Context of School

Beaconsfield High School (commonly known as Becky High) is a girls' grammar school in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.

GEC Platform

“We joined the Global Equality Collective Platform in 2021 to support our whole school development plan and diversity, equality and inclusion strategy. The survey is a great starting point for DEI leads in senior leadership to understand their staff body using an intersectional lens. The platform is versatile, and the GEC can support a school in a variety of ways no matter where you are in your DEI journey. All of our staff have access to the wealth of resources and information in the DEI library which supports our staff CPD program. We look forward to using the GEC platform as a staff body to complement our School Improvement Plan and DEI strategy.

We scheduled the survey to be completed at a staff INSET adapting the GEC guided email. The outcomes were then presented to senior leadership and all staff have access to the library to support their understanding and awareness about DEI in schools.”

To see the DEI school webpage (and introductory video by Zahara) please follow this link.

Zahara Chowdhury is GEC Champion, and the Lead GEC Champion who leads on our GEC Champions Network - open to GEC Members globally every half term. See our events page for more details.

GEC Champion Network

Due to Zahara’s expertise and enthusiasm, she is now Lead GEC Champion, globally.

We look to her for best practice when rolling out the GEC Platform and education at scale.

For example, Zahara circulates a half termly DEI newsletter which she shares with us and other members to help make ordinary classrooms extraordinarily inclusive. Please see below:

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

More information here

Due to her specialist knowledge, Zahara also writes and blogs on DEI.

Here are a few references to her work!

Metro article - One is Five Teachers Uncomfortable Discussing LGBT Topics With Kids

Schools Week - Teachers Need Support to Make the Uncomfortable Comfortable

Schools Should Be is the podcast and blog service that Zahara has founded. Please check it out and listen to the interview with GEC founder, Nic Ponsford here!

GEC Platform Development - Student Workshops

Beaconsfield High School (BHS) were the lead on supporting the GEC with our new student surveys in 2022.

After being commended the University of Goldsmiths (London) the GEC was keen to start bringing in both staff and student voice when it came to designing the next stage of the GEC Platform.

Bringing together schools across the region, BHS feedback to the GEC team on what worked when it comes to a sense of belonging and safety in a school - from the students themselves! We were delighted that students and staff from both GEC Membership schools Royal Grammar School High Wycombe and Dr Challoner's Grammar School also participated too!

More to come on this soon…

GEC+

In light of the tragic murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa and the call to centralise female safety, Zahara led a school wide conference in collaboration with Global Equality Collective: Uncomfortable Conversations - Overcoming Toxic Masculinity in Schools. The conference was attended by 16 schools and we received some incredibly positive feedback for those that joined us.

The key note speaker was author, writer and speaker Hira Ali .

A wide audience of students and parents were invited to learn about the everyday behaviour, practices and policies in schools - as well as staff from schools - so that we can address to create safe spaces for women in schools and at home.

Quotes from participants include:

“What was impressive was that the information was up-to-date, well-presented (if a little too quick at times) and highly topical. It was presented without ire and criticism and gave sound, sensible explanations. All the presenters came across to me as authentic and credible - examples of walking the talk.”

“The sessions were of an exceptionally high standard - well informed, interesting and engaged. I enjoyed the variety of key note, panel discussion, presentations and the Head Teacher perspective at the end. We watched this as a group of 12 comprising staff and senior students from our two adjoining schools - single sex girls and single sex boys - and this really enriched the day. We were able to share ideas and perspectives throughout, and have identified actions both as individual schools and jointly.”

“Overall, it was superbly run and extremely relevant and relatable points of view being expressed in a fairly actionable way. It's extremely courageous and amazing to put on such a conference. I am extraordinarily grateful that I was able to take part.”

“The participation in the GEC presentation just prior was extremely strong and really powerful. I felt part of a conversation, listened to and respected. Being able to input in real time answers to questions about what makes feel uncomfortable and why...and seeing those responses so clearly presented... was just amazing! There were fantastic actionable take-aways from the GEC presentation. I have already forwarded this to many colleagues and people in the part of government that I work with that I feel would benefit and perhaps also pass it on. Really useful resources!”