During the course of last year, Shiplake became a Girls on Board member school, training staff and receiving the license to use the approach to help girls, their parents and their teachers, to understand the complexities and dynamics of girl friendships. Following an initial session in the summer term with the now Year 13 girls, last week we ran two separate Girls on Board sessions for our Year 12 and Year 7 girls respectively. We are delighted to introduce the approach as we continue our journey to become a fully co-educational school.
Shiplake College is proud to be a Girls on Board school and there are a number of our teachers now training to be Girls on Board Champions. This evidence-based approach has been devised by former headteacher, Andrew Hampton, and empowers girls to find their own solutions to 'friendship turbulence'. His book When Girls Fall Out builds on the work of Rosalind Wiseman in Queen Bees and Wannabes.
Central to the model is that all girls need at least one trusted and reliable friendship at school, otherwise they are 'at sea' and this has an impact on all pupils within that year group. The Girls on Board model recognises that the girls themselves are usually the only ones who can solve complex friendship issues.
This reflective approach resonates with our promotion of kindness at the College and challenges the assumption that teachers and parents often have that one party has done something 'wrong' and that there needs to be an 'investigation' and some 'justice'. The girls also explored the different type of behaviours that they can display, and they are unanimous in their assertion that adult intervention can often make matters worse.
Deputy Head (Academic), Mr Jones, ran the two sessions for our girls. He said:
‘The girls responded brilliantly to the workshops and were very open and mature in their reflections and contributions. They particularly enjoyed role-playing the different scenarios, especially when they pretended to be the parents! One thing that was stressed during the sessions what the clear distinction between 'friendship turbulence' and bullying; if they feel it is the latter, they should talk to a teacher immediately. Andrew Hampton has recently published a companion book, Working with Boys, and we look forward to embedding this work at the College.’
To learn more about the Girls on Board approach, including the research behind the approach, check out their website and also read the Parent Guide available below.
Girls on Board Parent Guide
Flickr album: Girls on Board October 2023 |
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