A campaign to inspire teenage girls to have ambitions and break out of restrictions holding them back has been launched at one of the biggest girls’ schools in London’s deprived East End.
The Girls With Goals project urges youngsters at Stepney’s Bishop Challoner Secondary to adopt healthy academic and body self-esteem, have a vision for the future and “develop a positive mind-set” for their academic studies.
It aims to motivate girls to recognise their talents, through mentoring and development programmes and extra-curricular activities.
Bishop Challoner Girls’ head-teacher Chantelle Easmon-Johnson aims to reverse the East End’s once-tardy image of under-achieving.
“Our campaign exists to remind girls of how unique they are,” she said. “It encourages them to identify and celebrate their individual gifts and talents.
“We insist that all our girls ‘dream big’ and believe that they have the ability to achieve their dreams, whatever those ambitions are.”
The school promises to “be there to encourage, support and cheer them along the way”.
Girls With Goals is set to become an annual date in the Bishop Challoner calendar, when each pupil’s ambitions are explored through poetry, dance, art and song.
The school in Commercial Road also staged speeches about careers in law, engineering, IT and the media.
Speakers included Techmums founder Dr Sue Black, who signed copies of her book to inspire young readers.
Other speakers at the event were Balfour Beatty employment manager Elisha Sempa, J’s Dance Factory fonder and national newspaper presenter Jessica Elliot and City law firm Allen & Overy’s associate Maameyaa Kwfo-Akoto.
Then came the entertainment, with sparking performances by the school’s own cheerleaders group, the ‘Bishop Bolts’, turning the event into “an unforgetable night” for those it was aimed at.
The evening was also used to raise money for the school’s adopted local charity, the nearby St Francis family centre.
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