Girls’ schools’ leaders discussed taking on misogyny and the influence of “incel” culture and the “manosphere” community where its adherents communicate, the Shropshire Star has reported.

At the Girls’ Schools Association annual conference near Cirencester, Carl Howarth, principal of Jersey College for Girls, a private girls’ school on the Channel Island, said he was concerned about the “deeply sinister spread” of the “manosphere” in society.

Howarth said: “I think it’s only by working together that we will be able to combat this. I think the answer must lie in a more collaborative discussion.”

Jersey College for Girls has increased its partnership with neighbouring boys’ school Victoria College following the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ campaign.

Howarth said younger pupils at the schools now come together for personal, social, health and economic, and art lessons. He told the Press Association: “We needed to make the meeting of boys and girls normal and not an issue – a non-event.”