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

I know how big 83 million is, 83,000,000. But I can't imagine it in my head! And please don't call her anti-feminist.

But even there, she still seems to be fixated on her own school rather than the wider picture across the country, especially in other deprived areas.

PS. I watched the entire session and your revisionism is laughable.

I do not like people to be silenced who are doing a lot of good ...

Who's being silenced? Certainly not Birbalsingh. I guess you mean the people who question her.

I do not like people to be silenced who are doing a lot of good, by the media.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/28/not-every-discrepancy-caused-discrimination/

These are her words:
'I hadn’t expected, when I was invited to the Commons science and technology committee earlier this week, to be engulfed by a media storm. During a discussion about diversity and inclusion in Stem subjects, I was asked why the girls at my school have shown a reluctance to study physics at A-level, despite them making up 65 per cent of our biology and chemistry students. One possible reason, I said, could be that they would rather avoid doing the hard maths that physics requires.

This was immediately interpreted by some bad-faith commentators as evidence of me harbouring “outdated stereotypes” and promoting “regressive tripe”.

Yet, if they had watched the entire session rather than a short social media clip, they would have noticed that I was talking specifically about my non-selective state school, Michaela, where GCSE results are among the best in the country. I spent 20 minutes explaining to the committee what I believe is needed across the country to support girls in choosing Stem subjects, but that has been ignored by much of the media.

We’ve worked hard at my school to eradicate the social factors that might have restricted underprivileged students, including girls, from reaching their best potential. We’ve brought in speakers and experts to counter the perceived lack of female or ethnic role models, and introduced high standards, such as requiring all pupils to study double or triple science to GCSE. Any neutral observer would agree that we’ve achieved a great deal of success in taking such actions: in 2019 our science department was ranked third best in the country and our maths department topped the chart.

It is in this context that I reflected on the choice made by some of my girls not to study physics. They are certainly not being hindered by a lack of ambition or talent or teaching, so something else was likely to be at play. Perhaps it is because girls are more inclined to be empathetic while boys are more systematic, as a large quantity of evidence suggests. This doesn’t mean women cannot be excellent physicists or mathematicians – indeed, there are plenty of examples, including many of my own female maths and science teachers. But some of our girls have made the decision not to specialise in a particular subject and have done so with a clear mind, with external factors controlled. That is not necessarily a problem.'

By the way, I hated Physics (my teacher was awful)and dropped it despite my teacher being strongly opposed to it. I am very good at Maths!! And my daughter made a career of it!

Regardless of who wrote it did you not think it was relevant that in 2018 a physics teacher questioned her methods for science and then in 2022 she's saying that girls don't want to do physics? Isn't it remotely possible that there is a problem there? *Glorianny
Well I do think it's important that people are free to have an opinion but the weight attached to that opinion will depend on the authority of that person in terms of experience and knowledge. To move the debate on a bit, the uptake of physics "A" level by gender is disproportionate in most schools not just the Michaela school and even in single sex schools I think there is still a bias towards Biology and Chemistry for those girls who want to study science. Sorry I can't post data on this it is just a guess, so again, very happy to be corrected. I honestly don't know if this is a problem or not, do we expect there to be an equal take up of every subject or is it just some subjects? If you look at the results for both Maths and Physics at "A" level, there isn't any evidence that girls are any less successful than the boys and those that go on to University do just as well, if not better. My own experience is that "A" level candidates choose the subjects that they enjoy but also that they feel they will get the best grades in.
Growstuff I have no personal knowledge of John Bald, just came across him on the internet and didn't post a link because I'm aware that I couldn't validate anything he'd said. my point, perhaps clumsily made, was that we can usually find something on the internet to support a view, often when people read it they accept it as evidence when it is often just an opinion, sometimes a biased ill-informed opinion.

Why are people still going on and on about what a good school she runs? What the discipline is like?

Simple answer - to distract from the real issues.

Interested

And don't patronise me by calling me a Conservative. I vote for different parties depending on their policies and the individuals' characters. You do realise that if people always voted for the same party, there would never be change of Government!

Wow! You don't say!

Interested My uncle was a head boy at Tiffin (Boys), I went to a direct grant grammar and most of my family went to either grammars schools or academic public schools. I'm well aware of the advantages those schools have.

I taught in comprehensive schools for over 30 years and my children went to good state comprehensives, where they excelled (I guess they're clever too). I'm well aware of the disadvantages those schools have. I know very well that good discipline is a key to good education, but your claims that only public schools (which Tiffin Girls isn't BTW) have good discipline is absurd.

What does this have to do with girls and physics?

If you look at Youtube video, she talks about a LOT about parental involvement

That's fine but what has it to do with her rôle as a Government adviser?

If you look at Youtube video, she talks about a LOT about parental involvement.

youtu.be/lXfIA8aLtN8

Why are people still going on and on about what a good school she runs? What the discipline is like?

