There is strong evidence a girls-only education leads to stronger self-confidence, resilience, academic attainment and enhanced career progression.

Today’s girls’ schools subvert, rather than support, gender stereotypes by offering an education designed for and dedicated to the development and empowerment of successful, happy, confident and adventurous young women.

Girls achieve more when given their own dedicated space to develop. In single-sex schools girls:

  • Are less likely to conform to gender stereotypes.
  • Show greater propensity to take risks and innovate.
  • Have more opportunities to show leadership.

GDST expertise indicates:

  • Gender affects the way students experience education.
  • Girls face pressures to conform to gender stereotypes – pressures which are stronger in the presence of boys.
  • Girls need and deserve space to develop their full potential, and to make informed and unconstrained choices about interests, subjects and careers.
  • In girls-only schools their needs and preferences can be fully accommodated within a dedicated learning environment.
  • Successful girls’ schools’ dedication to girls’ education is reflected in their physical design, curriculum and co-curriculum offer, teaching and learning approaches, and in their whole-school culture.

Why (and how) girls thrive in girls-only schools, The GDST Perspective – Kevin Stannard MA PhD

See also The Girls’ Futures Report, a landmark survey in 2022 of 5,000 girls in state and independent schools and academies across the UK to understand what matters most to girls today, and how they feel about what lies ahead in their futures.

GSA Research highlights, compared to girls in co-educational schools, those in girls’ schools:

  • Are 2.5 times as likely to take Further Maths and Physics at A Level.
  • Are more likely to study Sciences, uptake being: Biology 40% higher, Chemistry 77% higher and Computer Science 72% higher.
  • Perform better than students in co-educational independent schools.

Brighton Girls instils an innate sense of confidence – that as young women they are capable of achieving anything they set their minds to.    Parent

The GDST Difference Booklet looks at why GDST students answered more positively in areas such as confidence and ambition than other girls across the country, exploring the benefits of learning in girls-only schools and in the unique GDST environment.  This booklet is based on Dr Kevin Stannard’s analysis of the Girls Futures Report findings.