1/2 of all state schools have no girls sitting physics A level

DS also doing Physics at A level (A2) , 24 boys split into two groups, no girls whatsoever, also worth mentioning Physics at A level is very Mech.Maths heavy, so hard going over all.
I remember when we went for a open evening and had a look around his current (excellent) Sixth form, we were shown around Physics department and Lab exclusively by current students all of them boys.
I don't like this current concept/trend at all, it promotes unhealthy wide gender gap in the field of Physical Science and it falsely paints the very inaccurate picture, boys being "Superior beings, only ones fit to study such hard and demanding subject/Physics.
It has to change.

That advert is very depressing. I hope my six year old daughter chooses to study sciences at A level as both my sons have.

My younger sister did A Level physics. She had quite a few girls in her class too. Shame that seems to be unusual!

Jolibee most schools enter students for combined sciences at GCSE. In my experience only the brightest, most able students are entered for single science GCSEs so they tend to get very high grades. As the brightest students there should be a high proportion of A*-C grades. The cohort taking single science papers isn't representative of the national cohort.

I'm not sure that very many state pupils are taking physics anyway, so that in itself could ensure a vanishingly small number of girls taking. The cure to my mind is to improve the teaching of sciences in state schools full stop, not to focus on girls as a group. Pupils are likely to be realistic in their choices at A level and if their science education to 16 has been woeful, they will realise that A level is a bit too much for them.

I don't have the A level stats but it appears the porblem starts before A level.
In England at GCSE this year 79290 boys took Physics and only 69889 girls.
Interestingly there was a slight gender inbalance in the results with 16% of boys receiving an A and 21% of girls. Even more stiking is 91% of pupils managed A-C.

Is there any point taking physics though if you don't want to do a physics degree/become a physics teacher?

You could say that about any subject though. That's like saying there's no point studying any A Level subjects unless you're going to do further study or become a teacher.

(And I'm not even going to comment on the masculine and feminine subjects comment....)

Jesus wept. That advert is beyond depressing. I am doing learning science all wrong.

I did A level physics 15 years ago, i was the only girl in the class and the only one not doing maths. The teacher made us watch a video of a woman running topless to illustrate the concept of oscillation. I quite liked being the only girl but nobody seemed to realise that the reason i was behind the others was that i hadnt done the mechanics in maths that they had!

I dropped out before sitting the exam and have always regretted it. I am planning on sitting AS level physics in the summer!

Didn't you see the cracking advert about girls in science for the EU, Frieda? It thought shoes were really important....

It made DD very cross.

I'm an architect, I don't think I wear unfashionable shoes

We chose our daughter's secondary school partly BECAUSE 3 girls sat physics last year (out of 8) - the other 3 secondaries in the area had no girls sitting physics OR chemistry. Two of them had no physics entries at A level at all....

The jobs that lead on from physics A level are portrayed as being only for people who wear unfashionable shoes. I'm sure that has something to do with it.

Slubber

Mumzy - and the downside was she was never short of boyfriends.

Bonsoir - it's taught right from year 1. It's just not called physics.

My DD was only one of 3 girls in a class of 20 taking Higher Physics (Scotland.) There are 4 girls in her class of 400 (engineering at uni). It's shocking.

Anyone doing A level physics at our school also had to do first year A level maths as the mechanics part tied in. They were allowed to drop it after AO level. I did further maths also.

I loved Physics at school but couldn't take A level as it clashed with Economics. I wonder how many schools have female Physics teachers? Could that have something to do with it?

Be nice if I could spell Physics.

Sorry, link again: www.amazon.co.uk/John-Adams-Hot-Wires-Electronics/dp/B0006SK3WG

I went to an all girls school and did Physics and Maths at A level with a full class. I was also taught by two female Pysics teachers (we had plenty of male teachers in the school) and one female and one male maths teacher.

If you want to get children interested in physics at an early age you could do worse than get this: www.amazon.co.uk/John-Adams-Hot-Wires-Electronics/dp/B0006SK3WG

6yo Ds was given it by my mum and loves it - and friends' 10/11yo girls who came round spent all afternoon on it making lie detectors and burglar alarms etc. Brilliant fun.

It saddens me hugely. I'm a physicist, and I love how physics is what underpins everything in our universe. Physics is not dull dry and boring, and though of course to study at high level you stop just having the 'big picture' and see the detail, it is beautiful.
Its nothing to do with my chromosomes, but due to good teaching by people who loved science (not by any means the norm), and having the chance to see what physics is really about.

I could get on my high horse about the media representation of scientists too, but I'm in a meeting where I'm using physics to save lives an all.

I did physics, pure maths and chemistry in 1985. Physics was by far the easiest, it seemed all you had to do was learn equations. I was the only girl in the physics class and it felt really liberating. Although the concepts were interesting up to a point, it seemed to get detached from the actual application of physics and just turn into maths. Long term biology would have been far better, I did a chemistry degree and have worked in biochemical fields ever since.

Also dsis degree made her somewhat of a rarity and got her into some amazing wellpaid jobs again she was completely outnumbered by male colleagues