Schools Guide

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You may recall, a while back, a cartoon that appeared in one of our national newspapers, reflecting on the fact that a daughter of a famous rock star had been excluded from a girls’ school. The cartoon showed an old-fashioned staffroom, with dusty book-lined walls, rather uninspiring tables with more faded books on them in the background, and two rather old spinster teachers in the foreground, with twin-set tweed and pearls, leaning on their walking sticks. The part we were meant to laugh at was that – underneath their cardigans – these two formidable ladies were wearing rockers’ T-shirts, and the caption was ‘Does this mean he won’t be coming to parents’ meetings any more, then?’

We did of course laugh, but in fact this cartoon was really rather disappointing for its underlying expectations of what life in a girls’ school is all about, and the notion that in no way whatsoever do people expect that girls’ schools will ever actually ‘rock’...

Prejudices about girls’ schools abound: that the atmosphere is stultified and oldfashioned, and that girls in a girls’ school are perpetually unkind to one another. As parents, our ideas about schools are often heavily influenced by vaguely remembered impressions of a quarter of a century ago, and it can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that girls who go to girls’ schools emerge timid, unable to say boo to a goose (let alone a boy!), and that somehow girls from girls’ schools are less well prepared for life than girls from co-educational schools.

Nothing could be further from the truth! St Mary’s, Calne, in common with all the girls’ boarding schools I know, is a warm, vibrant, happening place – where, incidentally, we recently played host to an up-and-coming rock band. It is a place where the girls are extraordinarily supportive and kind to one another; where they learn to live with one another, respect and value one another (a particularly strong feature of boarding); where they lead nourishing lives in all respects; where there is healthy competition; and where, above all, girls learn who they are, where they learn to be, and learn what they can be in life.

Teenage years are very formative ones, where our children are still learning to be adults, and they need to be able to do this in a place where they can grow, free of inhibition and with an incredible breadth of opportunity a place where anything and everything is possible. The girls do not lack a social life – far from it and nor do they lack contacts with boys, both academic and social; what they gain from being at an all-girls’ school, however, is the best preparation for life that they could ever imagine: a grounded sense of themselves and of their potential to do, and to be, whatever they would like to be in the world that awaits them.

Girls’ schools are far from being an outdated concept – in fact, they have evolved into a very modern concept, providing a relevant and stimulating learning environment, and a strong space for girls to learn to understand themselves and the roles they will have the opportunity to play in society. Girls’ schools celebrate girls and young women and, in a very real way, let them just learn to be themselves, to be the very best they can be, and to realise the outstanding personal potential that they have.

There are many arguments for sending your daughter to a girls’ school, from the academic (the exam results and the classroom experience) to the social (the career opportunities and career models), and these are listed comprehensively elsewhere in this issue; far and away the most powerful, however, is the personal argument – what a girls’ school will do for your daughter. A girls’ school – and a girls’ boarding school in particular – will give her the opportunity to discover who she really is, and will prepare her to be whatever she chooses to be in life.

This, of course, is the real ‘rock’ in girls’ schools – the rock of self-belief that we give them, to be able to go out into the world and to like themselves. Girls will have many roles to play in life – in careers, leisure, relationships and family – and we want them to be able to embrace them all, and to be happy and successful in them all. The girls of today are the women of tomorrow – they should experience no limitations as they pursue their goals. Girls’ schools give our daughters the opportunities to explore these roles and to work out who they are – and they are fantastic, amazing places to work and be. Girls’ schools rock – and so do the young women we help create.