Education and girls – lesson activities for ages 11-16

Everyone has the right to an education whatever their gender, but millions of girls and young women around the world are missing out on school and life opportunities. Download the easy-to-use activities below to explore this topic with your students, both inside and outside the classroom.

These engaging activities for students aged 11-16 will encourage students to think critically about some of the reasons why so many children and young people (and girls in particular) are still denied the chance to go to school. Each activity pack includes ready-to-use activities for teachers that can be easily added to lesson plans or used as standalone sessions, with context and background information that can be shared with learners before starting each activity. The accompanying slideshow can be used alongside the activities, to help facilitate the lesson with visual aids.

Learners will:

  • Discuss their thoughts and feelings in connection with education and gender
  • Reflect on how and why stereotypes about gender exist
  • Think critically about how gender stereotypes might affect child rights
  • Identify actions they could take at school to help tackle gender stereotyping

To help teachers integrate the activities into their lesson plans, there are curriculum links for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the resources can also be used outside of the UK.

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