Encouraging a dialogue for change - Will Goldsmith
In an article for School Management Plus magazine, Head of Bedales Will Goldsmith argues against single sex education as a response to testimonies of harassment and violence in UK schools, and explains how boys and girls at Bedales are addressing the issue together.
In early 2021, the Everyone’s Invited website began publishing testimonies of women and girls who had suffered harassment and sexual violence in UK schools and universities. The website prompted a review of the issue by Ofsted and chief inspector Amanda Spielman observed that many of the testimonies reveal that girls have not felt able to report serious incidents of sexual abuse to their schools. More recently, the chief executive of the Girls’ Schools Association has said that parents of teenage girls are increasingly likely to see moving their daughter to a co-educational sixth form as a risk.
Will believes that the chief inspector is right to stress the need for schools to take a lead on this issue, but that segregating girls away from boys is not the right response. Rather, he says, encouraging students of all sexes to discuss, together, their experiences and chart a way forward appears more fruitful, however challenging it may be.
At Bedales, the new Dialogue for Change initiative has encouraged pupils to participate in themed safe sessions in which they have shared their experiences, concerns and hopes. Designed using principles of international conflict resolution, the process is now at the stage where a working party of students of all sexes is developing changes to school policies and procedures.
Will says: “I do not assume that what we are doing will eradicate the many tensions and misunderstandings that can accompany the rise of sexual maturity in young people. However, I am certain that it will help them to better understand each other, to think and act in more informed and sophisticated ways and, importantly, for the school to better conceptualise and discharge its responsibilities to them.”
The full article can be read on the School Management Plus website here.