Giving women a voice
Nick Dyson, deputy principal at The Ladies’ College, explains why he thinks it is important that young women in Guernsey are given the chance to make their voices heard
When an opportunity arose in Guernsey to empower young women, to innovate in education, and to ensure that The Ladies’ College is embedded in the fabric of Guernsey, I leapt at it.
I wanted to help prepare our students for the real world and have been thrilled to meet so many change-makers on island.
From Shelaine Green from Women in Public Life, and Deputy Heidi Soulsby, to PwC’s Nick Vermeulen, Chris Ash at C5 Alliance, and investor Marc Cohen at unbundled vc, to name but a few, this island is hyper-connected, innovative and engaging.
I would challenge any school in England to build connections as we can in Guernsey – this has enabled me to seek sponsorship for TEDx, a speaker platform for young women’s’ voices on island, and help to build our brilliant Sixth Form Pathways programme.
Innovative schools are nimble, take opportunities when they arise and rely on teachers to think outside the box, and to support students well beyond the curriculum.
When approached by the Guernsey Press about contributing to the newspaper for International Women’s Day, we said ‘yes’ first, and then got to work on the logistics. We wanted to ‘do it scared’ as a community.
Just like Dora Marsden, a relative of mine who worked with Emmeline Pankhurst and published journals called The Freewoman (1911-1912), The New Freewoman (1913) and The Egoist (1914-1919), I am deeply proud of our students for sharing their voice in the paper tomorrow.
The team involved at The Ladies’ College hopes that our articles can be enjoyed by many across our precious island. We can only guide and introduce the next generation to exciting initiatives or opportunities which help propel them towards the real world, and so we would like to thank the Guernsey Press for its support, and for believing in the power of young female voices here in Guernsey.
What would I like our students to take away from this project?
I love the idea of connecting students to real-world situations – this has been made possible by the Guernsey Press. When student voice is involved and encouraged, older generations are able to see the world differently.
Students of today are quite used to parents, guardians and sports coaches making suggestions or giving instructions.
I am so lucky to have the task of watching creative, ambitious young minds tackling some complex world issues with maturity, commitment and a can-do approach.
It means I have every faith the in change-makers of today and tomorrow.