Blog posts for ‘Role Models’ 
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The family that eats together...
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Categories: Family Relationships, Health, Parenting, Role Models
The Telegraph last week reported research from nutritional experts in the United States which found that children from homes where the family regularly sits down to eat together tend to eat more healthily than in homes where mealtimes are not considered family events. Such children are also less likely to be overweight, and tend to do better at school.
The research from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, analysed results from 68 separate studies before coming to these...
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Why we have too few women leaders...
Monday 2 April 2012
Categories: Careers, Higher Education, Role Models
If you have 17 minutes to spare sometime, do watch this inspiring video of Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, talking about the position of women in the workplace, and think how we are preparing our daughters to face the personal and professional challenges they will meet in the future.
Sheryl bemoans the fact that there are insufficient numbers of women at the top in so many key professions and positions of responsibility. She suggests we need to change this...
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The secret to boosting children's reading & writing abilities?
Sunday 25 March 2012
Categories: Education, Family Relationships, Parenting, Role Models
Once again the reading and writing abilities of our children are being questioned. According to Ofsted’s new chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw one in five children are still leaving primary school with inadequate literacy standards and will “have difficulty accessing the secondary curriculum”. In other words they will start senior school at a significant disadvantage. Sir Michael proposes to tackle the situation by raising the targets for schools. Does this make sense? Does raising...
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Girls, maths and the "Cinderella attitude"
Monday 12 March 2012
Categories: Education, Media Influence, Role Models
I disagree entirely with Lady Conran‘s assertion that girls deliberately choose to limit their capabilities in Mathematics, believing their ‘prince charming’ will deal with that sort of thing. (The Times 8/3/12)) The standards achieved by girls at GCSE are very similar to those achieved by boys and there is no evidence that girls are more likely to dismiss the importance of mathematics than boys.
Parents and society do not help the image of the subject; the readiness of a large...
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Maths - geekdom or artistry?
Friday 3 February 2012
Categories: Education, Media Influence, Role Models
I wonder if it’s time for a rethink. I’ve always believed that the reason many girls – particularly those in co-ed schools – tend to dislike maths is because anything they find difficult brings about a fear of failure. I have taught girls maths for years and experience tells me that, to succeed, girls need to feel safe – safe to make mistakes, safe to admit their misunderstandings and thus safe to fail.
I thought this meant that the main thing girls need to succeed in maths is...
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Follow your star...
Thursday 22 December 2011
Categories: Careers, Education, Role Models
Now girls have a role model who parents will heartily endorse – Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock – a female Professor Brian Cox. She may not have been in a rock band in a previous incarnation but she has triumphed over her dyslexia to become the lead scientist at a British space technology company. Dr Pocock now tours inner city schools urging pupils, and especially girls, to study science.
Appropriately in this festive season her message is one of hope. As Dr Pocock goes round schools breaking...
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Seeking role models for women's sport
Wednesday 14 December 2011
Categories: Extra curricular, Health, Media Influence, Role Models
I am encouraged by the recent press coverage in response to the BBC Sports Personality shortlist, particularly concerning the responsibility the media have for raising the profile of women’s sport.
Last week I turned to the section in a Sunday newspaper laughingly entitled sport. Of the 20 pages dedicated to sport I found no mention of women other than an article in which an American skier in her twenties had accompanied a much younger skier to his high school dance. The point? ...
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Toxic childhood?
Wednesday 19 October 2011
Categories: Growing up, Media Influence, Parenting, Role Models
Surely parents should pay attention when over 200 teachers, academics, authors and charity leaders issue dire warnings? A group of them is urging the government to take action (The Telegraph Sept 11) because they believe that children’s wellbeing and mental health is being undermined by the pressures of modern life and by the culture of “too much too soon”.
I would argue differently –
What really is childhood? – dear little innocent girls and boys playing innocent games until...
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'Women earn more than men': should we be excited?
Friday 7 October 2011
Categories: Careers, Role Models
A recent article in The Independent by Richard Garner, the Education Editor, drew attention to the content of this year’s Elizabeth Johnson Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Physics. Betty Johnson, who died in 2003, was a great supporter of women in the sciences, and in her honour, this lecture this year was given by Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. She spoke in part about figures published by the UK Office of National...
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Girls, science and glass ceilings?
Thursday 25 August 2011
Categories: Careers, Education, Role Models
A recent article in The Telegraph on ‘Science stereotypes’ claimed that “more girls are opting for science subjects, but stubborn prejudices persist”. It explained how women have been awarded only 16 out of the 540 Nobel Prizes in Science, and how only 10% of the membership of the Royal Society is female. Dame Athene Donald, professor of Physics at Cambridge University, said: ‘Too many young women are discouraged – actively or passively – from pursuing their dream of a...
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