Gender gap in work and education

“Silly boys”, “schoolboy pranks,” “schoolboy errors.” Remember these phrases from school?

Well they are no more!

Such uses of these phrases are to be banned from the lips of school teachers. Recent claims state such comments can reinforce the view that boys are more likely to misbehave than boys and that children’s beliefs become a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that influences their academic achievements.

Teachers are warned against using stereotypical language or separating classes into “boys vs girls” to avoid adding to children’s preconceived ideas about the gender divide. Although these phrases tend to slip off the tongue, harmlessly, they may actually be going more harm than realised by reinforcing children’s perception that judging and evaluating people based on gender is acceptable.

In recent years, the gender gap of achievement throughout primary and secondary education has widened, with girls far more likely to obtain good GCSE and A-level results in their teens and reports suggest this may be linked to boys’ and girls’ personal perceptions of their abilities at a young age.

Research shows that pupils from all ages are more likely to identify girls as the better behaved and harder working pupils and even boys were more likely to pick out girls as high achievers. With the use of gender divides and stereotypical language in the classroom, boys tend to contribute to the expectation that boys behave worse and under perform therefore contributing to the notion of a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” Research has shown that boys as young as seven or eight years old hold the belief that girls are smarter than boys and they are more likely to be more successful. Although in reality, we know this is not true.

However, although males tend to achieve less in exam results, in the world of work, men are the higher achievers with the most prestigious careers. Whereas, although females are gaining the higher grades in Maths, Science and English there still appears to be a lack of females in high managerial positions or careers where such knowledge is being used effectively. This suggests that not only are boys subject to stereotypical language that affects their grades but more detrimental is girls being given advice to enter stereotypical job roles.

In addition to the gender gap in education widening, there is little progress in narrowing the wage difference between men and women, calling for a change in the education system to encourage girls to opts for non-traditional jobs.

Despite the monumental changes in women’s position in the workplace, there is still clearly job segregation, with women dominating caring, cashiering, clerical, cleaning and catering sectors, where pay rates are lower.

In order for things to change, schools need to be the foundations for instilling ambition so that everyone has the opportunity to use their talents to their maximum potential. Goals need to be set for tackling stereotyping in careers advice, increasing the take up of vocational skills and providing work experience placements for girls in non-traditional sectors.

It is clear that women have outperformed men in education for many years now yet many females still end up in low paid, part time work once they become mothers.

Giving parents the chance to balance childcare responsibilities with a job that fully uses and develops their skills would boost the productivity in the UK, immensely which is exactly what is needed for our economy at the moment to get things moving again.

Saphra Bennett

August babies

David and Samantha Cameron with baby Florence

With the premature birth of the Prime Minister’s new baby girl, tongues are set wagging about the life this August baby has to look forward to.

For years there has been endless debate and speculation at the school gates as to the progress of summer babies academically. And surprisingly confirmation of what many parents suspected has come to light; those born in the summer months are significantly less likely to be academically successful compared to their older classmates.

We know that late-August babies are too young for school just by looking at them, before even considering their academic ability.

As school years run from September to September, those born in late summer result in being the youngest in their school year, almost a whole year behind in some children’s cases. While some mothers’ offspring are walking, talking and starting to read, if not reading already, the late-August child is still barely able to sit upright and only recently stopped drinking from a bottle. These children tend to be a lot smaller, less formed, slower resulting in a lagging behind in gym and ball skills. However, if these children were to begin school a year later, they would be sure to excel and thrive physically and academically.

Recent studies are constantly demonstrating that children born in summer are consistently out-performed by their older counterparts.

Research conducted three years ago by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that children born in August do worse in school tests, have a high likelihood of struggling with reading and writing and then tend to drop out of education by age 16. The study was based on the records of every state school child and concluded, August-born children, in particular girls, are penalised by this unlucky birth date, which in extreme cases can lead to children being mistakenly labelled as having special educational needs.

In addition to this study, another concluded that fewer children born in August were likely to continue into higher education.

More recent studies such as research conducted by the Department of Education, earlier this year, highlighted the negative effects of an August birthday. Younger children were considerably behind by the age of five and were struggling to catch up throughout compulsory education. This research also found that these summer-born children were more likely to get bullied and be reported with learning difficulties far more then older classmates.

