Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a selection of some frequently asked questions and responses.

For further information, expert opinion and useful advice on educating and raising happy fulfilled girls visit the MyDaughter website .

Q Surely girls’ schools can’t prepare girls for a co-ed life?

A I am sure that GSA pupils would agree that single-sex education doesn’t mean a single-sex life, even in boarding schools. Girls get plenty of the real world in the rest of their lives outside the school gates. It can be a great relief for girls to know that after a hectic weekend packed with lots of social traumas, they don’t have to deal with it all on Monday morning. Girls’ schools can provide the space for girls to develop at their own pace set apart from the cruel realities of mixed teenagedom. There can be big advantages in having to separate business and pleasure. By the time girls are ready to leave school they have acquired higher self-esteem, greater self-confidence, better exam passes especially in vital subjects, more genuine subject choice, and more opportunities for leadership. All these things will make them better equipped for a life in which they will be both career women and mothers, balancing roles to an extent that few men must do.

Q How are pupils seen in the wider community, by potential employers and university Admission Tutors, if they come to a single-sex fee-paying school rather than a co-ed maintained school?

A The girls’ references when they leave us make very clear how they have blossomed academically and gained the best results of which they are capable, because they have been taught and nurtured in the way that suits girls best. They therefore gain the highest possible examination grades AND have excellent opportunities for extra curricular involvement and leadership challenge which fits them superbly for university and beyond. This is what University Admission Tutors and future employers are looking for.

Q Are not girls’ schools outdated in the 21st century?

A Much of the debate on single-sex versus co-education in the 1970s and 1980s centred on whether girls and boys had equal access and equal opportunity at school. During the feminist revolution of the 1970s talk of innate differences in the behaviour of men and women was considered politically incorrect. Social and cultural differences, rather than genetic origins, were used to explain gender differences. However, research in the last 10 years or so on brain development suggests that gender differences are as much to do with the chemistry and structure of the brain as the way in which girls and boys are raised. The tendencies of girls to be more contemplative, collaborative, intuitive and verbal, and boys to be more physically active, aggressive, and independent in their learning style seems to stem from brain function and development.

These findings have shifted the focus of debate away from equal access and equal opportunities to how equal are the educational experiences and outcomes for girls and boys. Equal does not necessarily mean being the same. The way that girls experience school and the world, and science and maths do not always parallel those of boys. Researchers such as Carol Gilligan in the USA and others started to consider specific strategies for teaching girls.

This led to the introduction of what the Americans call ‘girl-centred education’: educational strategies that recognise the particular ways in which girls learn.

Girls’ schools are as relevant today as they have ever been.

Visit the MyDaughter website for further detail on raising and educating your daughter.