From the Principal

I often find myself saying this, but last week was an exceptionally exciting time at Girton. On the Thursday morning, we were delighted to welcome many families through our gates to explore the school for Open Day, expertly guided by our Year 6, 10 and 11 students. We know that prospective families’ decisions about schooling are guided by their hopes for their child’s future, and I believe there is no better way to demonstrate what Girton can offer their child than by providing the opportunity to interact with our wonderful students. They really do speak for themselves, and we are grateful to them for representing our school with pride, for their exceptional musical performances and for making our visitors feel so welcome. 

On the same day, we also had the pleasure of welcoming Dr Marc Brackett, who is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the lead developer of the RULER approach, which we have used in our Junior School for 13 years now. In addition to speaking with Junior School staff and our dedicated RULER team during his visit to Girton, he was also kind enough to host a presentation for Junior School parents, which I found extremely valuable as both a teacher and a parent. 

Dr Brackett started this presentation by asking the parents present to think about what we most want for our children when they reach their 20s. Happiness, wellbeing, independence and resilience were the key hopes raised by the audience, and we were interested to discover that our desires mirrored those that Dr Brackett uncovered in his own research with a large cohort of parents in the US. He then raised some salient questions. If parents around the world share these same hopes of happiness and wellbeing for their children, why is it that a traditional education doesn't prioritise equipping students with the tools they need to achieve these things? If we place such value on being able to successfully regulate our emotions, why are we not formally taught the vocabulary to effectively describe those emotions?

It is this sound logic that encouraged Girton to embrace the RULER approach all those years ago, and it still holds true today. In line with Dr Brackett’s teachings, at Girton we value how our students are feeling and we make it a priority to provide them with instruction that is focused on enhancing their social and emotional wellbeing. Through the RULER approach in the Junior School, we explicitly teach our students to recognise, understand, label, express and regulate their emotions – a focus that is continued through our dedicated SEL program in the Senior School. We view social and emotional awareness as an essential skill that will stay with our students throughout their lives, equipping them to achieve the happiness and wellbeing we desire for them as parents. 

Last week also marked Education Week, with this year’s theme of ‘Spotlight on STEM’ highlighting another set of essential skills we aim to instill in our students. The first priority within our school’s Strategic Plan is to ‘provide diverse teaching and learning pathways with high standards and exceptional outcomes’, and increasing student participation and engagement in STEM subjects is vital to this goal. Data shows that there is currently a significant imbalance in STEM course and career uptake in our country. While jobs in STEM fields are expected to grow by 14.2% in the coming years, data shows that women constitute only 20% of those with STEM qualifications, and girls are half as likely as boys to aspire to a STEM career. 

At Girton, we hope to break down these real and perceived barriers to a career in this fast-growing area of the economy by empowering all our students to explore the full gamut of pathways available to them. We are doing this by implementing initiatives designed to build their problem-solving skills and confidence in STEM from their earliest years of schooling, including this year’s transition to an explicit approach to teaching mathematics in our Junior School. We also know that it is essential to maintain students’ engagement in STEM throughout their entire educational journey, which is why this year we have given students more opportunities to explore STEM subjects in their senior years by introducing semester-based Technology electives in Year 9. 

Looping back to Dr Brackett’s presentation, I believe the first priorities of any educational institution should be to equip students with the skills they need to access the future of their choice and to lead the happy, connected and meaningful lives that we all aspire for them. We are doing this at Girton by providing a holistic education that not only imparts the skills needed to succeed academically, but skills that will empower students to take charge of their social and emotional wellbeing and seize every career opportunity available to them in our ever-changing world. Thank you for your continued support of our school and its students, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Dr Emma O'Rielly 

Principal