Meet Caroline and Daniel
This month we’re meeting Caroline Barlow, Head Teacher at Heathfield Community College and Daniel Hawkins, Associate Director of Access at University of Sussex. Together they are leading on the newly formed Sussex Boys’ Impact Hub.
Tell us about the Boys’ Hub
The Boys’ Hubs are a network of regional hubs originated through Boys’ Impact founded by Dr Alex Blower. Alex contacted us to see if we would be interested to host a Sussex hub. We were very interested as we have a huge imperative to work in this space. There is a wealth of evidence about poor outcomes and strained mental health for boys. We all know the ways in which young men are portrayed in the media and these factors can contribute to negative outcomes and experiences, including for young women and families.
We had conversations to discover if we have the galvanised interest across the county to do something together. We have buy in from the education sector, police, youth justice, youth groups and the three local authorities. One of our greatest drivers is to find space where experts can work collaboratively. We all have expertise but no one of us is a single expert. We speak from different perspectives and when we join the dots, we can see the outcome as more than the sum of individual parts. We have worked in silos for too long, not enough change is happening, and the hub will allow us to discover the principals of how to help, how we work together to implement change and share what’s effective and equally what hasn’t been, so we can learn together to create successful outcomes.
Why is this important to your institutions?
At Heathfield Community College we have been doing work over the last nine years to close the gender gap that exists at all Key Stages and onward destinations. We presented our evidenced work at the Men and Boys’ All Party Parliamentary Group which connected us with Alex and the wider picture of work happening in this area. We want to share what we’ve done and learn what others have done. The benefit of the hub being across the whole of Sussex is it takes into considerations the huge disparity of circumstance of experience across localities. No one person can stand up and say, ‘we have the solution’, it’s sharing impact and learning from others. Young people are only with us in school for a certain period of time, if we all work together and share successful approaches, we will be able to see the magnification of impact.
At the University of Sussex, this aligns strongly with our Access and Participation Plan. We have a target focusing on young people in receipt of Free School Meals progressing to HE. These young people are the least likely demographic to progress to HE. For us, the hub enhances our understanding of how we can support boys to progress. This work also aligns with our collaborative joint target with the University of Brighton, University of Chichester and the Sussex Learning Network of increasing progression to HE of young people in receipt of Free School Meals from across Sussex.
Tell us about the upcoming conference to launch the Sussex Boys’ Hub
The conference is taking place on 25th June 10am – 3pm, hosted at the University of Sussex. The day will launch the hub and we’re inviting senior leaders who work with young people in and outside of education. It’s an opportunity to come together, meet others doing work in the area and learn from one another. The day has a range of national and local speakers sharing work including:
- Alex Blower talking about the national picture working with young men
- Academics discussing how psychology can produce inclusive education
- National organisation Progressive Masculinity sharing their work
- Range of breakouts to shorter case study talks about best practice across the county including: Bexhill College, Brighton and Hove Albion Foundation, Durrington High School, Heathfield Community College and the Sussex Learning Network
This is a great opportunity for Sussex, we have national policy groups attending as they are interested in what we are doing in the region but ultimately, it’s a chance to bring people working in area to make connections and be part of the journey as we look to host future work in this area and support colleagues.
We’re not far off capacity so we’d urge colleagues to sign up as soon as possible using this link.
What will happen after the conference to support staff
We’ve got a really valued steering group to help us set the direction of travel going forward. We will get a sense of intention and need from the conference and interactions on the day. After the conference, the steering group will discuss best pattern of engagements for the following year. We will keep people updated and are hoping to have a web-based presence to point people in the right direction. We have two key notes lined up for next year - one is wellbeing and pastoral and the other has a pedagogical focus.
How can people find out more about the boys hub and ways to support their learners and staff
They can attend the conference, book here and they can get in touch with us directly Caroline or Daniel.
Sussex Learning Network is working in partnership with Bexhill College delivering a limited number of free staff training sessions addressing negative gendered behaviour among young people. Find out more here.