I came across the most amazing 101 year old woman last week. Her name was Dr Ruth Gruber, and I met her during my visit on Friday to Nightingale-Bamford School, a great girls’ school in New York which is one of several partner schools across the world to my new school (from January 2013), Ascham …
Category: teaching
Apr 13
Miss Wallis and a passion for girls’ education
I have just been reading ‘The Search for Marie Wallis’ by Gerri Nicholas; Miss Marie Wallis was the founding principal of Ascham School, Sydney, Australia, and I shall be following in her footsteps in January 2013, when I become Ascham’s 10th Head in its history. Miss Wallis founded the school in Darling Point in Sydney …
Mar 26
Singing, sand and sisters in Florida
I have just spent a couple of days in Naples, Florida, as the first part of the fantastic St Mary’s Calne Chamber Choir tour of the State. You can follow them via their website – http://musicatstmaryscalne.wordpress.com/, and if you are in Florida in the next few days, come and hear them! Make an effort – …
Mar 18
Research from the US on Girls: the stereotype threat
Meeting other Heads of Schools is always interesting and uplifting; meeting other Heads of Schools who are actively engaged in developing and promoting research on girls’ education is inspiring. So it was at the NAPSG conference in Seattle, where I had the good fortune to meet and spend time with Ann V Klotz, the super …
Feb 06
The case for girls’ schools
Earlier today I appeared on the BBC2’s Daily Politics – find it on BBC iplayer with today’s date (6th February) – and I was able to talk about the benefits of girls’ schools, which was a real boon. Girls’ schools are such fantastic places, and I am meeting with some colleagues from the US National …
Feb 04
Girls learning to lead: deciding on next year’s Head Girl and her team
I am just about to announce – tomorrow, after our morning assembly – the new positions of responsibilities for our Sixth Form girls for the coming year. The time has come for our final year pupils, with public exams looming, to relinquish their leadership roles and to pave the way for the next generation of …
Jan 20
Miss-Representation – how we portray women in the media, and what we can do about it
One of the sessions at the UK Girls’ Schools Association Conference in Bristol in November, which I hosted as GSA President, was an uplifting interactive conversation with colleagues from the States. It immediately preceded the arrival of Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools, who was delayed; the positive upshot was that we were able …
Jan 08
An emboldening experience in a Chelsea nightclub …
Last night I found myself in a wine bar/nightclub on the King’s Road, Chelsea, London – not, I hasten to add, where I would normally expect to find myself on a Saturday evening shortly before the start of the Spring Term … or, indeed, on a Saturday night ever. Having arrived unfashionably early, I was …
Nov 24
Heads of Girls’ Schools: making a real world of difference
I returned yesterday from the annual Girls’ Schools Association which I was leading in my capacity as this year’s President, and I can report that it was an amazing occasion. The programme – based on the theme of ‘Making a World of Difference’ – was extremely full, packed with speakers who stimulated and challenged, and …
Nov 19
Making a World of Difference: preparing for the annual conference of Heads of the Girls’ Schools Association
Monday marks the beginning of the annual conference of the Girls’ Schools Association, and therefore marks the nearing of the end of my year as President of the GSA. It has been an astonishingly stimulating year, and I shall reflect further on it as the year actually reaches its end, but before this, we have …