Anti-Sexism

The #MeToo and ‘Everyone’s Invited’ movements as well as the shocking murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa (amongst many others) have shone a light on the issues of sexism towards women, misogyny and sexual harassment which are sadly still engrained in our society. Recent educational research shows that these issues are prevalent in schools nationally. We know that men can also face sexism and misandry, including lack of support for men who experience domestic violence or men’s mental health not being valued.

Fifteen Sixth Form students, representing all genders and many different leadership positions, attended the ‘FREE & EQUAL? 2023: GENDER, POWER & MASCULINITY’ Conference this year with staff. We learned about healthy masculinity, pornography, gender stereotypes and behaviourism are affecting boys and men and society and embracing feminist leadership for collaborative mobilisations. Hearing from nationally renowned speakers such as Chris Hemmings, Gemma Aitchison, Jack Lynch and many more.

As a group this year, the students and teachers achieved several incredible things such as:

• Providing a whole school assembly on Men’s mental health and Movember
• Raising awareness of sexism through year 10 Student run CP sessions
• Creating a Waddfest stall on period poverty and Fundraising
• And creating a student survey to see what we as a school need to work on in raising awareness of sexism.

We hope to encourage more students to join the Anti-sexism group when having reached Sixth form and make more changes.