As Blanchelande College’s new Principal, one of Alexa Yeoman’s aims is to empower all of her pupils, so they know that gender doesn’t define them.
Having taught at the school for 16 years, she was appointed as Principal in January – some four decades after starting there as a student.
At that time Blanchelande College only taught girls, under the leadership and guidance of the Sisters of Mercy. Since 2018 it has been fully co-educational.
Speaking to Express about her career and the school ahead of International Women’s Day, Mrs Yeoman’s said empowering pupils is a large part of a teacher’s influence and that includes encouraging girls to see that they aren’t defined by their gender.
“I think the message is that gender doesn’t stop you doing anything,” she said. “I think that’s the message that’s really important.”
With women making up the majority of teaching and auxiliary staff in all educational settings, Mrs Yeoman’s agreed that having female teachers and leaders is vitally important in particular.
“With all teachers, they’re all there to nurture students and shape their minds and to inspire them, and it’s very much about the individual, but at the same time, sometimes there are different strengths that different teachers bring.
“I think particularly with female teachers, the fact that they can empower girls to have confidence and to know that gender doesn’t stop you doing anything. You can be in a leadership role, you can be intelligent, you can have compassion, you can be out there and have a voice. You’re not bound by gender, and I think that’s really important for that empowering of girls.”
There has long been campaigns to try and encourage more men into teaching, and Mrs Yeoman’s said both male and female teachers are very important in every setting – and will be involved in Blanchelande’s events to mark International Women’s Day.
She said each individual teacher can influence young people in different ways – but with women still facing more challenges in academic and workplace settings than men, because of their gender, it is important to empower girls in particular.
“We have male and female staff that do work as mentors with students, because I think it very much depends on the student and what their needs might be within mentoring for so sometimes we would be looking for those with compassion and resilience as well.
“The growth mindset that can be very powerful from a female mentor for a girl, to show them again that you’re not bound by your gender. You can do anything, so I think they can have a strong influence.”
Ms Yeoman hopes that events around International Women’s Day, which this year has the theme #AccelerateAction can help other girls and women feel empowered too.
She’ll be sharing the story of her own great-grandmother’s activism as a Suffragette during the school’s International Women’s Day assembly to show her pupils that gender doesn’t have to stop anyone doing anything.
“We’ve got some students from year 10, 11, and the sixth form going to the International Women’s Day breakfast, which they’re very much looking forward to, and we’re having an assembly for International Women’s Day where we will discuss various role models of different women and I’m very much looking forward to to sharing the story of my own great grandmother, who is a fantastic role model for women, because she was a suffragette.
“My great grandmother, who was called Enid Renny, actually spoke to Winston Churchill to tell him or explain to him that if women couldn’t vote, then they shouldn’t be paying taxes.
“Because women really didn’t have a voice in those days, she joined the suffragettes, and did throw a brick through a post office window. In those days that cost five shillings for the damage, and she had to go to Holloway prison for two months for that. In fact, when she was in court, she wasn’t allowed to speak to explain why she had thrown the brick.
“So in order to have a voice…you want girls to develop that confidence, and you realise that women have had to fight in Britain to have a voice and and it’s important that, back to this idea that gender doesn’t stop you doing anything, we need to to use our voice if we’re comfortable to do so.”