Women's History Month Event Ideas for School and Trust Staff

Women's History Month Event Ideas for School and Trust Staff

Schools spend March delivering programming for children, and the staff delivering it are a largely female workforce who receive nothing themselves. Nobody plans an event for them, because there's no time in the day, no budget line, and everybody is already running an assembly about somebody remarkable.

That's a gap worth noticing. I'm Magical Katrina, an award winning magician and mentalist, and I want to offer Women's History Month event ideas aimed at the adults in a school or trust rather than at the pupils.

Your Staff Get Nothing in March

Start with the observation. A school's March programming is entirely outward facing: assemblies, displays, lessons, and reading lists, all produced by teachers, teaching assistants, office staff, and site teams on top of their actual work.

Those people are disproportionately women, frequently in roles with limited progression, and they spend the month celebrating other people's achievements. Marking the month for them isn't an indulgence, it's noticing the group doing the work.

There Is No Time in the Day

The constraint that rules out most options. A school day has no gaps: staff are teaching, covering, supervising a duty, or eating lunch in fifteen minutes while answering a parent's email.

Anything requiring an hour during the day doesn't happen. What works is after school, a twilight session, an inset slot if one falls conveniently, or something attached to a meeting that was happening anyway. Decide the slot before deciding the content, since in a school the slot is the binding constraint.

After School Means Short

Practically important. Staff staying after the day ends are giving up time they'd have spent planning, marking, or going home, and an event that overruns is remembered for that rather than for anything in it.

Forty five minutes with a stated finish time is generous. Say the time in the invitation, hold to it, and let anybody who wants to stay do so. Staff attendance at anything optional depends almost entirely on whether the last one finished when it said it would.

Recognition Costs Nothing and Lands Hardest

The reliable option in a sector with no budget. Naming specific people for specific work, publicly and sincerely, is remembered considerably longer than most programming and requires no money at all.

Ask across the school who should be recognized, including the people in support roles who never appear in anything. A head teacher naming a teaching assistant, an office manager, or a site supervisor by name with detail does more in two minutes than any session would, and in a profession where thanks are frequently generic, specificity is the whole thing.

Include the Whole Staff, Not Just Teachers

Worth planning deliberately, since school events default to teaching staff. A school workforce includes office staff, teaching assistants, catering, cleaning, and site teams, many of whom are women and most of whom are invited to nothing.

Those groups also work different hours, which means a twilight session for teachers reaches none of the catering team. If you want to reach the whole staff, that's a different plan: something brief in a shared space, or two short things at times that suit different groups. It's more effort and it's the difference between a staff event and a teachers' event.

Trusts Can Do What Single Schools Can't

Worth knowing if you're part of a multi school trust. One school has thirty staff and no budget, whereas a trust has several hundred and a central function that can arrange something properly.

A trust wide event, virtual or at one site, reaches a scale that justifies a proper booking and spreads the cost across schools. It also connects staff who never meet, which for somebody who is the only person in their role at their school is genuinely valuable. If you're at trust level, that's the version worth running.

Virtual Reaches the People Who Can't Travel

Practically useful across a trust or a federation. Staff at different sites, part time staff, and anybody with caring responsibilities after school are all easier to reach online than in a room somewhere.

Something after school on a video call, kept short, reaches considerably more of a dispersed workforce than an in person event at one site. It costs the same regardless of how many join, which for a trust with eight schools is the arrangement that makes a proper booking affordable.

Ask Before You Plan

Worth doing, since assumptions in schools run strong. A quick question to staff about whether they'd want anything, and what, produces better information than a committee deciding.

You may find they'd rather have the time back, which is a legitimate answer and worth hearing. You may find somebody has wanted to run something for years. Either way, five minutes of asking prevents a well meant event that staff attend out of politeness, which in a profession this stretched is worse than doing nothing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why plan something for staff?

Because a school's March programming is entirely outward facing and produced by a largely female workforce who receive nothing themselves. Those people spend the month celebrating other people's achievements on top of their actual work, and marking it for them is noticing the group doing it.

When can it possibly happen?

After school, a twilight session, an inset slot, or attached to a meeting that was happening anyway, since a school day has no gaps and anything requiring an hour during it doesn't happen. Decide the slot before the content, since in a school the slot is the binding constraint.

How long should it be?

Forty five minutes with a stated finish time, since staff staying after the day are giving up planning, marking, or going home, and an event that overruns is remembered for that. Attendance at anything optional depends almost entirely on whether the last one finished when it said it would.

What works with no budget at all?

Recognition, since naming specific people for specific work, publicly and sincerely, is remembered longer than most programming and costs nothing. Ask who should be recognized including support roles, and have a head teacher name them with detail, since in a profession where thanks are generic, specificity is the whole thing.

How do we include support staff?

Plan for them deliberately, since school events default to teaching staff while office, catering, cleaning, and site teams are invited to nothing and work different hours. A twilight session reaches none of the catering team, so consider something brief in a shared space or two short things at different times.

Can a trust do more than a school?

Considerably, since one school has thirty staff and no budget while a trust has several hundred and a central function that can arrange something properly. A trust wide event spreads the cost, justifies a proper booking, and connects staff who never meet, which matters for anybody who is the only person in their role.

Should it be virtual?

Across a trust or federation, frequently yes, since staff at different sites, part time staff, and anybody with caring responsibilities after school are easier to reach online. It costs the same regardless of numbers, which for a trust with eight schools makes a proper booking affordable.

Should we ask staff first?

Yes, since assumptions run strong and five minutes of asking prevents a well meant event attended out of politeness. You may find they'd rather have the time back, which is a legitimate answer, or that somebody has wanted to run something for years.

Notice the People Doing the Work

The most useful Women's History Month event ideas for a school are aimed at the adults, since the pupils are already well served and the staff delivering that programming are a largely female workforce receiving nothing. Pick the slot before the content, keep it to forty five minutes with a finish time you honor, include the support staff who are invited to nothing, and recognize specific people by name, which costs nothing and lands hardest.

And if you're at trust level, run it across the schools, since that's the scale at which a school workforce can be served properly.

Reach out if you're planning something for staff, and I'm glad to talk about what fits a school budget.