She said something that was undeniably wrong, and she said it in a Select Committee. What she said is damaging to the expectations of girls in education. Many people who know that what she said was wrong, have told her why its wrong.

So what does she do? Listen to the people who actually know what they are talking about and revise her views? Or turn up on every media outlet she can, telling us all we didn't listen to what she was saying, then tweet about it ad nauseam for 4 days, telling us all she's being picked on?

And now we're told its political. Its not political. I don't have children, but if I did, I wouldn't let her anywhere near them. She's not a good role model. She doesn't think the truth matters and she has a victim complex.

George Orwell was right, wasn't he? Ignorance is strength.

And don't patronise me by calling me a Conservative. I vote for different parties depending on their policies and the individuals' characters. You do realise that if people always voted for the same party, there would never be change of Government!

What does this have to do with girls and physics?

Interested, my youngest went to Public School, the other 5 went to different State Schools. In the Public School, the classes were a little smaller, the teachers put in a lot of hours at the weekends for the sports, drama, music departments but the teachers were no better or worse than good State School Teachers. The difference from what I could see was that they were better supported.
The children who went to a "good state school" did well but things changed over the years with discipline getting harder to maintain because of new policies regarding entry. There were no minimum requirements for academic prowess but in the early years, the parents who wanted their children to go there were church goers with a respect for education. When the rules changed, the difference was acute. That said, I'm not sure they were really used to kids with problems so who is to know if it was the school's fault or the difficulties the kids were experiencing.
The others went to your average (under achieving) local Comp. If you had problems, a lot of work was directed at the under achievers, anybody else appeared to just float along! The discipline was dire, the inability to recruit and keep good staff hampered any measures to give a consistent approach.
Yes, discipline is key to a good education for all children and equally important in order to stop the burn out of good teachers who want to work in education.
Although I sent my son to Public School it was only after he had attended a state secondary school (an old High School) where the discipline was dire, teachers couldn't cope and the parental support was lacking. Let's not blame the teachers, let's start looking at the parents!

I'm fed up with the postcode lottery as regards schools. My daughters went to a Grammar school (Tiffin Girls). They had to compete for the very few places. They were clever. I would like all children to have the same education.

ALL state schools should have good discipline. My daughter did physics and Maths. However, many girls did not choose too. As far as I can see, I respect her and I'm glad she speaks for me and the future of children.

Interested

I'm fed up with this Labour and Conservative divide. How dare Labour patronise poor children. All children need schools with good discipline and good teachers. That's what Public schools provide.

Oh dear! Do you actually have the Conservative Party handbook in front of you? The Labour Party doesn't patronise poor children and it really isn't only public schools which provide good discipline.

What does this have to do with girls and physics?

I'm fed up with this Labour and Conservative divide. How dare Labour patronise poor children. All children need schools with good discipline and good teachers. That's what Public schools provide.

Interested

I'm very annoyed that people expect discipline in public schools but not in state schools, and that makes teaching impossible.

That's absolute nonsense! There are many state schools with good discipline and people certainly do expect it.

What does this have to do with girls and physics?

What do you mean by the bigotry of low expectations? I don't think many teachers believe in it either. Birbalsingh really isn't the only person who works hard to help pupils to succeed, although most of them don't have the means to get people to produce the kind of video you've linked to or have the contacts to do so. This is precisely what I meant when I wrote about inventing problems.

If she's so keen on all her pupils continuing with maths and physics, why didn't she say that in the Select Committee hearing and give some explanation why it isn't happening? It's not what she said. She said it didn't bother her and waffled on about poetry being important.

Birbalsingh has been appointed to an important national role and she's shown that she's not up to the job, which was a concern to the panel before she was even appointed.

I'm very annoyed that people expect discipline in public schools but not in state schools, and that makes teaching impossible.

Here's a video. Birbalsingh doesn't believe in the bigoty of low expectations. She would LOVE all of them to do Physics and Maths. But it doesn't always happen in her school. I couldn't agree more.

youtu.be/lXfIA8aLtN8

PS. There shouldn't be a comma between "solve" and "as".

Callistemon I know I sound like a conspiracy theorist (I'm not), but I'm very concerned that there's a group of people behind a number of changes which are happening in education and schools.

I don't think anybody could deny that there are some pupils who aren't getting a good deal, but it's not so easy to solve, as some people think because everybody has a different idea of what education should be about. Moreover, there's the issue about whether parents' and the state's ideas should be imposed on children.

What we now have in England is a group of people with very right-wing views about education, who are very powerful and have links with the media and the press. In many cases, their views aren't evidence-based. They are central to the right-wing culture war and claim all sorts of things about schools which just aren't true. They invent problems which need fixing and then claim to have solved the problems. What they actually want is to impose an idea of education which includes imparting knowledge (because they know best) without giving opportunities to question. That's what happens in countries such as China. They don't tolerate any rational debate about what's going on.