Dd is the only girl in her AS Further Maths class - what could the school do to support her?

Not.

Has Ralgex come back to further explain or not?

Those that are saying that the school is doing something wrong if they only have one girl taking further maths should be aware that a mixed school who has a girl taking further maths is actually doing ok in the gender stakes. It's a national social and cultural problem. While single sex schools do do better at getting girls to progress to STEM subjects, it's still not that many, given the economic and academic benefits associated with those subjects.

While I agree with those who challenge the OP on the inevitability of a lone girl being intimidated in the classroom, I suspect much depends on the ability and confidence in their ability of the girl in question. I was not intimidated in my male-dominated a-level classes, but then, I was the best. No one was questioning my right to be in the class. A girl of more average ability in the group, who nonetheless has the ability to be there is more likely to feel like a fish out of water. Asking questions would be admitting that she doesn't understand something, and as she is a girl, would not just be that she doesn't understand something, but that the girl doesn't understand something. As there is a lack of role models who are successful, this would just underline her unsuitability for the subject, and is something that some boys could definitely pick up on; even if challenged by the teacher, it's then too late.

If the OP's DD is feeling out of place as a girl, then there are some suggestions here www.furthermaths.org.uk/docs/1Girls%20in%20mathematics%20briefing%20document%20v7.pdf, perhaps this could be forwarded to the teacher?

That said, not wanting to ask questions in lessons is quite a common issue in maths, especially with introverted/shy students. The usual advice to the student would be to seek out the teacher after a lesson, or to email any questions. A note from a parent to the teacher saying that the student is reluctant to seek help and could the teacher make and effort check on them in the lesson is also useful.

I was the only girl in my FM class with 5 boys. They were your stereotypical nerds and enjoyed having a girl in their class as I think I was the only girl they had the guts to talk to! I enjoyed the class as there was no bitchiness like you find with girls. If she is upset she should see her teacher whether it is due to boys or girls

always. That sounds like a horrid experience. Plain old bullying.

Yes, the main reason I raised my personal experience was that I don't think it's at all "needless to say" that a single girl should feel intimidated. I've been it and known a good few girls who were it and none of us felt intimidated. So there's no reason the teachers would assume in advance that there's a problem and put measures in place.

You'd hope that if she isn't speaking up they'd notice and check on her. Maybe they're just assuming she's understanding things and getting on quietly with her work. Most a-level maths classes will have students like that, male or female. How does she get on with homework? That should have flagged to them if she was having trouble understanding things.

And being intimidated to the degree of not asking the teacher a question in class is quite extreme. Even if she feels intimidated on the social side, she's used to interacting with teachers, why is that suddenly a problem? Is there something about the atmosphere in this particular group that makes asking for help difficult? I don't think it's that common for a child to go through 5 years of co-ed education and then not be able to speak in front of boys. Yes if that is happening she needs help, but she also needs helping to help herself.

I did further maths as the only girl in a class. It was a boys' school with girls only in the sixth form. The class was split between the very nice but what I would have probably called back then 'geeks' and the loud, over confident popular boys. I was strong enough to take the comments they made about me and see them for what they were, intimidated by a girl who was cleverer than they were. I put my head down, ignored it and worked harder. Once I beat most of them in tests, I had their grudging intellectual respect even if they continued to make comments on appearance etc for the whole two years.

The experience, although unpleasant, taught me a very valuable lesson about how people can act when you challenge the status quo.

The post at 00.50 was in relation to a female mentor:

I am thinking along the lines of a female mentor, maybe a female mathmo in the Upper Sixth, if there are any, or a female maths teacher.

This specific teacher could be female and just not someone DD would like as a mentor as she doesn't like asking questions in her class. it does sound as if DD is unhappy in the class, whether because of the teacher, fellow pupils or struggling with the work - or even a combination of all three.

Without further info from OP we're never going to know.

