A small thing, but I am proud of myself!

[iloveithere]

I have just been to DDs merit assembly. All the children in it were getting certificates for 'excellent contributions in science lessons'
One child in each class is chosen. I was very proud of my DD and enjoyed the assembly.

However, out of 12 children, only 2 were girls.

After, I approached the Head and told him how disappointed I was that girls were not better represented in the assembly, and that he should consider looking at why girls were not making excellent contributions to science lessons.

(end of self congratulatory post )

Well done to your DD, and to you for asking the question. What did the Head say?

He said he is just learning about the school (been there since Jan) and these assemblies are throwing up all sorts of issues about skills gaps in the school. So hopefully he was/is now aware and will think about it a bit.

hurrah for you, and sounds like a reasonable response from the head. and well done DD

Sounds as though you've got a good new head there, and full marks to you too, OP, for making a very relevant comment. (Congrats to your daughter!)

I wonder though, is it a skills gap or a perception gap. Are girls' contributions to science lessons simply not perceived as being as good as the boys?

There's quite a bit of research on this

Can I just have a historical rant (yes, it still rankles after 30 bloody years)... In my upper 6th year, we joined up with the boys' school next door. The only science prize which should, on merit, have gone to a boy was the biology prize. The girls had a clean sweep of maths, further maths, physics and chemistry (or at least should have done). Except that the school couldn't cope with that so they split the maths prize and awarded it jointly to the girl who came top of the year and the boy who came... sixth!

Thanks Slug, that is a lot of reading, not sure I've got time for that, but I'll read the conclusion because it sounds like an interesting paper.

Lurcio, I'm not surprised you are still cross, even after 30 years, that is a dreadful thing to so, almost designed to make the girls feel like their efforts don't count.

By the way, forgot to say, "Well done!!!" Glad the head is listening too.