English Secondary Students' Association

The English Secondary Students' Association or ESSA is the independent representative body for secondary students in England. ESSA are run by students, for students aged 11 to 19 years old. They support young people to have a voice on issues which affect their lives at school or college.

ESSA are working to become the representative organisation for students in key stages 3-5 (year groups 7 to 13) throughout England. ESSA provide support, training and advice to help students to get involved in decision making. They also work closely with students in other European countries through a student-led organisation called OBESSU www.obessu.org (Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions).

How is ESSA run?

ESSA is a student-led organisation run by students, for students. This means that the ESSA Council makes the decisions AbOUT how ESSA is run.

ESSA's Council is made up of 18 students who are elected by members of ESSA. There are two elected Council members from each of the 9 regions in England. The Council aims to ensure that the actions taken by ESSA are representative of the views of ESSA's student members. The current council is this:
North West
Thomas Hatton
North East
Andrew Elliot
Eleanor Walker
East Midlands
Muhamid Pathan
Mitchell Harris-Cox
West Midlands
Vancant seats

Yorkshire and the Humber
Aisha Nageen
Blessing Maregere
East
Salil Bhate (also Vice Chair)
Josh Molloy
South West
Jessie Seal (also Chairperson)
Katie Rogers
South East
Sedem Hlordzi
Edward Hauschild
London
Esther Olayiwola
Adam Bracegirdle

Projects and Campaigns

Campaign 4 Change in October 2007 ESSA launch Campaign for Change, a project which was funded by V and aimed to get as many young people campaigning about issues that they cared about as possible. ESSA achieved this in a number of ways, most notably through the creation of their workshop 'Campaign 4 Change', run entirely by young people, the C4C training was eventually taken by more than 2000 young people and is still being used today.

Manifesto 4 Change on the 5th May 2009, ESSA launched their video competition 'Manifesto 4 Change' at Portcullis House, Westminster, with the support of many organisations and individuals including Natashca Engels MP, Channel 4 and NESTA. With a view to eventually creating a written manifesto for the next general election, ESSA have invited young people to send in up to 3 minutes of video on what they think should be changed in the education system.

There are 5 categories;

Teaching and Learning

Where We Learn

Enjoying Education

Student Voice and Leadership

The Future of Education

After the deadline for entries of 18th June 09, the videos will be judged and the winning entries will be shown on Channel 4 later this year. As well as prizes for the winners, all of the views from the videos will be used to create a Students' Manifesto to show politicians what students want!

See also

  • National Union of Students of the United Kingdom
  • National Union of Teachers
  • OBESSU