Re girls and STEM subjects - equally more work with boys and "softer skills". There aren't many male teachers in primary schools, for example. Equality of opportunity for all - for boys who like arts and crafts and girls who like tree climbing and chess! Talents should not be equated to gender.

i teach in a girls' school, and some girls are intimidated by the classroom environment in general, for a variety of reasons. (i imagine this is also true of boys.) These pupils dont ask questions to consolidate their understanding and so their learning definitely suffers.
my advice to these pupils and their parents is always the same: while it may be a difficult thing to do, you have to take matters into your own hands and open up a dialogue within the classroom. you have to open your mouth and speak. this can be at the end of the class to start with, since any decent teacher will be happy to go over any difficulties encountered, and hopefully this will build confidence so that they can eventually ask questions as the work is covered in class.
when you look at the other reasons for pupils being intimidated in class, it's really not reasonable to expect one-to-one sessions with the teacher for every pupil who feels this way. what is reasonable, and would also represent personal development, is to expect the pupil to overcome their feelings and realise that their progress depends on them doing so.

There's a thread in FWR (when women stopped coding) that talks about some of this from a workplace perspective. It is a real problem that talented women are pushed out of the sciences, and people are talking about it more and more. As someone working in a male dominated industry, I'd love to see more support for teenage girls

Aside from talking with the school - there are lots of organisations now working to get teenage girls into science and supporting women. E.g. Stemettes, science grrrl, lady geek. Maybe these are another avenue to explore?

I think the problem of girls not taking STEM subjects starts at toddler age and early school years up to primary.

A lot of women I know are so into encouraging their daughters to be princesses as discouraging them from things they view as 'boys things'.

Without early role models girls won't even consider this as an option open to them so the science activities aimed at encouraging 14 year olds to do science comes far too late - a mindset has already been firmly engrained by then. Just look at the (now removed) Clarks shoes displays for children: it was some thing like, "we make our boys shoes for climbing and exploring. We make our girls shoes to look pretty."

There is an strong message to girls that they shouldn't explore and try and work things out which is the basis of science, maths and engineering. Once it's learnt at an early age it's extremely hard to overcome.

Science outreach needs to start in nurseries and infant schools in my opinion.

How about splitting for some GCSE subjects? Dd2's school split the top two English sets into a boy set and girl set, primarily because more boys were failing to reach their targets and not taking it at AS and the result was an improvement not just for the boys but the girls too. Dd2 said that they could discuss books without sniggers from the boys although previously she hadn't realised it was a problem.
If this was an option for Maths maybe more girls would be encouraged to take it at AS? Just a thought.

"The assumption up thread that the teacher is male is quite strange, IMO. My school had more female maths teachers than male. Without any evidence why assume the teacher is male?"

Extrapolation from OP's post of 00:50:28, which doesn't say specifically that the teacher is male, but as a female teacher would need to be sought out it's not an unreasonable inference that the one her DD sees routinely is not female.

OP, please come back and tell us more specifically what DD's problems are. There are lots of women on this thread who have been the only female in sixth form or degree classes, there is a lot of experience here to draw on. The very fact that many didn't find it problematic may mean that they have useful advice as to why that was so for them and what helped.

"But what can the teacher do? She had no part in determining the gender of the applicants for the course and is powerless to change it."

I was the only girl in my A level English class - the teacher spoke to me about this at the start of the course, made it clear that he was there to help, and that I should raise any problems with him straight away.

As it happens, I was the sort of teenage girl who could and would cheerfully intimidate 8 teenage boys into silence just for the fun of it But had I been a different personality, I'm sure I would have found his approach helpful and supportive.

It's extremely unpleasant to be the lone girl or lone boy in a class or an office or anything really.

The assumption up thread that the teacher is male is quite strange, IMO. My school had more female maths teachers than male. Without any evidence why assume the teacher is male?

Is DD keeping up with the course? Could it be that the work is too challenging and that is the actual problem but it's easier to blame it on the class composition?

