Professor Lisa Looney:

The power of an empowered primary school teacher who is confident in and around STEM subjects is great. They do not need to talk about careers or specific subjects at all. The motivation, interest and confidence they will imbue will carry through and be significant. In my statement, I mentioned risk and perceptions of risk. Culturally, there is a focus on safe options for girls in respect of careers etc. We must reshape how we talk about risk and careers, such as the idea of multiple careers. Equally, however, in a technology-infused world, we de-risk our careers by being confident around STEM and mathematics. These are concepts we have not begun to talk about.

My final point is a word of caution around role models. We have a tendency to put role models on a pedestal. I refer to saying, for example, "Here is Mary, who was always the best in her class at mathematics. She was tinkering with a motorcycle from the time she was aged three and look at her now, she is going to the moon". Most kids are sitting in their fifth classes, or whatever, thinking they are not Mary but somebody else. In reality, this approach often plays out differently in the heads of young boys and men. We must, therefore, be careful about how we use role models and what messages we get across, especially to younger students.