In 2021, Blackheath High Junior School launched the innovative Mighty Girls Challenge to build confidence, develop skills and support girls to be ambitious, brave and curious. As we approach the end of our first full year of activity, read more about how our pupils have responded.  

In June 2021, we launched the Mighty Girls Challenge, a challenge-based programme for girls at our Junior School aimed at inspiring them to develop the core skills which will be central to their development, now and into the future.   

The Mighty Girls Challenge was originally inspired by the Junior School Head's Mighty Girls Club, a feminist group for Year 6 students, where they discuss inspiring women and explore what it takes to be a confident, fearless woman in today’s world. From this bold beginning, we have created a full concept programme for Year 2 to Year 5, designed to tie closely to key skills that the World Economic Forum predicts will be central to future employment and aimed at nurturing our pupils to come ambitious, brave and curious (A, B, C). It was also developed with input from the Year 6 Mighty Girls, which made it even more tangible and exciting.  

When girls start the programme in Year 2, they receive a Mighty Girls Challenge Record of Achievement journal to record their activities and learnings at home. Challenges range from new skills – learning to say ‘hello, my name is....’ in multiple languages, playing a song on a new instrument; to experimenting with creativity – designing a puppet show for the family to enjoy, creating a board game; to mental wellbeing – writing a gratitude journal, challenging yourself to climb a tree and see how you feel reaching the top. Crucially, each challenge also asks girls to reflect on what they have learned and what they achieved as a result – this confidence boost builds resilience and promotes a sense of agency and self-esteem. The journal itself becomes a scrapbook and a keepsake – full of learnings, but also documenting their time in the Junior School. We have also created Challenge Badges and t-shirts, and will be rolling out a series of celebration events to mark the completion of journals. 

Results after the first year of activity have been wonderful. Junior School girls are fully engaged and committed to the challenge programme, demonstrating spectacular creativity, bravery and resilience as they develop new skills and understand what qualities they have learned along the way. We have seen trees conquered, kites flown, magic tricks mastered, bicycles ridden and languages learned. We will be holding a special assembly in February to celebrate these achievements and show our Ambitious, Brave and Curious Mighty Girls how proud we are of them!