Praise for school's work to tackle gender stereotyping

A school has been praised for their work to challenge gender stereotypes.

Pitmaston Primary School has been given an award by the leaders of Gender Action, an organisation that promotes and encourages the tackling of gender inequalities.

Leaders from the organisation visited the St. Johns School, meeting with parents, staff governors, and students before giving them a Beacon Award. The award congratulates schools that deliver exceptional teaching and learning.

The visitors discovered the school had worked to promote gender equality through staff training, updating the curriculum and the way the school teaches its pupils about the subject. They also encouraged pupils to engage with the project in a bid to make the school a “fairer place.”

Helen Griffin, gender action programme manager, said: “We were very impressed with the work Pitmaston has carried out and the way that gender equity is obviously so embedded in everything they do.”

Headteacher Kate Wilcock said: “Equality and inclusion have always been at the heart of our school but over the past few years we have placed an even greater emphasis on challenging gender stereotypes.

"This has included staff training, rigorous scrutiny of our curriculum, resources and learning environments and an enormous input from our wonderful pupils led by (teacher) Dr Sheehy.”

Amanda Sheehy, Pitmaston’s equality lead, said: “Our Gender Champions and Equality Champions in Years 5 and 6 have, for several years now, initiated a range of projects to make our school a fairer place and the results are impressive; pupil and stakeholder surveys show how invested our school community is in this endeavour.”

The Malvern Road school was also congratulated for its keen collaboration with other schools, where staff had shared their knowledge and good practice.