Breaking through the barrier: raising boys’ achievement
with Gary Wilson

Friday 8 November 2019 12.30 – 4.30pm
The Tomlinson Centre, Queensbridge Road, E8 3ND
£75 (+VAT) per delegate

Overview

There is no single reason why some of our boys are not achieving, if there were we would have addressed it a long time ago. It is massively complex and there is no quick fix. For five years, Gary Wilson was chair of the National Educational Breakthrough Programme established by the DFES Innovations Unit, and in his work, Gary has been working to address as many as thirty different barriers to boys’ achievement.

During this session, Gary will outline the barriers to boys’ achievement from early years onwards, and will explore effective strategies to combat them – modelling ways to raise boys’ achievement in literacy; as well as in a more general classroom context. Delegates will learn about the variety of factors contributing to boys’ under attainment, including a lack of independence, a slower rate of language development, and negative peer pressure. They will come away with a greater understanding of the complexity of boys’ underachievement and a bank of successful strategies and materials to implement in their own classroom.

Objectives

  • Understanding the barriers to boys’ achievement from early years onwards
  • Discovering effective strategies for breaking through the barriers to boys’ achievement in literacy
  • Discovering effective strategies for breaking through the other barriers to boys’ achievement, including: emotional intelligence, peer pressure, and appropriate teaching and learning skills effective for boys without disadvantaging girls.

Who should attend?

  • Headteachers
  • SLT members
  • Subject leads

Programme

12.00: Refreshments and registration

12.30: Welcome and introduction
Orlene Badu, YBM Programme – System Lead, School Improvement, Hackney Learning Trust

Gary Wilson will lead the rest of the day

12.40: Session 1: Achievement: setting the context
Outlining the barriers to boys’ achievement from early years onwards

14.00: Break

14.10: Session 2: Breaking through the barriers to boys’ achievement in literacy
Effective strategies to break down the barriers to boys’ achievement

15.20: Break

15.30: Session 3: Effective strategies for breaking through other barriers to boys’ achievement
Emotional intelligence, peer pressure, teacher expectations, and appropriate teaching and learning skills effective for boys without disadvantaging girls

16.30: Close of conference

Gary Wilson

One of the country’s leading authorities on raising boys’ achievement, Gary Wilson is currently a freelance consultant and author of several books including “Raising Boys’ Achievement” and, for parents, “How to Help Your Boy Succeed”. A teacher for twenty-seven years, he began work on raising boys’ achievement in his own cluster of schools in West Yorkshire in 1993. In 2001 he was asked to write “Using the National Healthy School Standard to Raise Boys’ Achievement” for the NHA and the DFES based on the success of his work in schools.

In 2003 he was made the country’s first Local Authority school improvement officer with specific responsibility for raising boys’ achievement. From 2005-2010 he was chair of the National Education Breakthrough Program on Raising Boys’ Achievement, established by the National Primary Care Trust and the DFES Innovations Unit, which worked across 300 schools nationwide.

In 2005 he led a double national award-winning campaign to raise boys’ achievement across Kirklees LA. In 2008 he ran a campaign to raise boys’ achievement in Derbyshire, which won a national award for work with parents. He has spoken at countless LA and national conferences all over the world. He has advised and delivered training in over a thousand schools and over thirty LAs across the UK. He has delivered countless sessions for parents and governors and worked with boys across the length and breadth of the country. He presents keynotes, leads local authority projects and delivers INSET days and training sessions for Primary and Secondary schools, twilight sessions and parents’ sessions.

His first book “Breaking Through The Barriers to Boys’ Achievement and Developing a Caring Masculinity” was described in the Guardian as “undoubtedly the seminal work on this subject.”

How to book

View Hackney Learning Trust’s Terms and Conditions for Delegates at Conferences.