Pupil Voice

HELLO EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO OUR PUPIL BLOG

We had hoped to start this message with a “Happy New Year!”, but prelims seemed to creep up far faster than we’d anticipated and so our senior pupils have been otherwise occupied over the last month or so. Nevertheless, Lochgilphead High School is totally thrilled to be introducing to you our new pupil led blog! Now that prelims are over, our students have settled into 2022 and they are on their way to making this the most successful year they can; we can’t wait to get stuck into informing you of all of Lochgilphead’s “best bits”, as well as hearing from our pupils with stories they’d like to share.

Over the past year, many changes have occurred within our school environment. We have welcomed a new senior pupil management team who have already been hugely successful in organising charity events, reintroducing the Pupil Voice group and helping the new Clan Captains to find their feet in this novel role. Furthermore, we have had a revamp of the Clan system itself. New teams “Nevis”, “Lomond” and “Alder” are in the process of creating clan identities for themselves, aided by the introduction of a clan points system. This has increased healthy competition within the school and encouraged students to participate in classes and charity activities, in order to help their team come out on top with clan points at the end of the year.

We hope that in this blog, we are able to celebrate the wonderful variety of achievements and passions that all of our pupils hold dear to them, as well as addressing topics that matter to the school community as a whole. Furthermore, we see this as an opportunity to present our school’s personality, and have a bit of fun navigating the experience of creating a newsletter by and for our student population. So we would love to hear from you! Any suggestions for thought pieces, or pieces of journalism you would like to bring forward are more than welcome. This blog aims to be a regular feature of the school website, and will run alongside a “Lochgilphead Highlights” magazine which will be coming very soon to showcase all of the fantastic creative talent we have at our school.

After the (well earned) February break, LHS will be taking some time to reflect on mental health, and how we can look after our own and others’ mental wellbeing. Our new school wellbeing ambassadors will be involved in this, running weekly Friday lunchtime sessions that aim to engage pupils in fun activities as well as providing a space where they can access one on one support from their peers if they need it. We look forward to seeing what we can learn from this opportunity and hope that everyone will embrace it with enthusiasm and an open mind!

That’s all from us this month- we can’t wait to start creating more pieces for you in future.

We’ll see you again in March; take care and thanks for reading!

LHS Editorial team – Rhona Love, Niah Martin and Tallulah Allin.

Tuesday 8th March 2022 BREAK THE BIAS

We hope you all had an excellent February holiday and that the senior pupils have managed to relax a bit after the stress of prelims. For this post we thought it would be a good idea to inform the pupils of Lochgilphead High School of important events going on around the world. Today, the 8th of March, is International Women’s Day. This is an opportunity for us to celebrate the incredible achievements of women all over the world, as well as highlighting the issues that women face today. The theme of this year’s IWD is “Break the Bias”- a call to challenge stereotypes and prejudices women face in their daily lives. We have used this opportunity to speak with some inspiring women within our school community, to learn a bit more about what adversities they have faced, and how they are challenging these biases for future generations.

International Women's Day, also known as IWD, links back to 1908 when over 15,000 women marched through New York demanding better pay, shorter working hours and the right to vote. In the UK, it wasn't until 1928 that the law passed allowing women over 21 to vote and achieve the same voting rights as men. However this doesn't mean that things were immediately fixed for women. Even today women experience copious amounts of stereotyping and sexism, especially in professional environments. Mrs McBride, who coordinates DYW and other employment based enrichment opportunities within our school, has had first hand contact with young women entering the working world, especially in the fields of labour, construction and engineering. She has noted that in the past, it was mostly boys who would go into apprenticeships and work placements in these fields. However, labour sectors are now welcoming more girls in, with some employers specifically calling for girls to take up positions within their company! This is a clear example of how social barriers are being broken for young girls, allowing them into a wider range of employment opportunities, and how teachers at Lochgilphead are supporting girls in taking these opportunities.

Another field in which women are often marginalised is science. In a conversation with Mrs Fincher, we found out that our school is actually quite unusual in having a mostly female science department, especially as we have a female physics teacher. When Mrs Fincher was at school, she felt that the narrative around women in science was not that they couldn’t do it at all, but that they probably wouldn’t “become scientists”. We can see this changing now, with senior girls at LHS leaving to study STEM subjects at university such as biochemistry and zoology with the intention of moving forward into careers in these fields. Mrs Fincher is also involved in digital communications, and she has taken part in many courses and discussions that aim to bring digital resources to schools. She has said that these meetings were often very heavily male dominated, but that it was “empowering” to be a woman bringing fresh ideas to the table. Mrs Fincher is often the first port of call for students and other teachers in need of support or guidance when using google classroom or other technology, showing that her expertise is well recognised and respected in our school despite the common assumption that technology is a man’s world.

Whether it is conscious or not, bias makes it harder for women to move forward. We need to acknowledge the effects of bias and work against it to give women equal opportunities to men. The PE department had many valuable opinions and stories about biases in sport, and what women’s sport means to them. Mrs MacNeill shared her experience with bias by telling us about her being the only female football player in an all boys’ team when she was younger. She talked about how she received funny looks as the only girl, but stuck with her passion and eventually was a member of the only full girls’ team in the local league. Her zest for sport has carried through into her job today, where she now champions and supports the abilities of female students excelling in all kinds of sport. Furthermore, her enthusiasm for women’s involvement in sport has even inspired male students. Higher PE student Finlay Kerr, S5, has said that he is interested in watching women’s MMA, which he thinks is “sometimes more entertaining than men’s MMA.” Appreciation for women in sport is increasing day by day, and it is the hope of many sports lovers at Lochgilphead that there will one day be an even playing field, quite literally, for men and women in sport.

Our school has many inspiring women, ranging from teachers to students to student teachers. But who inspires these women? When asked about role models, many of our interviewees shared the common idea that the women they look up to are fierce, independent and unfazed by what others may think of them. This is a perfect embodiment of the “break the bias” idea: that girls and women should be following their dreams, regardless of external pressures or barriers. International Women’s Day is an ideal opportunity to reflect on who your female role models are, and if you can, show them a bit of appreciation today.

Our school values; achievement, ambition, equity and respect, link in perfectly with the causes of International Women's Day. As we as a school strive for equity and we aim to be respectful of everyone around us. Acknowledging this monumental day will help us achieve these values and hopefully bring light to the issue at hand.

“Imagine a gender equal world.

A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.

A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

A world where difference is valued and celebrated.

Together we can forge women’s equality.

Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias”