Thursday this week marked a momentous occasion – the hosting in school of a meeting and lunch for no fewer than five Headmistresses of St Mary’s Calne: past, present and future. Their tenure spanned a period of over 40 years, from Joyce Walters (now Joyce Lynn) (1972-1985) through Delscey Burns (1985-1996) and Carolyn Shaw (1996-2003) …
September 2012 archive
Sep 26
Live the message, be the message, communicate the message: how to ensure gender equality in the UK
I very much enjoyed my day last Friday at the isbi conference at Woldingham School. As part of the day, I was honoured to be invited to give a keynote address, in which I talked about the importance of communication, and I reflected for a few minutes as I did so on how the message …
Sep 23
Who does your daughter look up to?
I was very pleased on Thursday night of this week to take part in an ITV Tonight programme about role models for girls and young women, hosted by Penny Marshall: Who does your daughter look up to? This programme looked at the lack of role models for women, and the evidence that suggests that this …
Sep 20
We must put more women on screen
The new Director-General of the BBC, George Entwistle, has just gone on record as saying that the BBC has to do more to promote women in “serious” roles, or as newsreaders, in its programmes. In an interview reported in the Daily Mail on Wednesday, he said this: “We have made real progress in actively looking …
Sep 14
Children “too embarrassed” to read
A very worrying report was published last week by the National Literacy Trust and reported in the Daily Telegraph. The survey, of 21,000 children in primary and secondary education over the past few years, revealed a steady and concerning drop in the number of pupils reading in their spare time – from 38.1% in 2005 …
Sep 11
Talking of female role models …
… what an amazing set of role models we have had in our Team GB Paralympians! With the strains of Sunday’s final Closing Ceremony still ringing in our ears, and the images of fire still dancing before our eyes, as well as the images of the thousands of people who lined the streets of London …
Sep 08
Tulisa: a role model and inspiration for broken Britain?
I have been thinking a lot about female role models recently, and so was drawn to the Daily Mail online article this week which reported an interview in Look magazine with Tulisa Contostavlos, singer and X Factor judge. In the interview, she described herself as an “inspiration for broken Britain”; I was intrigued. I was …
Sep 05
Beauty and the beast – why we should just ban beauty pageants for children
Tuesday’s report in the Daily Mail of a beauty pageant in Lincolnshire has – quite understandably – created a storm online. Beauty pageants as a formalised concept seem somehow entirely outdated these days – parades of women marked out of ten for their looks and physical appearance, with barely a nod to their ‘personality’. These …
Sep 03
Back to school …
This poem brought a little lump to my throat, but a big smile to my face when I found it recently: WHOSE CHILD IS THIS? Author Unknown “Whose child is this?” I asked one day Seeing a little one out at play “Mine”, said the parent with a tender smile “Mine to keep a little …