Research Reports

This article outines the Digital Divas program, a single-sex elective offered to female Year 8 students at Brentwood Secondary School in Glen Waverley, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. First trialled in 2008, the program continued in 2009, and has been over-subscribed by girls wanting to enrol. The program involves four 48-minute teaching periods each week over one semester. The decision to offer a single-sex elective was based on recommendations from research that documented the value of a single-sex environment for ensuring that girls have full access to facilities, and for encouraging girls to explore and discover together rather than remain passive onlookers. The school also offers mixed-sex ICT classes. There are three aspects to the Digital Divas program: Curriculum, Informal mentoring by university students and, Bringing ICT career women into the classroom.