This year, Sixth Form pupils from Highgate and London Academy of Excellence Tottenham (LAET) have taken part in an 8 week MetGirlz project, spearheaded by the Met Police as part of their Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) action plan.
Following a fascinating programme of sessions, the project culminated last week in a graduation ceremony at New Scotland Yard, including an endorsement of the group’s three ‘Big Ideas’ about how to improve the experience of girls and women in London.
During the course, pupils learned about the wide array of career paths and roles available in the Met, through sessions with CID, Explosives, Firearms, and Mounted Police officers. The group met Police Dog PD Tink(erbell) and her handler PC Holly, to learn about the crucial work of police dogs, as well as meeting senior personnel including a Chief Inspector and a Superintendent.
Sophie, Y13 from Highgate, said: “I liked seeing just how diverse the Met is in terms of what you can do. It was really inspiring.” Eva, Y12, agreed, describing the experience as “eye-opening.”
The central project required pupils to work together in three teams to formulate an original ‘Big Idea’ about how to improve the experience of girls and women in London. Pupils pitched their ideas to a panel of Senior Police Officers, which included making it mandatory for clubs and bars to offer spiking test kits; a TfL version of the ‘Ask for Angela’ initiative; and ways the Met can foster positive interactions with primary school children to make their interactions with the police more positive.
Eva, Y12 from Highgate, who worked on the anti-spiking initiative, explained: “Spiking is a massive epidemic that’s really impacting my age group and older, at university. We were thinking about what kind of pre-emptive measures we could put in place to protect women and help build trust when going out in social settings.”
Jenny McLoughlin, Acting Head of Sixth Form (Pastoral), added: “The initiatives they’ve pitched are evidence of young people who not only care very much about making the world they inhabit better for others, but also an impressive (at times fearsome!) ability to see to the heart of a particular issue and work collaboratively and creatively to think of practical ways it could be addressed.”
