Highgate School is set to host a conference focused on female health and girls’ engagement in sport and physical activity.
The Sport in Her Shoes Conference, hosted in collaboration with consultants The Well HQ, will take place on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 June.
The conference is designed for teachers, pupils and parents/carers – from both girls’ and co-educational schools. It will cover health, wellbeing and performance issues, together with their implications for school life, physical activity, participation and sport.
It is hosted by The Well HQ, who are promoting change in female health within education and sport across the country, and Stephanie Pride, Highgate School’s director of sport and exercise.
The team at The Well HQ combines medical, scientific, and high-performance specialists to highlight and address women’s unique personal, cultural and health life stages.
Baz Moffat from The Well HQ and former GB international female rower and coach, said: “In 2019 The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists published a report saying that women were woefully uneducated about their bodies at every life stage – Sport in Her Shoes is our solution to fixing the problem that girls and women just don’t know much about their bodies beyond the biological basics and this is holding them back from doing and excelling in sport.
“We are on a mission to increase the number of girls doing sport and we do this by educating them, their teachers and parents about puberty, an inevitable life stage that can often be really confusing and embarrassing. By giving them evidence-based education and normalising conversations about the challenges they could be facing, we are providing solutions which they can use straight away.”
Stephanie Pride from Highgate added: “The success of any school sport programme should be the long-term engagement through and beyond childhood and developing physically competent and confident girls is key to this.
“This conference will enable participants to develop pedagogical excellence in this area of education and sport using science and research to fully understand and design our programme, working alongside our girls and supporting them to thrive. The Well HQ are changing the way we think, act, and support women and girls; a powerful force of good which we are so excited to be working with.”
Spread over two days, the Sport in Her Shoes conference is designed to promote understanding of the impact of life changes, to empower girls with better body literacy, and to help teachers, coaches and parents establish environments and cultures in which girls can thrive.
On Thursday 9 June, there will be an evening event for staff and parents, followed by a full day conference on Friday 10 June for pupils and staff. Topics covered at the event will include:
- The Menstrual Cycle: addressing the role of periods, hormones and physical and emotional symptoms surrounding menstrual cycles.
- Female Centric Nutrition: looking at why food is so important for health and happiness and explain “Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport” (REDs).
- Bodies that work: exploring why girls are more likely to have pelvic floor issues, joint injuries and suffer concussion than boys.
- Breast Support: explaining all you need to know about breast health, correct support and comfortable fitting sports bras for training and exercise.
- Female Mindset: motivation, confidence and managing stress are key to success. We look at training environments that help female players thrive.
- Coaching Girls: Girls often stop sport during puberty. How do we create clubs, environments and coaching that girls enjoy and fulfill their potential from?
For more information and to book, click here.
