"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights." Gloria Steinem

International Women’s Day is a global day of celebration dedicated to the social, economic, political, and cultural achievements of women. This year it will be celebrated on Sunday 8^th March with the theme ‘Give to Gain’. Its goal is to encourage generosity, support and collaboration for the gender equality movement through donation schemes, panel discussions, rallies and workshops. For some, International Women’s Day holds the purpose of fighting for women’s rights, while others use it to celebrate the many successes of women. Here at Leicester Grammar School, we feel that this event is a brilliant opportunity to spark important conversations within our community - not only deepening our understanding of current issues but also expressing appreciation for the accomplishments of women across the globe.

The restriction of female autonomy remains a prevalent issue globally, even in increasingly modern times. According to UN Women, a girl or woman is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or member of her own family, and an average of 1 in 4 women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner. Alongside this, UNICEF currently estimates that over 120 million young girls are not in school. It is only right that we use our fortunate position as students at Leicester Grammar School to spread awareness and raise funds for these causes. 

Alongside EMBRACE, Spectrum, and Change Group, we are also very proud to have our own Feminist Society (FemSoc) which meets regularly to organise events such as International Women’s Day. However, the celebrations do not stop there, throughout the year FemSoc and our other EDI groups create informative display boards around the site (as seen in this image of our FemSoc board), which put a spotlight on the many different groups of both pupils and staff at LGS. Additionally, they deliver compelling assemblies in order to develop further understanding, and they host group discussions to address societal/cultural issues. The Leicester Extra podcast team have also been working in collaboration with FemSoc to produce a special episode which will be available to listen to very soon.

Following the huge success of their International Men’s Day and Culture Day celebrations, EMBRACE and FemSoc were keen to repeat a similar structure of events. At lunchtime today we will have a carousel of stalls in the foyer, including a new display highlighting inspirational women, a themed scavenger hunt, a bake sale, and a henna stall. To showcase the successes of women from our own community, there will also be career talks from Old Leicestrians in fields such as Chemical Engineering and Military Medicine. This should be an exciting day of thought-provoking conversations and a celebration of mutual respect across our community.

Thank you to Ella and Sonny for sharing the excitement of International Women’s Day. I hope it goes off wonderfully.

I am delighted to share the news that both our U13 and U15 boys’ indoor cricket teams have been crowned Leicestershire County Champions! This is a wonderful achievement and the first time that we have achieved “the double” in this way. Huge congratulations to all the players and of course to our fantastic cricket staff who have supported them.

And finally, the latest issue of the Young Arts and Humanities Journal has just been released. Please do take a look and congratulations to all those who have work included.