At the start of this week, I attended the annual Girls’ School Association conference which, this year, was held in the Cotswold Water Park. While my pre-conference attempt to enjoy a brisk walk around the lake was thwarted by severe flooding, I benefited hugely from the deluge of ideas and discussions that ensued over the next two days.
The themes running through my conference notes will come as no surprise: the gender gap; where next, for diversity and inclusion?; adolescent mental health; financial education; the political landscape for independent schools. Fellow GDST head, and this year‘s GSA president, Marina Gardiner Legge, opened the conference by talking about the “extraordinary magic“ of girls’ education and, as I listened to experts in various fields and talked to fellow school leaders, I reflected on how we are responding to the challenges and opportunities of education today. A snapshot of the last two weeks suggests we are moving in the right direction. We are certainly not treading water – and this is due largely to the strength of our community,
Mary Anne Sieghart gave an entertaining talk about her new book ‘The Authority Gap – why women are still taken less seriously than men and what we can do about it’. Sieghart argued that we need to prepare girls for a world in which sexism and misogyny are rife; that we need to be realistic, recognising that we still have a long way to go; and that, rather than promoting an idealised view of the world, we must work on confidence-building and resilience. Having positive role models is key. We were delighted to host our first Women in Politics Conference last week. It is a matter of months since Sixth Formers Holly, Tilly and Clara came to see me with an idea to raise the profile of women in politics. With help from Mrs Findlay, Mrs Watson and Ms Baldwin, they made it happen. The event brought three GDST schools together to hear alumnae Daisy Wright and Margaret Joachim MBE and parent Rebecca Bailham talk about their lives in politics. All three offered brilliant examples of confidence and resilience; all three have done their bit to close the authority gap and inspired the next generation to do the same.
Sieghart was followed by Helen Thomas, Oxford High almuna and CEO of Blonde Money, who spoke about the importance of financial education in schools. As I listened, I felt grateful to Mr Gregory who invited Croydon High alumna Abigail Foster, founder of Elent Financial Education to Brighton Girls during Wellbeing Week in October to talk to students from Year 6 to Year 13 about money – how it works, what questions to ask and, for the Sixth Form, practical advice like how to interpret a payslip. This is exactly the sort of financial education students are calling for (in fact, these sessions were a direct result of pupil voice); the fact that they were delivered by someone wearing a purple jumpsuit was a bonus!
Day One of the GSA conference ended with a powerful presentation by Aduke Onafowokan who encouraged us all to consider our journeys towards greater equity, diversity and inclusion in our schools. In a talk that covered representation, diversity in the curriculum, the importance of stories and role models, and the value of affinity groups, Onafowokan ended by reminding us of the simple things that create a sense of belonging: knowing everybody by name, looking people in the eye.
At Brighton Girls, we often say that our size is our superpower: with our House system, smaller class sizes, and tutor groups, we aim to create an environment where everybody is noticed – and this, of course, extends to parents and our wider community. Our calendar over the last two weeks has been packed with community events: Children in Need; Women in Politics; a talk for Sports Scholars delivered by parent, Kirsty Dobson; last night’s charity wine tasting with 7 Cellars; Sunday’s dog walk in Stanmer Park; tomorrow’s Christmas fair. In recent years, we have great emphasis on our community, and I am delighted that, last week, The Hive Society was recognised for its impact, winning the IDPE Development Award for Schools’ Engagement Campaign of the Year. Huge thanks to the brilliant Rebecca Findlay for everything she has done to establish The Hive Society over the last year; the IDPE accolade is richly deserved.
Through The Hive Society, we aim to create opportunities for social interactions involving all members of our community and, as we have started to see, by doing this, we have added something special and powerful to our educational provision: greater representation; amazing role models for our students; careers advice; partnership opportunities; new friendships and connections – and all this has a positive impact on our feeling of belonging.
As Aduke Onafowokan put it, “Inclusion begins with, “Hello!””.
