Changing room anxiety and feeling self-conscious are barriers to girls enjoying sport, but with steps now taken we’re hopeful more will enjoy exercise, says Hayley Ross
Last year saw a series of exceptional sporting achievements by British women, from our Lionesses storming to victory in the Euro 2025 championships to our English Roses’ triumph in the women’s rugby world cup.
But, despite these inspirational performances, girls are still less likely to engage in sport than boys.
A Women in Sport survey of 11 to 18-year-olds found that only a third (37 per cent) of the 4,000 girls polled participate in PE, and they are less likely than boys to take part in after-school sports clubs.
We know that empowering girls in sport is key to improving their physical and mental health, enhancing their overall enjoyment of school and building confidence and self-esteem.
And girls who play after-school sport are 50 percent more likely to get top jobs later in life. So, it’s vital we engage girls in sport during their school lives.
Only 34% physically active
Focus groups with our female students in Birmingham – where only 34 percent of children are physically active compared to the national average of 47 per cent – highlighted a range of barriers.
They talked about discomfort with outdated changing room facilities, worries about getting sweaty or having to shower at school, concern about other people’s opinions of them (in particular, negative attitudes from boys) and cultural issues around modesty and privacy.
It’s evident these barriers exist right across the country, as boys are nearly twice as likely to take GCSE PE as girls.
Our students want to be active – and to be part of the solution to enable that. But sports events, equipment and facilities have historically been designed primarily for men.
We need to make school sports more accessible and inclusive. We launched Ark Sport in 2022 so all our 30,000 students could benefit from sport, regardless of age or gender.
Last year, 2,750 students competed in the annual Ark Championships, and we’re proud that girls are equally represented in these competitions.
Our Birmingham students told us that to help them participate in sport they needed girls-only sessions, beginner-level activities for lower fitness levels, female coaches they can relate to and the option of wearing PE kit to school on PE days.
So, I’m really excited that we have rolled out a new partnership with the Sweaty Betty Foundation across our four Birmingham secondary schools.
Our partnership has already made a difference. Girls at our Birmingham secondaries have received 150 sport hijabs to enable them to comfortably and confidently participate in sport.
And students at Ark Victoria were involved in a nationwide Sweaty Betty Foundation initiative to redesign their school changing rooms to make them more accessible for girls.
Our joint pilot with the Foundation began last term with weekly girls-only clubs in sports our young women chose for themselves, including boxing, cheerleading, dance and kabaddi. We aim to engage around 400 less-active female students with these clubs.
City scholarship
We’ve also launched a girls’ football scholarship programme in partnership with Birmingham City.
This offers our most committed and able girl footballers four full-day training sessions across two terms, led by a UEFA qualified coach.
Additional opportunities include training at City’s training ground, stadium tours and match tickets for women’s first-team games.
The programme will also include working with female coaches and partners, visits and talks from inspirational athletes and coaches, and opportunities to engage peers through leadership and advocacy in school.
With these fundamentals in place, we hope to see a rise in positive attitudes towards …
- Seeing school as an encouraging and safe place to move and exercise
- Enjoying feeling physically ‘fit’
- Making friends and playing with others
Our ambition is to see more KS4 girls being active in PE and extra-curricular sport, to nurture individual athletes, and to build competitive teams across our Birmingham hub.
We need more of these kinds of initiatives in every part of the country, so a whole generation of young women will have more access to sport and be really proud to “play like a girl”.
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