Andrew Hampton
Dedicating my time to training teachers and school leaders to understand the relational worlds of their students, author of 3 books.
Last trained today
About Andrew Hampton
Andrew Hampton is an education writer and CEO of Girls on Board and Working with Boys, organizations dedicated to improving relational cultures in schools. He is known for identifying invisible friendship conflicts among girls and supporting boys' identity development, training teachers and school leaders in practical frameworks for navigating these dynamics. Hampton's expertise stems from 18 years as Headteacher at Thorpe Hall School and is reinforced by an MEd in Educational Leadership, FRSA fellowship, and three books on relational cultures published by Routledge.
Frequently asked
How can schools prevent harmful sexual behaviour and misogyny?
- Prevention works best through a whole-school approach with regularly timetabled lessons delivered by trained staff, not one-off visiting speakers. Schools need to build a culture of zero tolerance for sexism, misogyny, misandry, and sexual harassment into the curriculum and behaviour policy, delivered consistently by their own team who understand their pupils.
Why do boys modify their behaviour to avoid humiliation?
- Fear of humiliation and peer validation are powerful drivers of boys' behaviour. Boys often change how they act to avoid embarrassment in front of their peers, meaning the audience around them matters more than adult responses. Understanding this allows schools to create relational cultures based on mutual respect and dignity rather than relying on traditional discipline approaches.
What is the difference between gentle and sour masculinity in schools?
- Gentle masculinity emphasises mutual respect, compassion, and dignity in how boys relate to each other, while sour masculinity is built on hierarchies, humiliation, and peer validation through conformity or dominance. Schools can help boys develop gentle masculinity through guided reflection and language work that supports positive relational cultures.
How should schools approach pupil leadership roles?
- Authentic pupil leadership must give young people real responsibility and decision-making power, not tokenistic roles. Sports captaincies often work because they carry genuine authority; traditional prefect systems often disenfranchise candidates who weren't selected. Better approaches include leading projects, campaigns, eco initiatives, or committees where pupils genuinely serve their school community.
Why is listening to boys' own experience important in school behaviour?
- Adults often assume they understand boys' experiences without asking. Guided reflection and pupil voice help reveal what boys actually think and feel about school, peer relationships, and behaviour expectations. This insight allows schools to respond more effectively rather than relying on assumptions about what boys need.
What makes relational culture important for boys' behaviour in schools?
- Boys' behaviour is shaped by the relational culture and hierarchies within their peer groups, not just by individual incidents. Understanding which individuals influence what's seen as acceptable behaviour, and how boys relate to each other, is more powerful than responding to isolated misbehaviour. This approach helps schools influence the culture itself.
How is misandry addressed in the new KCSiE guidance?
- The new KCSiE mentions misandry alongside misogyny, creating zero tolerance for both. This means schools must tackle harmful attitudes toward boys as well as girls, avoiding the 'boys are the problem' framing that can make boys defensive. True whole-school safeguarding requires supporting relational health across all genders.
Straight from the source
“For girls, the crucial issue is friendship. If a girl has at least one trusting, reliable friendship in her year group, then she has a platform from which to cope with most of what school throws at her. Without that friendship, everything else feels precarious.”
“For boys, the issue is humiliation. Many live in a peer culture where banter can turn vicious at any moment. They do not feel safe, so they hide inside grunts, hoodies and disengagement.”
“If we see the fear of humiliation as a crucial driver of behaviour in boys, things change. We can help them desensitise and create relational cultures based on mutual respect, compassion and dignity.”