Gender Action: Stemettes White Paper Event and School Visit

On Thursday 7th March Angharad and Clive went to London to attend the launch of the Stemettes White Paper on Equitable Curriculum Reform at Portcullis house. This was a fantastic opportunity to meet with the Stemettes team whom we had worked with as they launched this whitepaper, from Clive attending the Birmingham roundtable and quotes from Angharad featuring in the final report after an interview with the Advocacy Analyst, Callie Winch. You can read the report here: https://stemettes.org/whitepaper/ 

We decided to take the opportunity to visit one of our schools working towards the Initiator Award, William Davies Primary School in Newham. We were welcomed by the Assistant Headteacher Natasha Fowler who is leading the Gender Action work and the Headteacher Sally Norris. It was World Book Day and pupils had been asked to come dressed as non-fiction characters as they wanted to avoid a plethora of princesses and superheroes, which was very successful!

Natasha was dressed as the astronaut Mae Jemison and the Headteacher, as a giraffe! We were given a tour of the school, talking to teachers and other staff members before meeting the schools’ STEM club, 6 students from Year 5. We asked them about their career aspirations. The female students wanted to be vets, detectives and fashion designers with the male students leaning towards being footballers, and if that failed, joining the police. This was a surprise to their teachers! 

The students then went on to ask us about gender equality and organisations that advocate for gender equity. Their open and honest questions demonstrated the positive and inclusive atmosphere that the staff have developed in the school. Natasha has worked hard with the community, so we hope to work with more schools in the Newham area as William Davies have led the way for this area! 

We look forward to visiting more schools over the next year, it’s great to see all of the hard work that is going on to push for change. Remember, as part of the Gender Action Programme, we offer free online training and support as well as whole-school staff training for those who are on their way to achieving Beacon status. If you would like to get involved, please contact: info@genderaction.co.uk