The saying ‘Two heads are better that one’ indicating that problem solving is even better when it is a collaborative endeavour is such a wise statement. So, you can only imagine what it was like when 25 GDST Junior Heads gathered for their conference at the impressive Notting Hill and Ealing School, last week. An annual event which covers many areas including sharing of good practice across the GDST schools. Educating girls is what we do so well.
It was also the perfect opportunity to discuss ‘Designing the Future of Girls’ Education’ a new GDST Insights Report and Framework to encourage schools to review and improve how girls are being educated nationwide. It is a calling card as to how education designed for girls can help unlock their full potential and this is what we are all about at Suttons High School. It shines a spotlight on how girls feel growing up in today’s world, what they want for their futures, and what education can do to support them to realise their ambitions.
I would most certainly encourage you to read the report as we have 152 years of educating girls at the GDST and we are able to tailor our education to their needs and preferences. This is what we do from our youngest girls in Nursery, the 3-year-olds who skip down the path to Fernwood House to our oldest in the Sixth Form. The evidence is powerful…girls-only education works. Our girls learn in an environment that means they thrive, and they feel any career is possible and that is what we want – ‘an education designed for and dedicated to the development and empowerment of successful, happy, confident and adventurous girls and young women.’
Personally, I am the product of an all-girls education attending Bedford High School for Girls, quite a few years ago, now! But it was that environment which shaped the person I have become today and ensured I can, fulfil my potential, and to continue to stretch and challenge myself. As with so many of our teachers, I have taught in co-ed schools both state and independent, but it was the experience of teaching at MLC School and Queenwood in Sydney, all through, all girls schools, in 1999 to 2008 then onto Putney and Sutton GDST schools that confirmed my view of the importance of single-sex education. Our girls at Sutton High School are inspired by their school and are each, individually, inspiring.
As the report outlines:
Classroom Practice
- Empower girls to be successful on their own terms and in their own voice.
- Cultivate the dispositions that enable girls to engage with boys on equal terms.
- Celebrate risk and normalise failure.
‘Girls are encouraged to try things out, to resist perfectionism, and to embrace error such as a heuristic learning process.’
Curriculum and Co-Curriculum
- Challenge subject and career-based gender imbalances.
- Build financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
- Promote inclusion in sport and physical exercise (PE).
- Increase opportunities for girls to take on leadership roles.
Culture
- Openly discuss barriers to equality.
- Create an inclusive culture.
- Exemplify a narrative of female achievement.
- Celebrate and develop teachers and others who actively inspire female students.
So, as our conference drew to a close at the world renowned Kew Gardens, where we were learning even more about sustainability, it was with a sense of courage, truth and joy that I reflected on being part of the Sutton High School family and the GDST. Learning without Limits.