Maidenhead & Windsor

The success of a Maidenhead Royal Borough schools project to tackle teenage boys' underachievement in English is being celebrated at a special presentation in the Town Hall this week.

Countrywide, 66 per cent of girls achieved grade C or above at GCSE in 2005, compared with 50 per cent of boys, a difference of 16 per cent. The challenge is to find teaching methods that target underachieving boys without having any negative effects on girls.

Nine local secondary schools have risen to the challenge by taking part in the Raising Boys' Achievement in English Project. Since January teachers have been researching the impact of using new and exciting ways of engaging pupils in English.

Maidenhead Cllr Kathy Newbound, lead member for children's services, said: "It is so important to find ways of helping boys reach their potential, while ensuring it is not at the expense of the girls. This project has been a great step forward in discovering effective teaching methods that achieve this goal."

At the presentation – on Thursday July 13 at 3.30pm in the Maidenhead Council Chamber – the pupils' work will be on display around the Council Chamber and a number of schools will present film clips, multimedia shows and Powerpoint presentations on what they have been doing.

Cllr Newbound will say a few words, and the event will be attended by Georghia Ellinas, who represents the Department for Education and Skills and the Secondary Strategy for School Improvement, and Karen Butler, senior adviser, English, for the Royal Borough.

Karen said: "The Raising Boys' Achievement in English Project follows on from the excellent work already done in some of the borough's primary schools on the use of visual stimuli to improve boys' achievement in literacy.

"One important aspect has been to look at how English teachers engage the pupils in learning. As with the visual literacy project in primary schools, many of the secondary English teachers have seen the impact of using images, sounds and various objects as a stimulus to discussion and extended writing."

Schools taking part are: Altwood, Churchmead, Cox Green, Desborough, Furze Platt Senior, Windsor Boys', Dedworth Middle, St Peter's CE Middle and Trevelyan Middle.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead