Building Girls’ Confidence In my (lower) mixed ability sets I have observed: a real ‘I can’t do it’ attitude A reluctance to speak in front of the boys A fear of failure A lack of self belief at the core of the problem However, higher attaining girls were also exhibiting: A lack of self belief Crippling anxiety about not getting it right Feelings of low self esteem linked to fear of failure Quietly getting on with tasks and work, but even with amazing thoughts and ideas written down, not putting their heads above the parapet and sharing these My other observations: Bolshie, show off behaviour, sometimes rude and arrogant as a way of avoiding work or drawing attention away from themselves – using avoidance tactics to mask the problem In my Higher ability set observations: Lack of confidence still prevalent, however results in highest ability not continuing at A-Level for fear of ‘getting it wrong’ Also, crippling anxiety around failure reducing effective focus Are there any other ways lacking confidence manifests itself that you have seen?

Building Girls’ Confidence Why do we want to address this? So that girls: Are equal Are valued Have a strong voice in our class and in later life Know that this isn’t how it should be Allow them to challenge this Increase their confidence Contribute equally Do you have any other reasons why we want to address this? Do you have any concerns about this growing, as opposed to reducing?

Building Girls’ Confidence A Case Study Y10 to Sixth Form Student who is classified as a low ability girl Doesn’t speak in class at the start of Y10, feels intimidated by the large group of boys to the ratio of girls & doesn’t enjoy English Something switched – built good relationship with teacher – understood worries over spelling were pointless & holding her back – English became her favourite GCSE subject Sixth Form – takes English Lang at A-Level What she says: Don’t be worried about rushing through the tasks and work – make sure you understand it and then move on It is not as hard as you think, as long as you persevere It doesn’t matter what other people get – you should work hard for yourself Can you think of an example where you can celebrate the growth in confidence of a student? How did it happen?

Building Girls’ Confidence The Girls’ I surveyed responded honestly and with care – I asked my fellow house tutors to get their students to do a paper survey – see results on the document I have given you. How did I approach this? All year groups (no specificity on the survey completely anonymous) Feedback from tutors: the students really wanted to do the survey and do it well and felt it was an important issue. I attempted to survey ¼ of the school cohort I received ___ responses 1 student is extremely unconfident 10 not very confident 29 feel fairly confident 10 not sure 11 very confident 5 extremely In the booklet you have a full breakdown of what the students say and importantly this shows that knowing your students is absolutely imperative. Skim Read the information – Is there anything that surprises you? Do you want to discuss or mention anything?

Building Girls’ Confidence Overall conclusions from the survey Most prevalent was the fact that girls prefer to be with their friends as this gives them confidence They like the teacher to challenge poor behaviour and want to be able to learn in the class Boy/Girl seating and using quiet girls next to problematic boys is not helpful for the girls Classroom culture is of the highest importance to girls – calm, friendly and supportive environments work to make them feel more confident and challenged Lots of girls are particularly worried about getting things wrong and this affects whether they will speak out in class – must keep this in mind Skim Read the information – Is there anything that surprises you? Do you want to discuss or mention anything?

Building Girls’ Confidence Some Strategies to apply Soft skills – start by building strong interpersonal relationships with the students you identify as being lacking in confidence Acknowledge the problem – E.g. “I recognise that you don’t want to speak in front of the class/boys etc…” Offer a solution – E.g. “I’ll come back to you when you have a chance to think about your idea” Quietly praise the positives – this non-threatening quiet approach seems to work better Deploying T A support – have found this helps the students get started quicker and feel more confident about what to do and how to do it Using examples of excellence – choose a good example from a student – take a picture and use as a model (ask them if they mind everyone knowing who it is) promote the idea that this is excellent and what all should be aiming towards as the next step Promote oral speaking skills with girls – Okay we’ve heard a lot from the boys – next choose a girl to answer Use random selection for questions When circulating go to the less confident girls first to give them the confidence Challenge confidence with them – discuss reasons for them to be more confident What other strategies do you use that help to build confidence in the girls you teach?

Building Girls’ Confidence Thank you for listening Also, with all discussions of gender focused strategies and implementations there is the acknowledgement that these can work for both genders’. The knock on effect is often an improvement in both genders’ confidence when you regularly apply the strategies in your classroom. Certainly, this is my experience with a range of strategies over time. How far would you agree with this?