Although research has found the most high achieving athletes and personalities are born between September and December, Earlier this year with the majority of Premiership footballers born in autumn months, summer children tend to be very creative and artistic. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Madonna, and Coco Chanel are to name a few of great August babies. So all is not lost in summer babies!!

In conclusion, understanding why some children fall behind their peers is essential to building a better education system and such findings suggest for example; students should sit national tests when they reach a specific age rather than as a year group, annually.

Saphra Bennett, August 2010

Connexions going; IMJack CAFE fills in for careers information

Despite the number of young people leaving schools and colleges with increasing uncertain futures rises, the significant budget cuts in the careers profession and the near decimation of area-based grants from the Department of Education to local authorities, means that the position of the Connexions services looks increasingly fragile.

Connexions logo

Connexions offers advice on a wide-range of subjects for young people aged between 13 and 19.  The service has provided young people with impartial advice, information and guidance on education, careers, housing, money, health and relationships for many years.  Along the way, Connexions has helped to remove barriers to learning and progressions; enabling young people to make a successful transition into adulthood and working life. Without this service, young people that are not in education or employment are likely to be the most badly affected by these budget reductions.

There will be fewer apprenticeships available in public-sector organisations, coupled with a significant decline in job opportunities for school and college leavers, due to the public sector cuts.  What will take the place of Connexions to offer impartial advice to individuals? Who will motivate and inspire individuals to aspire to more than claiming benefits?

There is a concern that schools and academies are to be expected to offer this impartial advice in addition to all other new responsibilities they are expected to undertake.  Many schools, however, do not have the knowledge and experience to adequately fulfil the role of the service offered by Connexions.

Flier for connexions

“Save the Connexions Service” Campaign has been launched by Unison, exploring the option of a legal challenge to local authorities as councils have a legal duty to provide impartial careers advice to all young people in their local areas. (“The Guardian”, Aug 2010).  Despite this, service cuts are looking to begin as early as September, which may affect those young people who fail to get on to higher education courses this year.

What is needed now are strategies to help reassure young people that major changes in public, private, voluntary and community sectors will not restrict access to frontline services.

IMJack CAFE (Career Advice and Further Education) offers access to careers information and real life stories about jobs students may be interested in pursuing.  Thousands of employees, from businesses and organisations in all sectors of industry have made available their career profiles, including details of qualifications or training required, the best and worst aspects of the job and day-to-day tasks they partake in.   Some mentors have furthermore made themselves available for pupils to question directly, using the secure and moderated communications systems within IMJack.

CAFE gives students the chance to browse many different career options at their own leisure; providing them the opportunity to access real information and experiences about various roles within businesses and organisations not be available to them in other formats.  CAFE is no substitute for the comprehensive service provided by Connexions, but we hope that it can at least offer some support to pupils and other young people uncertain about their way forward when considering their career options.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Saphra Bennett, Stewart Boutcher, August 2010

Social Awareness with IMJack – safely!

In the 21^st Century it is vital that all young people have an understanding and good command of how to use technology, this includes the use of computers and the internet.  It is a well known fact that young people use social networking site on a regular basis.  This is where children can strike up different relationships, perhaps with inappropriate people, and even continue playground bullying.  This can be worrying for parents who can not have control of what goes on at all times.

It is important to teach young individuals about relationships and what ‘normal’ relationships and friendships should be like. In a world of social networking this is very important for young people to be able to identify and notice any strange behaviour and be able to protect themselves from any form of bullying.

Schools address the subject of relationships, bereavement and bullying through the lesson of PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education).  This lesson has been a part of most schools for about a decade.  It is within the PSHE lessons that children are taught how to “manage risks, say ‘no’, negotiation in relationships, divorce, separation and living in reconstituted families.”

I am sure this makes parents and legal guardians feel better that schools are taking the time to address such issues and make young people aware of, how to spot and manage difficult issues.

At IMJack we believe that security is very important and are committed to keeping those who use the site safe. On our CAFE site, there are measures taken to keep children secure within a social learning environment, with one easy way to report any inappropriate behaviour quickly without causing any confusion.

