Case Study: Raising Girls Achievement Project

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Case Study Raising Girls Achievement Project

• Why? Some secondary schools had identified girls
  underachievement

How? 7 schools were invited to participate in a
focused support project over 12 months starting
in September 2006. The work included study
skills, social skills, improving self esteem and
increasing motivation and participation. Each
school identified a project leader and a small
team including a teaching assistant (TA) to work
with 15 girls from Years 9 and 11. The project
teams met at each half term to discuss progress
and share ideas.

• Impact
• Half term reports showed a broad, creative range
  of ideas to support the girls, shared and
  replicated by other schools
• The action research model was used to develop
  knowledge about girls issues and ways to
  approach them
• Top ten tips to support girls achievement
• Questionnaire designed to gather information from
  girls for future groups

• Challenges
• Teachers had to invest a lot of their own time in
  extra curricular activities
• Regular meetings conflicted with busy school
  schedules
• Project leaders found it difficult gathering data
  from teachers not in the project
• Little research or guidance to support girls
  underachievement
• Overcome by
• Project leaders persisted because they wanted the
  project to work and were able to gather
  quantitative evidence to describe girls progress
• The group worked very hard at exploring what
  works

• Success
• Really positive feedback at all meetings
• All schools want to continue the project for
  another year

Adviser Lyn Johnson, Gender and Achievement.
Contact (lynjohnson_at_warwickshire.gov.uk) Partnersh
ips The National Breakthrough Programme.