Reading time: 3 minutes. Relevant programme: Global Learning Programme
Ahead of Women’s History Month, with International Women’s Day taking place on 8 March, Paul Highfield, leader of learning for global education, Fir Vale School Academy trust writes
A classroom of faces in front of me – all looking pretty eager to learn. Great! But if I ask a question of many of the pupils (usually girls), they won’t respond. Why not? It’s the ‘quiet girl syndrome’. A few years ago in Fir Vale, some teachers used to equate quietness with ability. Not any more; we’re very data-rich, and analysis by gender, among several other variables, is standard practice.
Our school community is very multicultural, mainly from Pakistani, Yemeni, Somali and Roma background but with 40 languages spoken. Relations among different groups are remarkably good, partly testament to the huge amount of work the school does with student support. It’s come a very long way over the past 20 years in terms of gender equality: there are fewer ‘quiet girls’, though still too many; far more girls are going on to study at university level, including in the sciences.
However, there is still a long way to go to change some more traditional attitudes to girls and their lifestyles and career choices (including from many boys in the school).
Encouraging girls into sciences
Last year I joined other teachers from different UK schools to look at the proposed gender equality charter mark (GECM) and adapt it for the UK situation. Fir Vale, along with two other schools in Essex and London, were chosen to pilot the charter mark.
Staff have been enthusiastic, and we’ve already taking several initiatives. On discovering more girls are going into biology and chemistry-related further education, but not physics (partly because girls aren’t as confident in maths), we’re planning a day with Sheffield University to use role models to highlight physics related careers. We also have a lead practitioner science teacher working with higher ability girls to motivate them, and a new STEM club about to start, aimed at encouraging girls as well as boys.
Posters ‘just background’
I spent a very interesting hour discussing gender issues with our new pupil parliament members, some of whom told me that some resources are quite gender stereotyped, and some staff focus more on boys in class, as boys tend to be more dominant. Very encouragingly, some of the boys agreed that girls can be held back by gender stereotyping. Interestingly, they thought promoting gender equality through posters wouldn’t work, as they ’become background wallpaper and few people notice them’. So one girl produced a video short, and all said they wanted constant school focus on gender equality issues.
Meanwhile the English department were concerned that the gender gap in English at GCSE reversed last year (did we over-focus on encouraging boys?) and that there are very few positive female role models in their texts. Action? Staff training, partly looking at unconscious bias and questioning techniques, and English are carrying out a gender resources audit to be followed by plans to reverse this lack.
Global news focus on gender
This academic year, in the weekly Global News powerpoints for all form tutors, which include film and other clips and questions to discuss, I’ve focused overtly on gender issues several times. This has helped to make it normal to openly discuss them in form time, and should help in the long run to produce more meaningful social relationships.
Increasing girls’ confidence in themselves, and widening their horizons, are key to successfully overcoming the challenges we face here. It won’t all be solved in one year of GECM focus. I believe that structured, safe discussions with boys as well as girls, through many channels, including PSHE, assemblies and our global news, are essential to achieving this.
Read more in the SSAT Journal: Working-class girls benefit greatly from business mentors (J7, pages 3-4)
Paul Highfield, leader of learning for global education, Fir Vale School Academy trust