In the bottom right of the IMJack system is a panic button; this button is directly linked to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection and is used to flag any inappropriate content or contact in a secure and confidential way.

Parents and legal guardians can be rest assured that measures are being taken to protect children, and children themselves can feel happy knowing they can report anything which might make them feel uncomfortable whilst using IMJack.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Aisling Forde, Stewart Boutcher July2010

IMJack CAFE is up and running.

CAFE gives young individuals the opportunity to look around in a safe and secure network, developing their knowledge about different careers and prospects in an interactive bright and welcoming environment.

CAFE is made up of hundreds of different mentor profiles, consisting of at least the answers to 8 questions about a mentor’s job, such as “What does your job involve?” and “What is the best thing about your job?”.  Most mentors have taken the time to include information about their normal “Day in the life” and many are also prepared to answer student questions, sent securely through the CAFE, ensuring the students’ safety.  All this has been achieved through the willingness of mentors to share about their jobs and we are very grateful to everyone who has contributed.

I recently logged into this new IMJack application and found it very inviting to look around and explore different careers.  As a young teenager in school I remember being asked to think about what career I would peruse once I left school and completed all my exams.  There was always a lot of pressure to succeed and do well academically, but I had no idea what career or job I would go into or what was even out there.

Children generally only know about the obvious careers such as doctors, nurses, teacher, lawyers, etc.  However with this new launch of the IMJack CAFE it is so much easier to search for a much greater range of options.  There is even a list of company names which can be searched if you have an idea of what kind of company you might want to work for.

I would have loved the opportunity in school to be able to access such different and useful information, inspiring me in an easy, appealing way, with the security of being in a moderated and regulated site.

We are very proud of CAFE and would like to share it with you.  CAFE is now available in beta form on IMJack; please contact us if you would like access to the CAFE in your community.

For any more information about IMJack, please contact us via www.imjack.com.

Aisling Forde, Stewart Boutcher July2010

Inspire or Aspire that is the question…..?

I was lucky enough a few years ago to be approached by my local Chamber of Commerce to become a mentor to schools… they didn’t sell it to me initially as I was told I would have 2-3 days of training, then I would have to commit a further 3-5 days of my time at various intervals mentoring to different schools in my area..

 At this time I was self employed so when I added up the amount of time lost and what it would cost I have to say sceptical was an understatement… however then I had a think about it, this was all around spending time with Year 10 and 11 students delivering a personal development programme helping to prepare them for their future, either at school, work or at home.

It was all around giving something back to the community and ok it was going to cost me but in a society so engrossed with take, take, take was this such a bad thing?  I was also intrigued as to how it might help me in my daily life too as it was all around developing:

• Listening and oral communication skills
• Adaptability and creative responses to obstacles or setbacks
• Self esteem, confidence & self motivation
• Empathy
• A responsible attitude to own actions
• A can do attitude

  Now I’m the worlds biggest believer in having core values and most of the above had big ticks beside them for me so putting my ‘can do attitude’ hat on I signed up!

Now we can all pinpoint certain times in our live where we have a ‘bit of a revelation’ and mentoring to these students was when I had mine..

My training consisted all around teaching skills and how they differed when the audience were a bunch of teenagers instead of the finance managers I was used to.

We spent time learning and understanding the importance of EQ (Emotional  Intelligence/Qualities) and how these skills can be equally as important as the more academic qualities.  

All of this training spilled over into my own personal life, it made me look at what motivated me and made me realise how different things motivate different people. One big key area was being responsible for our own actions, accountability… we live in such a blame society and when that spills over into the workplace this can have devastating results on staff morale and consequently the business !!

Each area of the workwise programme was developed to be fun and inspiring to the students, we did role plays, we got them to all come in dressed for an interview, we arranged motivational speakers and at the end of it we had a great party…

The first day of the programme we were introduced to a bunch of 25 girls and lads and as we stood at the door shaking each of their hands and introducing ourselves, each limp handshake was accompanied by an uncomfortable shuffle of shoes, a muttering of a name and had me looking at the floor as this is where each of their gazes were fixed !

