I am passionate about educating girls in an all-girls environment. Why? Because I know that girls achieve more in single-sex schools.
There are no enforced gender boundaries within the classroom in an all-girls school such as Queenswood. Our pupils can take intellectual risks, ask questions, or make judgements, without worrying about looking stupid in front of boys. They build confidence at a pace that suits them, in a wholly supportive environment.
Single-sex education also liberates girls from the damaging stereotype that certain subjects are more suited to specific genders. Recent research from the Institute of Physics, for instance, shows that girls are two-and-a-half times more likely to take physics in a girls-only school.
Above all, in a girls’ school pupils are free to learn in the most appropriate and effective ways for them. We know that they prefer to work in groups rather than on their own, so we teach in collaborative and co-operative ways. We know that girls are not natural risk-takers, particularly if they feel they will be judged. So we encourage girls to take risks. Overcoming failure in a safe, risk-taking environment enables girls to develop confidence in their own abilities as individuals, and to develop self-esteem.
The young women we educate at schools like Queenswood grow up to be resilient and resourceful, ready to face whatever the future may hold.
Find out more from Queenswood’s Head of International Admissions, Andrea George, at the UK Boarding School Exhibition at the Grosvenor Hotel, Dubai, on February 24 and 25, 2024.
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