Creating a teaching approach designed for girls to thrive

In May this year (2024) the Guardian published an article showing that pupils in girls’ schools in England outperform girls with similar records and backgrounds in mixed schools equivalent to 10% higher GCSE grades in 2023. In contrast, boys at all-boys’ schools received no exam boost compared with their peers at mixed schools. This is a remarkable statistic which shows the academic benefit (alongside the clear social benefits) of having girls in the classroom, and perhaps why more and more leading boys’ schools (such as Westminster) are going, or have gone, co-ed.

But what is it about an all-girls’ classroom that allows girls to thrive?

This was exactly the question I asked myself when I became Head of Teaching and Learning at Woldingham two years ago. Woldingham prides itself on the range of opportunities it offers students, allowing them to ‘write their own story’ at the school, be it academic, sporting, music or any other interests or passions. I was tasked with capturing what makes girls thrive at Woldingham in an Empowered Learning teaching approach and settled on three main themes:

• Cultivating a love or passion for their subject (or all of them preferably!), to allow students to write their own story
• Creating independent learners, to ensure students are real world ready when they leave the Wold
• Catering for all individual student needs, to allow them to flourish in every class

The approach was underpinned by the best teaching practice from Tom Sherrington’s WALKTHRUS series and Woldingham’s Sacred Heart Teaching tradition (in particular JanetStuart, one of Woldingham’s Sacred Heart founding Sisters, who in the early 1900s wrote pedagogy for teaching girls).

Trying to understand teaching girls better, I read the GDST research titled ‘Effective pedagogies for girls’ learning’ (by Mike Younger from the Faculty of Education, Cambridge, 2018). It was fascinating to read that many teachers who had taught in mixed or boys’ only environments did not feel that they were conscious of adopting a different teaching approach in their current, girls-only school. However, in their discussions of pedagogy, teachers frequently made reference to what girls needed and to the attitudes and characteristics of girls: the need for security, patience, consistency and fairness, “a clearly set out routine”, “a clear summary of the lesson and a coherent set of notes”, “to develop a trusting relationship with the teacher”, “encouragement to have a go and risk it”. It is almost as though these characteristics of girls’ learning are so ‘taken-for granted’, so assumed, that they were almost sub-conscious and latent (p.22) with teachers explicitly or implicitly adjusting their teaching to ‘provide a secure environment for learning whilst at the same time building in challenges which increased girls’ resilience and criticality’ (p.23). The final analysis of classroom observations suggested that ‘some teachers have evolved an organically different teaching style in girls’-only classes, which recognises the need on occasions to give girls space to reflect, consider and develop answers and responses, to challenge girls to risk more willingly, to encourage them to be more assertive and robust, and to demand that they think outside the box’ (p.24). It must be noted also that ‘curriculum content and curricular focus was not gender specific’ (p.23) but the way it was conveyed was.

One significant difference noted is the degree of reassurance offered by teachers. Whether in History, Geography, Design Technology, Science or Mathematics, it was noticeable that, however confident the girls appeared, they frequently sought more assurance and security by asking many questions - some open, some closed, some high level, some low level. As a consequence, teachers took time and space to reassure, to reiterate, to clarify, responding openly and patiently to questions even when their reactions on occasions suggested that the girls were less confident in their own abilities than they ought to have been. Trying to ensure that the girls are more confident in their abilities is what an Empowered Learning classroom at Woldingham is all about and we combined the research on teaching girls with the WALKTHRUs to create an ideal Empowered Learning lesson to ensure girls thrive:

Now, much of above is common for what a ‘good’ lesson is in a mixed or single-sex school, the difference might be the importance placed on positive relationships, opportunities to collaborate and reassurance through guided practice or feedback that ensures they feel comfortable and are progressing. But it is not just in the classroom that we aimed to empower - the culture has to go beyond this to allow students to write their own story.

Creating a culture of empowerment

At Woldingham, we have a group of Empowered Learning student reps who meet every half term to give feedback on teaching and what support they might need to further flourish. These Empowered Learning Reps also put together some top revision tips that they presented back to their year groups. The research shows that peer to peer advice is more effective than teacher to student. The Reps therefore have a twofold role: to empower students to have a voice, and also inform staff so they can empower students further in their teaching. Creating opportunities for students and staff is what Empowered Learning is all about, and I am delighted to say that over 40% of staff have run CPD sessions for other staff. This might be a digital lunch and learn on using OneNote or leading a staff development session on one of the WALKTHRUS to an assigned faculty group so that staff can learn from other staff in a similar area. This idea is further enhanced by the fact that all staff have a Peer Partner within their faculty but outside their department, to talk about their teaching with and observe each other to learn from each other (assigned at the beginning of the year). One key element has also been the coaching culture we developed at Woldingham (see how we went about this here) which allows staff to be more receptive to discussing how they can improve, being truly listened to and believe they can find the answers.

One of my favourite things as a teacher is how students consistently surprise you with how talented they are and how much they can achieve. This also rings true for colleagues, you just need to find opportunities for them to shine. I thought I would end this article by sharing some of the superb thought pieces my excellent Woldingham colleagues wrote for the Empowered Learning teaching approach:

• Chris Kellaway, Director of Empowered Learning, ‘Empowered Learning is a student-centred, teacher-led approach’; ‘What would an Empowered Learning lesson look like?’; ‘How do we cater for girls’ learning needs?’; 'Mode B Teaching - creating independent learners'
• Dr Jessica Dixon, Head of Classics, ‘Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction: what all teachers should know’ & ‘The importance of motivation to help students love their subject’
• Gail Haythorne, Assistant Head Personal Growth, ‘Catering for neurodivergent students ensures everybody benefits’ & ‘Catering for quiet confidence’
• Tom Rattle, Head of Digital Learning, ‘Understanding how digital enables better teaching’
• Katharine Payne, Head of Kritikos, ‘How we support our Kritikos students’ & ‘The Perfectionism Paradox: Exploring Perfectionism in More Able Learners’
• Tania Carrilero, Head of EAL, The EAL Student Journey
• Rose Moorvan, Head of SEND, The SEND Student Journey
• Stacey Williams, Head of Drama, Creativity – A Student’s Super Power
• Annie Bond, Head of House, Flipped Learning
• Roy Peachey, Head of Sophia, A Philosopher, a Children’s Novelist, and Empowered Learning - An approach to pedagogy at Woldingham
• Paul Rickard, Head of Science, Cognitive Load Theory: a pupil’s working memory
• Ruth McKenna, Director of Studies & Head of Maths, ‘Teaching Girls STEM’