I do feel for the DD, who is very young, but we can't really give any useful advice without knowing whether the problem comes from specific behaviour/attitudes of the boys, or the teacher, or a pervading set of assumptions in the school, or whether it's mostly related to the DD's personal insecurities (perfectly natural to have personal insecurities at that age). A good school can certainly help with all four but they requires different tactics.

There's a classic experiment where girls who have to state their gender before taking their maths test perform worse, so even though I call the DD's insecurities "personal", they are clearly widely shared and societally determined. But sadly, in the absence of an overthrow of the patriarchy before her exam date, her best personal strategy may be to work on the rhinoceros-hide tactics that others on the thread (myself included) have mastered - along with an appeal to the school for consideration and addressing any specific identified external behaviours.

I do not accept there is nothing teachers can do about the make up of the class. If out of an equal amount of girls and boys coming in at year 7 only a tiny minority of those progressing onto advanced maths are girls, you really need to look at what you are doing wrong.

As a school they should be asking some questions:

Why are girls not seeing Stem subjects as a career path?
Are girls getting the impression only boys are good at maths?
And, most relevant to the OP. What difficulties are girls who are choosing the STEM subjects facing and what is being done to support them in the hopes of redressing the imbalance?

I'm glad to see the conversation has moved onto the shortage of girls taking STEM subjects because this clearly is an issue and schools are doing themselves and the girls a huge disservice if they aren't encouraging more to take them.

Part of it is a social thing I think. In general I think girls are very sociable at this age and it does take a bit of extra something to choose subjects where you aren't going to be starting off with friends.

I think people were taking umbrage at the OPs phrasing of 'needless to say' because of course there are those of us who didn't find it an issue. I think one thing we should be doing is congratulating the OPs dd in having taken the decision to stand out from the crowd.

So what can schools do to encourage more girls to take STEM subjects? I don't know. I think a mentor is a good step. That could be an A2 female student (it would certainly look good on their cv!). Dd's school takes year 10 girls to a science day but this year they had to cancel it due to not enough interest. :( More female teachers teaching a levels would be ace but of course they need to exist in the first place.

Just to add as well as improving DDs confidence, email TGF teacher and explain that she I'd struggling with her being the only female in the class - just to make the teacher aware

OP can you be specific about what behaviours the boys are demonstrating towards your dd that make her feel intimidated?

We might be able to help if we know a bit more. You will probably have to take it up with the school if they are using sexist language towards her or are bullying her.

The first step is to speak to the teacher - they need to know that the DD is intimidated out of asking questions/commenting. Although if they haven't spotted it by mid Nov I would be worried about the effectiveness of their classroom management. But the issue needs to be clearly and specifically raised with the teacher. If they can't or won't improve on the classroom atmosphere the Ralgex can pursue it further with the school.

In the meantime her thoughts about mentoring are a good idea - ask the head of sixth form if anything exists. Do they have a STEM coordinator that could investigate schemes/clubs/courses etc?

The point is its inevitable the balance won't always be great in work places or educational establishments.

Surely it's not unreasonable to expect the people involved to take some responsibility in encouraging each other and preparing each other for the possibility rather than putting it down to teachers. They can't help the make up of the class.

I have looked across as my geeky, nerdy teen who will be doing further maths. And am immensely saddened that he is seen by some as a problem simply by being male in a classroom.

OP needs to provide more information. Has her DD just joined this school from a single sex school? Or are these boys she has known since year 7? How many in the class (further maths classes are often tiny)?

Has the DD described any specific incidents? Who would be responsible for tacking them. If she doesn't know, can you help her find out?

Is she aware of how pastoral support works in her sixth form (may be different to elsewhere in a school)? Is she seeking support? I can't give examples of specific support to mathematicians, but there should be a range of staff with support responsibilities/experience available to all pupils for any reason. Has she spoken to any about any part of this?

(In the short term, tell her to write her unanswered questions at the end of a homework).