”
“What I will carry forward is my confidence”