We spent the next few days together sharing highs and lows, lots of laughs and lots of stories. I was glad we delivered the training in 3’s as there is no way I could hold their attention for such long periods of time and it made me realise what a demanding job teachers have !

The last day was very emotional for all involved – the one thing we tried to encourage the students to do throughout the course was to follow their dreams or in the words of William Arthur Ward ‘If you can imagine it you can create it. If you can dream it, you can become it’..

We had treated them like responsible adults and they had become responsible adults, we had treated them with respect and they gave us respect in return, most importantly we advised them on how they could follow their dreams and they left us believing that anything was possible.

When we said goodbye not only did I have a tear in my eye but each and every one of those students shook my hand and looked me confidently in the eye and thanked me for such a great week.

I can truly say the time I spent with these students was life changing for me, it made me realise how much time we spend teaching children to conform and getting them to do what we want.

I’m not saying that 15 and 16 year olds should be given carte blanch to do what they want with their lives, but it made me realise that next time my teenage daughters said they wanted to do something, my immediate reaction shouldn’t necessarily be ‘NO’ but instead be ‘WHY’ !  Then when I understand ‘WHY’ I can now sit down with them to explore ‘IF’ and ‘HOW’…… !!

If you would like to be involved in mentoring to pupils then IMJack have developed a revolutionary module called CAFE – Careers Advice and Further Education, which allows people to post a profile and answer some questions as to what their job involves as well as give an insight into what a typical ‘day in the life’ of that job might be.

We are interested in hearing from people in all walks of life but in particular anyone who has an inspirational story to tell or an unusual job.. please contact kathleen.parker@imjack.com for further details.

CAFE Careers Advice and Further Education

IMJacks CAFE  – Careers Advice and Further Education goes live next month. With its launch comes a whole new way of introducing school children to the world of work.

As children we all have dreams and aspirations of what we want to be ‘when we grow up’ (do we every really ‘grow up’ or do we just ‘grow old’ ?… that’s a blog for another day !!)..

I can remember mine, through various stages of my childhood through to teenage years… I went from wanting to be a Vet, Nurse, Teacher, Writer, Hairdresser and ended up doing my basic training in the Army to go onto Officer Training College…

However I never quite made it and ended up getting married and starting a family… then years later when all my children were old enough I rediscovered my career path and had a serious think about what I wanted to do… I ended up studying to become an accountant and finally ended up in IT !!

At no point in any of my career path did I end up doing what I actually set out to do !

Looking back I realise now there is a little bit of me in all the things I wanted to be when I was younger, but I never had the advice or guidance pointing me in the direction of where I should go to follow any of these paths effectively.

IMJack has got together with the SSAT (Specialist Schools Academies’ Trust) to develop the CAFE…. this is a place where pupils can engage with mentors from the world of business, ask them questions on what a job involves and find out all the good (and bad) things about a particular career.

They can go on and find out all about the types of careers that children dream about, they can find out if they have the right kind of personality to do this type of job or is there something else out there more suited they had never even thought of! They can watch videos of people doing their everyday job or find out about a ‘day in the life’ … by capturing their dreams and nurturing them at an early age we are helping the children who are our future, explore ways they can move forward to become more confident and motivated individuals.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor and creating a profile of you and your job on the IMJack platform which will be distributed in schools around the UK then please contact our CAFE team on 0870 836 8936 or email kathleen.parker@imjack.com

With exam time looming closer and closer…

With exam time looming closer and closer take a look at our tips to help pupils cope with the stress of revision.

Dont get stressed out as this will just keep you awake and cause you problems revising.

Keep a positive attitude, eat healthy – lots of brain food…. oily fish and whole grains are the best possible ways of sustaining a healthy diet. they aid both digestion and concentration.

Whole-wheat bread, cereals and pasta… a tuna sandwich is one of the best snacks you can have. Fruits such as banana’s and blueberries are full of anti oxidants that boost brainpower.

If you’re really stressed don’t keep it to yourself – share it with a parent or a teacher, explain your feelings and see what they suggest.

Get up and walk about every so often, if its a nice day don’t sit there looking out the window wishing you were outside – take your books out there and revise outside. Get up and jump around – sitting staring at a book will wear you out after too long.

