The fabulousness of girls’ schools!

I have just returned from the Independent Schools’ Show in Battersea, London, where I was speaking in the morning on the subject of ‘The benefits of single-sex education’. In the afternoon, I was on a ‘MyDaughter’ panel of Heads of girls’ schools, chaired by Sarah Ebner of Schoolgate, so I had a double dose of single-sex education, and a thoroughly enjoyable day focusing on what it is about our single-sex girls’ schools that make them so great.

It is a question that I am often asked ‘ why single-sex girls? ‘ and I tend to respond from a very personal perspective. My journey in senior school teaching in the independent schools’ sector in the UK began with an all boys’ school, and I moved from there into a co-educational school because I wanted to be more involved with girls and their development. By the time of my second co-educational school, however, and especially because I was at the time studying part-time for an MA in Applied Linguistics which sensitised me to language and gender issues, I began to feel that girls deserved something more, and as a result I moved into my first girls’ school.

What a revelation! Here was a place where girls could do anything to which they set their minds, where pressures of gender stereotypes were absent, and where girls could just be themselves – relaxed, natural girls and young women. Here there was a space – a real gift of space – for girls to learn who they were, learn to like themselves, and learn that life holds an infinite possibility for them.

Now in my second girls’ school – and fast approaching the end of a glorious decade of my life here – I understand even better, and am yet more passionate about, the effect that girls’ schools have on the girls who join them. They are amazing places, full of energy, joy and a refreshing normality that is at odds with an outdated image that prevails in the tabloid press. ‘Relaxed and purposeful’ is a phrase I often use to describe my own school, and I see this reflected in many excellent girls’ schools. In a great girls’ school, a girl learns how to be.

And we must not underestimate too the importance of girls’ schools in helping us to address our social history and to change, gently but firmly, the imbalances of the past whose residues linger in so many parts of our society. Girls’ schools teach girls that they can be anything that they want to be – so long as they are responsible citizens; they empower them; they give them the opportunity to discuss issues which can vex our current generations of young women, such as working motherhood; and they teach them how to push boundaries and make choices that are right for them, for their families and for their wider communities.

And the proof of their success? Just look at the young women when they graduate from their girls’ schools: grounded, comfortable in themselves and making the most of their lives. What more as parents could we ask for our daughters? Girls’ schools are – quite simply – fabulous!

What a marvellous day I have had, reminding myself of this!

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