Women’s Education November
Feminism Conference - Saturday 17th November
It was a day of commitment and activism, when students from Bow School gave up their time on a Saturday to spend the day being empowered and celebrating women and girls at the annual Feminism Conference at Deptford Green School. A fantastic Conference with inspiring speakers, panel discussion and an array of interesting and highly engaging workshops. We were spoilt for choice!
Students participated in a range of workshops from:
- Monster Confidence - ‘Presenting with Confidence’
- The Bystanders Project - ‘Challenging Sexual Harassment’
- The Big Art HERstory Project - exploring Feminist, Art and powerful women
- The Bold Voices Project - exploring feminism and cultural differences where students discussed and debated the French ban on the burka and niqab. Students also explored toxic masculinity in schools.
- There were a number of interactive sessions that explored the importance of intersectionality and working together.
- Students also looked at body image: where our beliefs about ‘acceptable bodies’ comes from, the impact they have, and what we can do about it.
A highly informative and inspiring day!
I.T Girls Allowed – Friday 23rd November
Y8 and Y9 girls were invited to Barclay’s Headquarters in Canary Wharf for the I.T Girls Allowed event. Nationally, year on year, fewer children are choosing I.T as a GSCE subject, which is having a direct impact on the number of young people choosing a career in I.T when they leave education. This is a challenge that affects both sexes, but is particularly prevalent in girls.
Although girls outperform boys in the majority of STEM subjects at GCSE level, the number of young women choosing to study STEM at A-levels, and at university, falls significantly behind that of their male counterparts. Just 8.5% of the engineers in the UK are women and 62% of 11-21 year-old girls believe STEM is just for boys. Such inaccurate perceptions hold girls back from considering a future in the technology industry.
The I.T Girls Allowed event was designed to inspire KS3 girls to consider I.T. as one of their subjects for GCSE, and possibly even a career. It was amazing to see how well the students from Bow School demonstrated a really good working knowledge and confidence when it came to I.T. They confidently deciphered encryption in the Cryptology sessions and also successfully coded – allowing a robot to take instructions.
Our students came 1st and 2nd in the ‘Design a Future’ activity, with the 1st prize winner receiving an Amazon Fire 7 Tablet.
Well done girls!
Ms Rahman
Rising to the Challenge & Celebrating Success – The Bow Way