Record your notes and pop in some ear plugs and go for a walk – reading them aloud helps you remember and listening back again and again will mean they sink in eventually!

If you find yourself having a blank moment don’t sit there and beat yourself up – go though the list until you find the ones you can answer, then work your way back to the more difficult ones. That way you are feeling in a more positive position to tackle the more challenging questions.

Believe in yourself – think positive have more of an ‘I will’ attitude ….and in the words of Dr Seuss..

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

We was brung up proper !!

After my post the other day ‘Are we protecting our kids the right way’ a friend sent me this reminder of what life was like when we were kids …. hope it makes you smile as well !

WE WAS BRUNG UP PROPER!!”And we never had a whole Mars bar until 1993″!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930’s 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and early 70’s !

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses made of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese, raw egg products, loads of bacon and processed meat, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonald’s , KFC, Subway or Nandos.

Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and didn’t open on the weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death!

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy  Toffees, Gobstoppers, Bubble Gum and some bangers to blow up frogs with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because…….

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of old prams and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in river beds with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo Wii , X-boxes, no video games at all, no 999 channels on SKY,

no video/dvd  films, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.

Only girls had pierced ears!

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns at Easter time…

We were given air guns and catapults for our 10th birthdays,

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!

RUGBY and CRICKET had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! Getting into the team was based on MERIT  

Our teachers used to hit us with canes and gym shoes and bully’s always ruled the playground at school.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

Our parents didn’t invent stupid names for their kids like ‘Kiora’ and ‘Blade’ and ‘Ridge’ and ‘Vanilla’

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL !

You might want to forward this on to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Are we protecting children the right way?

On my way down from Leeds yesterday I was listening to an article in the news about how children are not having the same kind of freedom we had when we were young (by ‘we’ I mean any of us who are able to remember when playground games consisted of ‘stuck in the mud’ and ‘Chinese skipping), instead of swapping music and pictures on mobile phones)..

I can remember at the tender age of 12 being allowed to go over the park and hang around with my friends till dusk when the keeper would kick us all out….or walking up to the swimming pool with a bunch of friends and staying there all day and getting the bus back in time for Charlies Angels.

More than anything I can remember those long summer days when you just had to be outside, playing footie, cycling around and not a mobile phone insight – just a promise to be home in time for dinner.

Now a parent of 3 daughters I have faced the same dilemma again and again, how much freedom should I give them? (according to them it’s never enough). We drive the youngest 2 (who are incidentally 13 and 17) everywhere, I wouldn’t dream of letting them walk home alone and heaven forbid if I knew they were just ‘hanging’ around the streets or parks.

With constant news stories of children being abducted, attacked or abused we are protecting our children to such a degree we are taking away their childhood. However…..

We seem to have no qualms whatsoever in letting them loose to a whole wide world of dangerous content. We let them chat to ‘friends’ some of whom they have never met but think they know, purely because another ‘friend’ introduced them.

We allow them to publish where they go to school, where they are meeting their friends on Saturday, personal information that if read by a stranger could easily be used to build up a profile of our child’s habits and movements.

I can remember whenever anything slightly provocative came on the TV my Mother would immediately get up and turn it over (to my Father’s disappointment)… however we allow them to have full access to internet content and internet content is totally uncensored. Because of this, children surfing the Web can be exposed to sexual, malicious, racist and violent content in e-mail messages, chats and social networking areas.

IMJack are dedicated to providing a safe and secure enviroment where children can still communicate online but without all the dangers of unregulated sites. Read IMJack’s Ten Tips on how children can stay safe on the internet, invest in some parental control software where you can monitor and control what a child does or doesn’t have access to.

Where there are younger children in the family don’t allow them to have computers in their room, 1) it makes them very unsocial 2) allows you to make sure they are doing homework and not surfing, chatting, playing games or worse.

Make sure if they are using social networking sites they are regulated and secure, IMJack only allows children to communicate with other children in their secure community, it monitors for key words that could identify bullying and allows them to use today’s web2 technology without all the dangers.

Remember IMSafe~IMJack