International Women’s Day at Blackheath High

Blackheath High School, GDST, is well known to be passionate about girls’ education – designing an environment where their students can find their voice and develop all the skills they need to be the changemakers and leaders of the future. So it checks out that to celebrate International Women’s Day, the senior school was very excited to welcome BBC Radio London on Friday (7th March) morning for a live broadcast from a Year 7 Civil Discourse enrichment class with Deputy Head Academic, Ms Lewis.

The course – which is designed specifically to teach girls to use their voices with confidence and respect, and to disagree well – was the focus of the breakfast show feature, in time for International Women’s Day (Saturday 8th March) and this year’s theme ‘Accelerate Action’, which calls for gender equality to move at a greater pace.

You can hear the broadcast on BBC Sounds – click here and navigate to 1:24:34 for an interview with Ms Lewis; and to 2:24:15 for the live lesson, including interviews with some of our Year 7 students. Alternatively, search ‘BBC Radio London’ and find the breakfast show with Victoria Hollins. Blackheath High featured at 7.24am and again at 8.24am.

It was an incredible achievement for their youngest Senior students, aged 11-12 – ‘one we hope they are as proud of as we are’, the school says.

Positioning the enrichment course in the first year of Senior School wasn’t by accident – it was a cleverly calculated move, the idea being to lay the foundations of civil discourse for the rest of their students’ lives. Blackheath hopes the skills they learn – resilience, confidence, respect and active listening – will be carried through the rest of their education at Blackheath High and beyond. You can read more about Ms Lewis’ Civil Discourse programme and her passion for oracy on our website; and with her contribution to the GDST’s powerful Designing the Future of Girls’ Education report.

‘This is not just a discrete lesson – students need to take these skills into their everyday lives so that they can navigate those discussions, hold their ground, use their voice to be the leaders and the changemakers of the future!’ – Kristina Lewis, Deputy Head Academic, Blackheath High School.

Read more about Blackheath High School GDST here.