Badminton School, Bristol is bucking educational trends with outstanding GCSE results and most significantly achieving 10% of all grade 9s awarded to girls nationally in Edexcel Computer Science (which is 2.5% of the entire grade 9s given for this course); this in the face of extensive press coverage of the low uptake of STEM subjects by girls. First launched back in 2016, the new Computer Science specification is one that Badminton has embraced and enjoyed healthy uptake among girls keen to hone their computing and programming skills; traditionally perceived as a male preserve. Badminton pupils have been at the forefront of girls studying Computer Science and these results underline the remarkable success that Badminton girls enjoy in this subject. Headlines that the national revolution in computing education has stalled has proved not to be the case at Badminton. In fact, Badminton is strong across the board in STEM subjects, for example, 21% of Upper Sixth students studied A Level Physics, compared recently reported BBC statistics indicating a national uptake of 1.9% amongst girls nationally. Over the summer break, several girls from Badminton’s Science Outreach Team even presented at WOMAD’s Physics Pavilion by invitation of CERN and the Institute of Physics. In all, Badminton’s pioneering approach to girls in STEM is helping to create the next generation of scientists and this is contributing towards redressing the STEM gender balance.
