Girls and Physics. It's too hard for them. ?

Joseanne

She might be a bit peculiar in how she expresses herself, and maybe she wasn't expecting to say what she did, but why tear someone apart who is naking an effort to improve the enjoyment of learning in her own school? She has apologised unlike many would have.

Because she is the national Commissioner for Social Mobility, she was unprepared for the interview and lacked coherency.

This is what the Women and Equalities Committee wrote when she was appointed:

"While we admire and value robustness, as Chair of the Social Mobility Commission she will need to demonstrate her ability to listen to, and work collegiately with, colleagues and stakeholders with whom she will not always agree. We note her relatively narrow field of experience in secondary education. Her answers to our questions invariably returned to the importance of education, particularly the setting of high expectations and standards of behaviour, and parental responsibility. Her vision for social mobility beyond the sphere of education was much less clear."

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmwomeq/782/78203.htm#_idTextAnchor008

It's concerning that somebody whose role is to increase social mobility appears so ignorant of issues outside her own school and then lies about what she said.

She has not apologised, she has told everyone they misunderstood her.

And she said girls didn't fancy Physics because of the hard maths. Not the boys. Just the girls. Which she obviously still thinks is true. Maybe her school is lovely, I have no idea. But when it comes to STEM, she's living in the fifties.

*making not naking .... unless she was laying herself bare!

She might be a bit peculiar in how she expresses herself, and maybe she wasn't expecting to say what she did, but why tear someone apart who is naking an effort to improve the enjoyment of learning in her own school? She has apologised unlike many would have.

I thought it was funny in the interview where she said she wasn't a politician and she hadn't planned what she was going to say. Does she seriously mean that she hadn't prepared for that meeting? Not really much point in her being there then.

She also lied when she said that they have been trying to do something about the issue with girls opting for physics at Michaela. In the original interview, she blethered on about poetry and philosophy and said she was relaxed about girls not opting for physics.

Jane43

Joseanne

But growstuff she is talking about her own school which is co - ed. She is referring to "our girls" and "they" means her pupils. She knows their wishes and their capabilities.

You are right, she was on Politics Live today and said that the quote in the news was about the pupils in her school but before that she spoke about schools in general for about 20 minutes and this part of what she had to say has been ignored.

Did you actually watch the interview? I linked to it before. She waffled on about education in general, but didn't address the issues.

For 40 years I've been in STEM. Anybody in this area with half a brain knows that you never say "girls don't fancy physics/maths because its hard." Nobody ever says boys dislike languages because of all that hard translation they have to do, do they? Saying that about girls and maths perpetuates the myth that maths is too hard for girls. No excuses, that's what she said.

Liz Saville Roberts got it right on Politics Live today. If you take on a public role, you have to be aware of what you are saying and not just run off at the mouth. And that's what Birbalsingh did.

Female scientists were on this hours before the media were, because female scientists know the score. Actually, male ones too. Birbalsingh was trying to say that the media had blown it up of all proportion and were having a go at her because of her reputation and politics. Well that's something else she got wrong.

Joseanne

But growstuff she is talking about her own school which is co - ed. She is referring to "our girls" and "they" means her pupils. She knows their wishes and their capabilities.

You are right, she was on Politics Live today and said that the quote in the news was about the pupils in her school but before that she spoke about schools in general for about 20 minutes and this part of what she had to say has been ignored.

DD got A levels in English, Theatre Studies and Media Studies. She then did a degree in acting and worked in the media for nearly 20 years.

In her late 30s she decided to study for an OU degree in physics, but extended it to get a degree in science and technology, and changed her career completely. After working for some years in a science research centre writing funding proposals, she became a managment consultant specialising in Business Wargaming. No, I do not know what that is either.

The point is that anyone can become anything if they want to, including going from an arts based media career, to hard science and then on to something else, if they have the determination, curiousity and ability. Girls who turn from science at 18, may well be fascinated by it at 30.

DD's biggest asset since she stepped from the creative arts to science has been that she unites in herself the 2 culture s C P Snow wrote about and Varian referred to and people like her are very thin on the ground and sought after.

volver

If backtracking was an Olympic sport...

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c3s2tr?msclkid=3953ad19c70311ec83cc7c81be6e357b

Poor woman, being picked on.

"I didn't need to go to the Select Committee." Oh yes, she did! She's been appointed as Chair of the Social Mobility Commission. They call on people who are expected to be expert witnesses and know what they're talking about. Birbalsingh quite clearly didn't - maybe she should stick to running her school.

If backtracking was an Olympic sport...

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0c3s2tr?msclkid=3953ad19c70311ec83cc7c81be6e357b

Poor woman, being picked on.

I retired 5 years ago from a secondary academy, which is part of a multi-academy trust. I don't think it had to do deals with local schools like local authority schools do (we'll give your kid a fresh start if you take one of ours).

Cross post Glorianny. Sorry!

MaizieD

As I recall, the key takeaway from her address to a tory conference was her critique of discipline in schools. Her argument was that discipline was so generally poor that it stopped children learning. She started Michaela to 'prove' that children respond well to discipline and an orderly school frees them up to learn. As I said earlier, she is a highly contentious figure in the Education world.

I'm still interested in growstuff's earlier comment about her school's intake. I've seen her criticised for various things, but not that the school's 'success' may be due to its intake.

Maizie The point is that parents do have some choice where they send their offspring. They know about the school's draconian rules and the fact that special needs support is almost non-existent. They also know that paying for school lunch is compulsory.

Therefore, the school attracts a certain sort of parent, who will support the school's rules, doesn't have a child with behavioural issues and has enough money to pay for school lunches.

In any "bog standard" comprehensive it's the children of parents who won't support the school's discipline policies and the children with behavioural issues who cause most of the problems. I know of a number of schools with these kind of backdoor selection policies, who the leave the "problem pupils" to the other schools in the area.

PS. This thread isn't supposed to be about Michaela, but what Birbalsingh actually said about girls and physics.

Well I thought we might be talking about inspiring the next generation here, yes in all subjects.

I thought we were talking about a woman who has the ear of government and who gave us her completely unqualified views on why girls don't do physics. Views which have been roundly criticised and disproved by actual real STEM people in the 24 hours since she gave her views.

I personally have no axe to grind about her methods of education. Not my area. But I know for sure she doesn't know why girls don't do science, although that hasn't stopped her shouting about it.

Petera

volver

Oh it must be a thing though. I see they want their science teachers to own the classroom too.

It probably it means they want the teachers to pay the rent and rates...

And do the painting and decorating, not to mention the cleaning.

I think if you opened a school with strict discipline and excluded all the real problem children it would be quite easy to raise standards and have excellent results (In fact it probably happens in most comprehensives in middle class areas which have waiting lists and are over subscribed). You simply exclude problem children, Of course you simply pass the problem on to someone else and create sink schools usually in areas where there are more disadvantaged students and low numbers. Pretending you can solve the problems everywhere by such methods isn't defendable.

volver

Oh it must be a thing though. I see they want their science teachers to own the classroom too.

Well I thought we might be talking about inspiring the next generation here, yes in all subjects. Most often the teacher is the method, rapport with the pupils is paramount and, if owning the teaching space means good classroom management, including discipline, then bring it on.

volver

Oh it must be a thing though. I see they want their science teachers to own the classroom too.

It probably it means they want the teachers to pay the rent and rates...

Glorianny I remember her from her Miss Snuffy days, and have never known how many years she had under her belt, or where she'd worked.

Joseanne
I’m with you. Every school should have a Bobby Seagull. Shame we can’t clone him ?

Oh it must be a thing though. I see they want their science teachers to own the classroom too.

I just always wanted somebody who understood how to communicate partial differential equations or complex numbers.

No classroom owning required.

I'd be happy for my DGDs to be taught by an inspirational Maths Teacher of this ilk.
We are looking for a Maths Teacher with a lot of personality, someone who wants to own their classroom and have vibrant and authentic relationships with their pupils.
Michaela vacancies.