{"id":17312,"date":"2023-11-24T15:45:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T15:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brightongirls.gdst.net\/?post_type=heads_blog&p=17312"},"modified":"2023-11-24T15:45:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T15:45:22","slug":"you-had-me-at-hello","status":"publish","type":"heads_blog","link":"https:\/\/brightongirls.gdst.net\/news\/heads_blog\/you-had-me-at-hello\/","title":{"rendered":"You had me at hello"},"content":{"rendered":"
At the start of this week, I attended the annual Girls\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2018s GSA president, Marina Gardiner Legge, opened the conference by talking about the \u201cextraordinary magic\u201c of girls\u2019 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,<\/p>\n
Mary Anne Sieghart gave an entertaining talk about her new book \u2018The Authority Gap – why women are still taken less seriously than men and what we can do about it\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n