This book reveals how six schools, serving very different communities, successfully tackled their boys’ attainment gap by focusing on whole-school culture change. It explores the reasons why boys are underachieving and dispels common myths about engaging boys.
Offering a wide range of tried-and-tested strategies, the book provides detailed guidance on creating a safe, respectful school community that enables boys and girls to thrive. Chapters outline how key interventions were implemented across each school and the impact they had including:
- Building strong relationships and supporting home links
- Role-modelling and peer mentoring
- Enrichment and extracurricular activities
- Literacy support and oracy development
- Consistent discipline
- Internal observation and staff training
Full of practical advice to help make boys’ underachievement a thing of the past, this is essential reading for all teachers and school leaders interested in boys‘ attainment and behaviour.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Background
1.1. What's the problem?
1.2. About the schools
1.3. General lessons learned
Part 2: Effective Interventions
2.1. Changing the culture
2.2. Building relationships
2.3. Role models
2.4. Enrichment and celebrating success
2.5. High expectations
2.6. Language skills: Literacy and Oracy
2.7. Rewards and consequences
Part 3: Supporting your staff
3.1. Time to focus on solutions
3.2. Unskilling staff
Part 4: Conclusions
4.1. An optimistic message
4.2. Summary
About the Author :
Mike Bell taught science in secondary schools and then ran courses in evidence-based methods for the Evidence Based Teachers Network (EBTN). He is the author of The Fundamentals of Teaching, Routledge 2021. He founded and was the lead researcher for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Men and Boys issues from 2021 to 2025.
Review :
"Mike Bell has produced a timely, practical and deeply encouraging guide to improving boys’ educational outcomes. Grounded in evidence and the wisdom of successful school leaders, this book offers real solutions and renewed hope for boys, families and educators across the English-speaking countries." - David Maywald, Author and advocate for men, boys, healthier relationships and social balance. Canberra, Australia
"The schools in these pages turned the lens round and asked a much more uncomfortable question: not “What is wrong with the boys?”, but “What are we doing, as adults, that may be holding them back?” - Richard V Reeves, President, American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM)
"As someone who has written a number of books on helping boys with their learning and having visited dozens of schools to persuade them to take action, it is great to see this book which has the testimony from teachers who have actually acted and can show their success. It should be a wake-up call that boys’ underachievement is not inevitable." - Gary Wilson, author of Boys will be Brilliant
"It has been a privilege to contribute to this book. Mike has used my own words, rather than his interpretation of them, showing practical strategies for how schools closed the attainment gap for boys. - Andy Eadie, Assistant Headteacher, Cardinal Langley Roman Catholic High School. Manchester, UK
"The underachievement of boys is a problem we share on both sides of the Atlantic, and what makes Yes He Can! so valuable is that it moves past diagnosis to proven solutions — drawn straight from the schools that have actually closed the gap, without extra funding and without holding girls back. We will do our best to promote this practical and hopeful book throughout North America." - G. Lawrence DeMarco, LL.M, Executive Manager, International Council for Men and Boys, USA
“When it comes to addressing the education crisis of boys, too often experts discuss the outcomes without discussing solutions. ‘Yes He Can!’ provides the practical solutions we’ve been missing. Mike Bell shares how real schools closed the boys’ attainment gap via culture change, relationships, and high expectations—without extra cost or harming girls. A must-read for educators tackling boys’ underachievement.” - Lisa Britton, Writer and Advocate for boys and men. Evie Magazine, LA Times, Institute for Family Studies
"For far too long tackling boys' under-achievement has been placed in varying camps "don't worry, they'll do OK in the end", "it is not a political/education priority" and "it's just too hard." (Sometimes, all three at the same time.) This book shows why it does matter and why real-life solutions from the real-life experiences from teaching are on hand. This book should be a 'go-to' for anyone interested in improving boys' education.” - Mark Brooks, Director of Policy, Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys, UK.
