School Campaign

This Girl Can in Schools

Initially beginning as a District-based pilot campaign in 2015, 'This Girl Can' in Herefordshire and Worcestershire has gone from strength-to-strength. In 2022, we united Here Girls Can and Worcs Girls Can with the county-wide School Games programme. Combining both programmes has enabled us to utilise the complementary messaging and resources associated with each programme, alongside working in closer collaboration with local partners. For the first time, Here Girls Can also extended to include primary schools. 24 schools from across the two counties attended our festivals, which aimed to:

  • Change the perception of sport and physical activity among females and schools
  • Facilitate the discovery and improve the accessibility of physical activity opportunities
  • Promote positive mental health through association with physical activity
  • Enable and promote positive experiences of sport and physical activity
  • Shape in school PE lessons to engage all pupils

As part of their involvement with the festivals, we offered secondary schools funding to build on the festival experience and deliver activities and programmes targeting the most inactive and disengaged girls. In terms of inactive, this is defined as anyone who averages under 30 minutes of physical activity per week (not including curriculum PE).

Impact

Encouraging sustainable change was an important part of our festivals. Some changes to school PE that have been planned include:

  • Using smaller groups to encouraging girls to mix and bond
  • Utilising 10-minute YouTube videos to support the delivery of alternative activities
  • Embedding non-traditional sports and activities within PE delivery
  • Students left feeling empowered to replicate sessions with their peers back at school
  • Developing 'Girls Can' groups back at school to inform extra-curricular delivery

  • Here Girls Can Impact Report Here Girls Can Impact Report (PDF, 4 Mb)

    Download our Here Girls Can Report to understand how the event was co-designed by pupils, our findings and the impact of the campaign.

  • Here Girs Can report Sept 2022 Here Girs Can report Sept 2022 (PDF, 2.2 Mb)

    New report from the Here Girls Can Festival which took place in September. Alongside detailing insight and feedback from the day, we’re also now able to include longer-term impact from schools who attended the first festival back in March and it’s really positive to see that sustained behaviour change is happening.

Next steps...

Press play on Studio You: Studio You is a free-to-access video platform funded by Sport England and The National Lottery, powered by This Girl Can, to help teachers engage less active teenage girls. Discover free video-based PE lessons for girls aged 13-16.

Access teacher support: Through the Secondary teacher training programme, Sport England offer support to access professional development opportunities. This training will help teachers to put pupils' enjoyment at the heart of PE and school sport.

Become a Supporter: You may wish to consider joining the This Girl Can Supporters Hub. Here you will find a range of tools and resources to support your school's marketing and campaigns.