As part of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), we are a family of 20,000 students and over 100,000 alumnae bound together by a mission to help girls learn without limits, so they can lead lives without limits.
GDST schools are designed specifically for girls, tailoring education to their unique needs and preferences, to foster ambition, fearlessness, and resilience, free from the constraints of gender stereotyping.
The role of girls’ education has never been more relevant in order to accelerate the pace of change. This is why we have built on the findings of our landmark 2022 ‘Girls’ Futures Report’, which highlighted the aspirations of girls and the barriers they face, to develop the Designing the Future of Girls’ Education, a GDST Insights Report and Framework. This report and framework provides thought-provoking and practical tools designed to inform and empower families, teachers and the entire educational community to understand how girls learn best and to challenge the structures and mindsets in schools that short-change female pupils.
Our earlier research found that girls nationally faced a significant drop in confidence, ambition, and preparedness for the future compared to their peers in single-sex settings and boys in all types of settings from the age of 14 onwards. Designing the Future of Girls’ Education, a GDST Insights Report, aims to address these challenges head-on.
It brings together the views of leading academic experts, researchers, teachers, students, and campaigners to focus on three core principles: classroom practice, curriculum, and school culture. The report and framework will help schools and families to review the extent to which structural gender imbalances and stereotyping in the wider world are being reflected and reinforced in the classroom, and limiting girls’ future potential.
Offering expertise and practical steps, in the form of a framework, that will help shape and influence the education of girls, this critical resource will help educators to enable the full potential of girls in whatever school they attend.
