GDST in the news – Summer 2017

Welcome to our round-up of media coverage of the GDST over the past few months.

Following on from the success of our 2017 Annual Conference, an article in the BBC News quoted Cheryl Giovannoni’s belief that parents and teachers should not wrap girls in cotton wool.

The Mail Online released a story regarding comments on girl pupils being far stronger, resilient and feistier than we realise, whilst also reassuring us that the girls know how to cope with both sexting and ‘predatory boys’.

A similarly themed article was also published in The Telegraph, noting that girls are feisty and we don’t give them enough credit, with Cheryl Giovannoni adding that they should be encouraged to take the same sorts of risks as boys. This story also appeared in the print edition of The Telegraph.

Released in The Times both online and in print, an article on how an Old Girls’ club will give private pupils a leg-up, refers to the GDST Alumnae Network initiative to link teenage girls with roughly 70,000 former pupils.

On the topic of ‘Old girls’, The Telegraph also ran a story expressing how it’s time for the Old Boys to make way for the Old Girls and why every woman should be part of an Old Girls’ network. It was also printed.

The Metro spoke to Rachel Wibberly and Jenny Raw, students of Nottingham Girls’ High School who had visited the United Nations, to talk about the future of feminism – and they were amazing.

Rachel and Jenny also wrote an article for HuffPost UK recounting their experiences of going to the United Nations to discuss gender stereotyping. And Rachel wrote a further article for HuffPost explaining why every young person’s vote was paramount in the general election.

We Are the City posted an article with Cheryl Giovannoni, GDST CEO, discussing the need for more women in tech.

Dr Kevin Stannard, the GDST’s Director of Innovation & Learning, has a regular column in the TES. You can read a selection of his recent articles on its website:

• ‘Teaching children about the new digitally-demanding world is now the most important thing schools can do’
• ‘I worry about political interference in the grade boundaries of the new GCSEs’
• ‘The ability to learn is not what makes us human; it is the ability to teach’
• ‘The world has moved on, leaving public exams behind’
• ‘Universities need to build bridges to schools to improve access to HE for poorer pupils’

Jane Lunnon, Head of Wimbledon High School, was mentioned in The Times as she discussed the concept of girls being left out of ‘techno-nerd’ revolution. She added that it is “important to generate excitement for the subject by reminding girls of the imagination and creativity in computing.”