YGirls

Case study

Over the years our YGirls programme was delivered in West Lothian schools for young women S4-S6. In 2015 we carried out our published research Status of Young Women in Scotland. We recognised a gap in provision for girls in P7 as they make the transition to secondary school. We developed our YGirls programme for P7 girls 2017 and piloted the programme in 2018 in 21 primary schools across Glasgow over five two-hour sessions, 406 girls participated.

YGirls programme:

  • provides safe and empowering single-sex spaces
  • builds confidence, self-esteem and raises aspirations
  • challenges inequalities

Key themes include:

  • Exploring Gender
  • Bullying & Digital Media Safety
  • Body Image & Self-Esteem
  • Leadership
  • Inspire Me


Our aims

We align our work with existing national and international strategic priorities which push for gender equality. These include the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), Getting it Right for Every Child (GIFREC), and the Get it Right for Girls.

YGirls is designed to respond to the barriers to girls becoming successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. It aims to support schools in meeting their gender equality duty. It complements and strengthens the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence.

Our current YGirls programme is for self-identifying P7 girls, the programme’s aim is to challenge gender stereotypes and help girls to begin to discover who they are and decide where they want to go. Girls participating in the programme will:

  • Build confidence, self-esteem and raise their aspirations
  • Challenge inequalities
  • Be able to maintain a safe online presence
  • Be able to identify their own strengths and qualities
  • Be able to identify with positive female role models and recognise how society can often overlook women’s qualities due to their gender

As an organisation we aim to increase our partnerships to include more primary schools and Third Sector organisations across Glasgow.


Current status

Due to the success of YGirls programme the Board decided that it will be part of our core activities. This year we will deliver 12 YGirls programmes across Glasgow.

All of the head teachers of the 21 schools we delivered in indicated that it was a programme that they would like to be repeated in their schools year on year. They also are keen to develop the programme as a family learning programme (YFamilies) that would include P7 boys in their schools. Our long-term aim for this programme is that it will be rolled out across every primary school in Scotland.

Positive meetings have taken place with head teachers in Drumchapel and the Thriving Places Group as part of the process of developing and piloting collaboratively with Glasgow Life our proposed YFamilies programme in west areas of Glasgow, this programme will include YGirls alongside re-developed content for boys and family engagement.

An additional outcome of the programme delivery is that we are now a key partner of a new Gender Equality Action Group recently set up in west Glasgow for organisations. The group represents organisations with shared objectives who discuss forms of action that includes YGirls and YFamilies being a key element for family learning in the area.


What’s next?

We would like to encourage people to visit our website and read our publications in particular our Evidencing Our Impact Reports.

We would like to be in a position to employ an additional Tutor, this would enable us to roll out YFamilies across all of Glasgow. We are actively sourcing funding opportunities to fund additional delivery for this new programme. Thinking further ahead we would like to roll out our programme across all of Scotland.

Find out more

E-mail: carol@ywcascotland.org

Web: http://www.ywcascotland.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngwomenscot

Twitter: https://twitter.com/youngwomenscot

Instagram: https://instagram.com/youngwomenscot/