This project has grown out of an inquiry by an all-party parliamentary group into Boys’ Educational Underachievement. On average, boys underachieve, relative to girls at every stage in their education. This all-party group has been running an inquiry to understand the reasons and possible remedies. To find successful practice, the team emailed every school in the country asking if they had closed the gap for their boys. They initially heard from four secondary school-leaders who have closed the gap. Since then they are hearing from more.
Despite neither knowing each other nor using the same advice, they are doing similar things. The schools found that the underachieving of boys is not the boys’ fault, nor the result of their masculinity etc. It results from the different ways boys and girls are treated throughout their life by adults. Successful approaches treat both sexes equally. The policies implemented by these schools come under the following four headings (Culture & Ethos, Building Relationships and Home-School Links, Building Literacy, Behaviour & Consequences). Each school leader will introduce a section and explain what they have done at their school.
- Host: Meena Kumari Wood FCCT
- Mike Bell, APPG lead researcher
- Diane Henson, (former) Headteacher, Wheelers Lane Technology College, Birmingham.
- Caroline Barlow, Headteacher, Heathfield Community College, Heathfield, East Sussex
- Deneen Kenchington, Deputy Headteacher, Ferndown Upper School, Dorset
- Andy Eadie, Assistant Headteacher, Cardinal Langley RC High School, Middleton, Rochdale
Further information
- More details about the all-party group and their report.
- Summary of the interventions by 4 schools that have closed the gap for their boys.
- BBC R4 5-part series ‘About the boys’
- Danny Dyer documentary for Channel 4: ‘How to be a Man’
- Peer Mentor Video: https://youtu.be/jydnIaG_tl4
