The head of Sheffield High School for Girls, Nina Gunson, looks at the benefits of a girls only education
Sheffield High School for Girls was one of the first girls’ schools in England, set up nearly 150 years ago by a group of pioneering and determined women.
Are schools for girls still relevant?
There is still a need for great girls’ schools that teach academic subjects and also offer girls the chance to develop their creativity, problem-solving and independence of thought in an environment designed around their specific needs.
I’ll start with a small caveat. A good school is a good school. There are good co-ed schools and good single sex schools. All schools are different, and some schools will be a better fit for a child than others. With that said, I want to tell you why I believe girls’ schools are better for girls.
Schools like ours are able to offer a learning environment dedicated to girls’ learning needs and preferences, free from gender-stereotyping and free from distraction. It’s well documented that girls do better academically in an all-girls school. If you want excellent exam results, then sending your daughter to a girls’ school makes sense.
But there’s so much more to a great education than just exam results. And certainly, top universities are looking for students who have a broader skill set and experience beyond the classroom.
So how do girls’ schools give their pupils an advantage?
In girls’ only schools, the proportion of girls studying subjects like maths, physics and computer science at advanced level is significantly higher than the figures for girls nationally. Girls are more likely to apply for courses such as engineering at university if they attended an all girls’ school.
It’s not that the sciences or maths are better than languages, humanities or the arts, but we do recognise that women are under-represented in these subjects – in a school like ours every subject is a girls’ subject.
How does Sheffield Girls’ tackle the issue of gender-stereotyping?
Schools like ours play a vital role in combating the stereotyping that can have a powerful and damaging effect on the choices girls make. Single sex schools provide an environment where girls can establish their own identities, attitudes and self-worth during those crucial formative years.
At Sheffield Girls’ there are twice as many opportunities for girls – in leadership, drama, sports, music, public speaking and more. It’s guaranteed that a girl will be the head student. She’ll be the sports captain too. The director of the school play is a girl, and so is the captain of the debate team. Girls learn to find their voice and speak up in an environment where they’re less worried about looking either too stupid or too smart.
The breadth of extra-curricular activities on offer at Sheffield Girls’ provides the girls with chances to be adventurous and self-sufficient, by completing expeditions both in the UK and overseas; to be creative, innovative and solution focussed, by entering, and winning, national and international competitions in everything from art and creative writing to robotics and engineering; and to develop their employability skills by volunteering in the community and running their own enterprises in school.
Every day we see how girls excel in an ‘all girls’ environment. Girls tend to have learning needs, styles and preferences that are different to those of boys. Single-sex settings allow teachers to focus more effectively on the needs of individual girls. Girls achieve more when they are given their own dedicated space in which to develop, and those who attend girls-only schools: are less likely to conform to gender stereotypes; are less constrained in their choice of subjects; show a greater propensity to take risks and to innovate perform better in examinations; have more opportunities to show leadership; are more career orientated; and go on to be more successful in the job market.
The GDST describes its schools as places where girls learn without limits, and at Sheffield Girls’ our pupils leave with the confidence and the capability to lead lives without limits. I am so proud of the culture in our school – there is a strong sense of community built on mutual respect; every girl is free to be herself and our school values of positivity, kindness and courage can be seen in all that they do and achieve. Visit our website to book a visit or to register of our autumn open events.
