The Importance of Girls' Education: a Teacher's Perspective

If you want your daughter to thrive in a technologically driven and globalised world, single-sex education is the path to ensure her greatest chance of success. 

The absence of boys in the learning environment has numerous benefits on a girl’s road to development: there is less pressure to be a certain type of ‘girl,’ more freedom to explore educational and extracurricular passions without judgements and girls are encouraged to speak freely and authentically. 

Over the last decade, girls that attend single sex schools have achieved higher GCSE results than their mixed school counterparts. According to the BBC, in mixed schools, 55% of pupils got five good GCSEs including English and Maths, whilst in single-sex schools, the proportion was 75%. Furthermore, in a study conducted by UCL’s Institute of Education, they found that “girls in single-sex schools are more likely to study Science” and also earn “higher wages than their co-ed peers in mid-life.” 

For girls, beginning their learning journey at a single-sex school is the bridge to a world that does not limit their possibilities to a singular lane.

Single sex education boosts girls' confidence and encourages them to advocate for themselves. 

At St Margaret’s Hampstead, pedagogy is catered specifically towards how girls work and interact with one another. From Reception all the way to Year 11, pupils are encouraged to work collaboratively; our girls actively uplift their peers and celebrate their ideas and unique perspectives.

In mixed schools, opportunities like this may be limited. Discussions can often be dominated by boys, causing some girls to withdraw. However, at our school, group presentations, extended projects, organising and delivering large assemblies and classroom discussions are the norm, giving girls the opportunity to speak boldly and resolutely. This greatly improves their levels of articulation and oracy, preparing them to assert themselves confidently on stages, in lecture halls and in boardrooms later on in life.

Single sex education breaks barriers for girls, rather than confining them to outdated gender stereotypes or expectations. 

In all-girls schools, girls are more likely go on to study Physics, Maths and European Languages at A-Level. At St Margaret’s Hampstead, they are encouraged to pursue STEM-related subjects, including Further Maths, which opens avenues to range of careers where women are underrepresented such as engineering or medicine. The study of the DELF (at the French Insitutute), in addition to their GCSEs, promotes the girl's readiness for future international opportunities. Pupils are taught to follow their passions without any roadblocks or pressure to conform to how society expects girls to be.  

In addition, at St Margaret’s Hampstead, pupils are offered an extensive range of extracurricular activities that may not typically spring to mind when you think of “girls’ education”. In PE, this includes sports such as rowing, squash or martial arts that may be seen as intimidating in a mixed setting. 

Lastly, girls are liberated to be themselves, they don’t have to worry about having to change their behaviour because of pressure from boys. They have more bandwidth to conquer a quadratic equation, subjunctive verb forms and to perfect their singing solo in a production of Annie. 

Whilst there are endless routes for a girl to achieve success, an all-girls school education helps to give her a fighting chance.