Girls’ Day School Trust

Brighton Girls is proud to be part of the GDST, a world leader in girls’ education. Our students benefit from the opportunities the Trust make available in areas such as sport, music, drama and careers’ advice and support.

All about the GDST

The GDST is the largest group of independent schools in the UK with nearly 4,000 staff and 20,000 students. As a charitable trust that owns and runs 23 schools and sponsors two academies, it invests all its income in its schools.

Since its foundation in 1872, the GDST has been at the forefront of innovation in the education of girls. Students from GDST schools were among the first women to obtain university degrees and to enter the professions. This pioneeering spirit continues to this day, with the GDST aiming to help girls make their mark on the world, in their own way, and on their own terms. Find out more at www.gdst.net

The Girls’ Day School Trust
10 Bressenden Place
London
SW1E 5DH
Tel: 020 7393 6666
Fax: 020 7393 6789

A limited company registered in England number 6400. Registered charity number 306983.

The Chairman of the GDST is Juliet Humphries. You can write to her at the address given above.

Benefits of a Girls’ Only Education

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.