Girls' schools also......
Create a safe risk-taking environment where girls can learn from their mistakes without fear of being put down or dismissed. They provide an environment where there is no shame in working hard or being successful. This enables girls to develop confidence on their own abilities as individuals, and not define themselves by their gender.
Counter mass media influences by freeing girls from the pressure to conform to sexist patterns of behaviour, and providing them with a framework with to judge the image of girls in today’s media. Girls are free to grow up at their own pace.
Support a ‘can-do’ philosophy. Girls hold all the senior positions in the school: all the scientists are girls, all the mathematicians are girls. There is no subject area or activity of the school in which girls do not excel. This leads undoubtedly to a ‘can-do’ philosophy in the school.
Recognise the qualities of girls and how they learn. Girls’ schools are expert in recognising the qualities of girls and understanding what makes them tick and how they learn. This knowledge is built up over years of experience of teaching girls.
This experience has led to girls’ schools adopting specific girl-centred learning strategies such as
- using relevant real-world applications from girls’ lives
- teaching in collaborative and co-operative ways
- calling pupils by their name and waiting for them to reply before moving onto the next pupil
- encouraging risk-taking
- exploring mistakes and acknowledging their value
- teaching alternative solutions rather than just a single right answer to a given problem
- using writing as a means of learning any subject
- explaining through stories
- helping pupils to see themselves as sources of knowledge
Celebrate learning without social distractions. Girls’ schools offer an environment in which girls can concentrate on learning without the distraction of boys. Without the presence of boys, girls tend to display their intelligence and curiosity regardless of powerful age-determined notions of popularity, attractiveness or negative peer pressure.
Provide staff that are experts in the teaching of girls.
Ensure that there is no sex stereotyping of subjects. Girls are more likely to take subjects that are less traditionally popular with girls because subjects don’t acquire a masculine or feminine connotation.
Provide leadership opportunities and models. Girls’ schools are institutions where all the leadership positions in the school are held by girls and where girls can find strong role models amongst the staff, ethos and philosophy of the school.
Celebrate the female perspective. Girls’ schools celebrate the female perspective and way of doing things, are places where girls are accustomed to being heard and being valued for who they are, irrespective of what they look like or what they wear. The girls’ school environment affirms and encourages young women in their capacities as confident individuals, leaders and agents of social change.
Girls' schools offer every opportunity
