All East Midlands Blogs

b y Emma Howard @howgeography247 and Gurjeevan Malhi @missmalhislays This is the speech we made at the 2023 WomenEd Unconference with the aim of getting all women to think about how they are raising the women around them. Are we thinking about their...

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By Claire Harley @clairevh How do you find the time? Something you've probably said to yourself about three times already this week. As an assistant principal, mum and EdD candidate I get where you're coming from. The past two months, however, have...

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by Vi Gandhi @V1Gandhi Earlier this month, I reached out and found #WomenEd , a global grassroots movement of women leaders in education. When I read about how the organisation started and spoke with founding member, Vivienne Porritt , I noticed...

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by Abby Bayford @Abby­_Bayford In March 2022, my life changed in the most wonderful way. After years of infertility, I had a successful round of IVF and found out I was pregnant. I had yearned for this for many years and my mind became preoccupied...

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by Tanya Hall @TheRealTMH A recent Twitter post by @AdamMGrant got me thinking about the assumptions associated with women in education: are 'women who assert their ideas, make direct requests, and advocate for themselves liked less' and are they...

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by Lorraine Walker @LWalkerTeach 'Half (51%) of employers agree that there is sometimes resentment amongst employees towards women who are pregnant or on maternity leave.' (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2018) I (shamefully) admit to...

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by Anna Ambrose @AnnaAmbrose On Friday 6th March, 2021, I noticed a thing on my Facebook feed. It was the last day (for now at least, fingers crossed) of home-schooling for families in England. And men were busy thanking their amazing wives* for...

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by Vivienne Porritt @ViviennePorritt We started WomenEd because women's voices on twitter were often silenced, harrassed or our views were not valued. It's one of the reasons we included a mic in our logo. So we encouraged women to tweet and to...

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by Jo Pellereau @PhysicsJo I am blessed to have two wonderful children, both the result of gruelling IVF procedures and following pregnancies dotted with the stress of hyperemesis, blood loss and a bout of post natal depression following the birth...

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by Emma Turner @Emma_Turner75 Flexible working needs modelling at all levels of responsibility, and if we are to avoid so-ing, then leaders have a duty to analyse who their flexible workers are and to see if they are representative of all levels,...

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by Emma Turner @Emma_Turner75 I am a mother of three small children and I work flexibly, part time, in education. Now read that sentence back. How many read the word, 'and' but heard or inferred 'so'? How many inferred that I work flexibly because...

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By Jill Berry @JillBerry102 On Saturday 12th September 2020, #WomenEd ran a webinar on the subject of what it is currently like to be a woman serving head in this country. The webinar was ably hosted by the wonderful Keziah Featherstone (@keziah70)...

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by Kaley Riley @MrsRileyEnglish On Friday, I attended an interview. On arrival, the other candidates and I got chatting. We all spoke about our current roles, why we had applied and the usual, tense pre-interview small talk amongst competitors who...

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by Jill Berry @JillBerry102 On Sunday 12th January 2020, the wonderful Caroline Spalding led an #SLTchat discussion on the subject of Motivation, and this made me thoughtful. I’ve mentioned motivation in a number of blog posts, but have never...

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by Kaley Louise @MrsRileyEng Since returning to work, from maternity leave, I have been asked- numerous times- ‘How do you do it?’, ‘Don’t you miss her?’, ‘Are you afraid you’ll miss out on something precious?’ and questions of their kin, numerous...

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by Anonymous The dreaded letter…. Turning twenty five was a big deal for me. I mean, I was turning a quarter of a century old. But along with gifts from family and friends, turning twenty five brings another little present for women up and down the...

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by Julie Ricketts @DOpsSBL (ISBL Fellow) The beginning of October saw my three-year anniversary working as a School Business Leader – an anniversary I never thought would arrive. Not because I don’t love what I do, but more that I had made a...

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by Emma Turner @Emma_Turner75 As people and teachers, we all need encouragement. We need encouragement to rise out of comfy beds, to start our days, to take those first steps or to take on new challenges. We need encouragement to keep on going when...

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by Ginny Bootman @ sencogirl (Senior Leader & SENCO) I set off with some trepidation as I left the sunny climes of Northamptonshire to be part of my first #BrewEdHerts event . I was a lone wolf taking it on alone.

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By Kaley Riley @MrsRileyEng It’s the Monday in the week before #WomenEd, and already I am beginning to question whether I should really be giving up a precious Saturday with my daughter and husband (who works every other weekend). The guilt is...

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