Girls missing out again

This is appalling. WTF did the school think it was doing? Definitely complain

I agree that in the current climate this is probably what needs to happen, but the words boy and girl also refer to the immutable characteristic of sex in humans and the fact that some people have decided to instead use those same words to describe a concept of gender identity doesn't change that.

There are other words to describe concepts of gender identity and gender, we shouldn't support the co-option/removal of sex based language.

I would a formal compliant in to the school especially if it was a student vote. Boys will always win that

Apparently, a pupil complained that the Head Boy Head Girl label was discriminatory against pupils who didn't identify as such.

So... they just need to make it 'head pupil' (female) and 'head pupil' (male). That's fully inclusive, accurate and fair. If sixth formers don't understand what the words female and male mean and that they're immutable, then they need some remedial biology lessons.

The school could set it up as vote for one boy candidate and one girl candidate. 2 posts, 2 separate elections. It is very much an issue with the school.

If it was a student vote, how is this an issue with the school. It’s always been the same at schools, students make the decisions with regards to prefects and head boy/girl. You’re creating issues where there isn’t one, you can’t influence the voting of the individual students.

@Codlingmoths

Seriously? They will have bosses and colleagues etc their whole life, this is basic societal structure. Or do you want them to go live off grid and declare themselves an independent sovereignty?

Yes, their whole ADULT life. And those adults will be skilled indivudal who have rightly gained influence by excelling in their respective fields - whether it be medicine, law, technology, science, education or whatever.

It won’t be some kid on the basis that he/she is a bit more more extroverted and popular you and/or did better in his Year 9 Maths test thanks to his daddy buying him a private tutor.

The whole point of school for me is that is where young people should be allowed to develop in a relatively stress free space, experiment with their talents and think creatively. Away from the arbitrary judgements and popularity contests that increasingly define the talent vacuum that is our political system. These Head Kid popularity contests with appointed “peer leaders” based on arbitrary criteria is literally the worst thing you could possibly do to kids.

I also agree with this but I think op needs to pick her battles at this point.

At my current school, the head boy girl pair are invited to give regular whole-school assemblies. More than one a term. Last year's pair gave the most banal, trite-slogan filled assemblies ever, full of meaningless abstract concepts, giving "wordly" advice to the younger students about how "time is transient" or "success is personal", peppered with endless anecdotes of their "life experiences" - they had no life experiences, they didn't even know they'd been born.

In my day (haha) head boy/girl was purely used as an unpaid labour, giving tours to parents and suchlike. Prefects were used to supervise younger students' prep time in the evenings or supervise the cleaning rota. (Those were the good old days when students had to contribute to cleaning the lunch hall!)

Now it's done to boost egos and borderline oxbridge candidates' applications

I would tell the school that the message they are giving both boys and girls is that (1) girls are inferior and don’t deserve representation (2) when issues of gender identity raise their heads, girls must lose out and suck that up. Neither of these messages will promote inclusivity. Their approach is divisive and wrong.

Seriously? They will have bosses and colleagues etc their whole life, this is basic societal structure. Or do you want them to go live off grid and declare themselves an independent sovereignty?

I can’t take this Head Boy/Girl thing seriously at all. I think it’s a terrible way to socialise kids. We should be educating kids out of this mindset of some people are better/more important than others, not educating them into it. 100 kids get to feel inferior all so that three of four kids and their parents can get a nice ego boost, and the school gets to pretend it’s a little Eton.

I would definitely say that 'banter ' makes them not good head boy candidates!

Tell her to reply to the boys saying they aren't superior but just so overly sensitive to their poor egos and how powerful women are becoming that they need to keep doing things like this to make themselves feel better.
This has really annoyed me, girls again are being made invisible

Oh god, I'm so sorry, should have read the thread first. Cancel the cheque.

Can you screen shot some of the 'banter' as evidence of the consequences of decisions like this?

I would imagine the derogatory statements from the new head boys would render them unsuitable for the role as bringing the school into disrepute through non inclusive values/bullying

This is part of the pretence that girls and boys do not exist as separate types of human with very different experiences and needs. These differences become acutely apparent in adolescence and the way to deal with that is not to pretend that the differences don't exist - that just brushes problems under the carpet and makes it harder to talk positively about those differences- but to acknowledge those differences and to deal with any problems that arise because of them head on.

If pupil leaders are to represent the school and the interests of the pupils in that school, then it is vital that there is a head pupil of each sex, so that both sets of pupils know that that they have a chance of being a leader, whatever the social battles between the sexes, and because it is then clear that the school actually understands that the two sexes are different and that the different interests of both need to be represented.

Screenshot those SM comments. They will want evidence. This is toxic masculinity being demonstrated and the school has facilitated it. They should be ashamed.

I suppose it’s impossible that the boys just had better applications and gained more votes then?!

It's possible, but if it's causing a load of messages about girls being inferior, it seems unlikely. A good leader would not be allowing thst to go on.

I suppose it’s impossible that the boys just had better applications and gained more votes then?!

Perhaps the school have decided on two Head Pupils rather than HAVING to choose one of each gender? My old school I noticed on a recent visit does have a head boy and girl at the moment but sure are referred to as Head Pupils or something similar.

You just know that the student who complained about the roles being discriminatory in the first place was a girl though.

For this reason, I don’t understand why they have a school vote. It’s a popularity contest. I would allow campaigning and voting for nomination and then I would have a balanced board representing teachers, SLT, pupil year reps (ie students), and possibly governors, to make the final selection based on merit.

How sad that the successful boys are being so unpleasant.

Tell them you are sure they are expecting this so it won’t be a surprise that the parents and student s are communicating to the wider community that the school doesn’t support its girls, doesn’t feel the need to have girls represented at key levels , thinks the school captain positions are best held by all boys. say the optics are very clear and you’re going to put in a complaint of course but can’t not mention it, although you assume it’s a deliberate decision to treat girls as second class citizens. That if you had your time again you would send dd somewhere else and many other parents see this toxic masculinity for what it is too.

Absolutely.
Tangible evidence of the impact their decision has had.

As a result of this decision the girls are now receiving sexist comments. Are the boys who didn’t get positions getting called inferior - highly unlikely? In any other situation would this be acceptable. The school need to be informed on what is going on - they created the problem and they need to deal with it.