If teachers really want to improve outcomes for boys, then they need to build positive relationships with them. He says there is a degree of under-performance in boys, but this does not mean they are no longer achieving. There is something for everyone here, whether you read this as a classroom teacher, determined to do better for all the students in every class, or as a headteacher more worried about whole-school strategy, vision and ethos. Chapter 8: Violence– Some really thought-provoking questions asked as part of a suggested approach for dealing with violence in schools: Explanation – Reflection – Expression (E-R-E). Around half of female students, and a third of male students, report having witnessed someone using sexist language,” he says.

It is well documented that boys underperform at all stages of primary and secondary education in comparison to girls, and in Sociology we explore possible sociological explanations for these differences. And those results might include, but not be restricted to, the narrow criteria of attending Russell Group universities. Share your own review… Have you read a good book lately with relevance to provision for more able learners? I can’t say that I’ve managed a walk every single day but I’m definitely walking more now than I was before I started this.

The rest of this blog post is made up of my Goodreads updates (written as I read it with further details in brackets) to give you a feel for why you need to read it for yourself! In one colleague’s maths lesson, the boys remembered far more about pizza toppings than the formula for calculating the area of a circle. Most importantly, they contend that the “problem” with boys is deeply rooted in a toxic idea of masculinity.

conversations about literature, I definitely haven’t yet normalised the ‘no song and dance’ approach that Pinkett advocates. The authors also explore the intersectionality of gender, class and disadvantage, framing the debate from a stance that “our education system is centred on middle-class values”, addressing the underachievement of all disadvantaged students and interrogating ability setting. Roberts argues this hyper-competitive spirit breeds a self-destructive behaviour in boys that results in them “downing” the textbooks to protect their self-esteem: “If I haven’t tried, I haven’t really failed,” is the thinking behind this.Boys Don’t Try is also devoted to improving boys’ social and emotional wellbeing, arguing that much low achievement in boys is rooted in social and cultural contexts. Or he would play to their perceived strengths and interests and find pieces of writing for the boys to analyse based on football and boxing. As a department we had already selected a collection of ‘disturbed voices’ poetry, perhaps in an unconscious attempt to engage some key boys in the year. And it made me realise that, though girls and women undoubtedly come off worse as a result of sexist assumptions, boys and men are damaged by them, too.

For more on boys’ underachievement and the reasons behind it, read this week’s Tes, available now at all good newsagents. I don’t think it’s about watering it down: it’s about having high expectations for boys as well as for girls. I was teaching poetry to a low set year 9 class, many of whom had previously expressed very negative ideas about the police, often in reference to their own dealings with them at the weekend.

Chapter 9: Relationships– Hard to hide my shock at some of the examples of teachers undermining their colleagues.