Lacey Collins is the headteacher of Hawley Primary School in Camden Town

BY BETHANY WRIGHT

HEADTEACHERS have welcomed a new strategy aimed at addressing harmful attitudes towards women and girls that will come into effect in primary and secondary schools.

The government’s £20million overhaul includes training for teachers and focuses education on cultivating positive gender attitudes.

Headteacher of Camden Town’s Hawley Primary School, Lacey Cousins, told the New Journal she was optimistic about the changes but also concerned that with “a curriculum so packed, whenever we add new things, another area is likely to suffer”.

She said: “Teachers can find these areas very daunting because, unlike maths and science, it is discussion-based and unpredictable.

“You never know what a child might bring up, especially regarding controversial topics.”

She added: “Misogyny is not prevalent at Hawley. Any negative gendered behaviour mainly revolves around stereotyping.”

The government’s overhaul had identified a shortage of male teachers as potentially negatively impacting boys.

Nationally, 75 per cent of teachers are female. At Hawley one out of eight of the class teachers identifies as male.

Education experts say young men without positive male role models and within “hyper-masculine societies” are deemed “most at risk” of practising violent behaviour towards women and girls.

Ms Cousins said: “While we do not discriminate in recruitment, we are always keen to interview male applicants to balance our set-up. It is beneficial for children to work with positive male role models to understand different perspectives and expectations.”

At secondary school level, Izzy Jones, headteacher of the all-boys William Ellis, has been working with her students for the past three years addressing misogyny.

The school has been working with Middlesex University, the Central London Boys’ Impact Network, the London Boys’ Schools Network, and Camden Council to help the students develop better emotional intelligence.

But Ms Jones said she was concerned that the government’s strategy is a “list of do-nots”, which research has shown is a less effective learning tool in comparison to positive reinforcement.

And she is concerned that the implication of the strategy is that all boys are misogynistic when, in her experience “most are aware these attitudes are wrong but may not know what to do when they encounter them”.

The new Relationships, Sex, and Heath Education guidance for schools comes into effect in September.

School leaders will be asked to test areas of the new curriculum before it becomes statutory.

Nationally, the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has described the strategy as a “silly gimmick”, suggesting it was only being introduced because “the government spent most of the summer” watching Netflix drama Adolescence.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government must address the misogyny and inequality that were the root causes of male violence against women and girls.

He added part of that was showing a “positive, aspirational vision for boys and men”.