From the Principal 

Dr Nicole Archard

Why a Girls' School?

You may have read or heard about an article in ‘The Advertiser’ recently concerning a study conducted in the UK regarding the impact of girls’ education. The actual research ‘The Advertiser’ was quoting from is a study titled, ‘Soft Skills Development and Gender: An Analysis of Mental Toughness at UK Independent Schools’ (June 2021). This study of nearly 3000 students from UK Independent schools explored the gender differences of students in co-educational and single-sex schools in the development of mental toughness. The study defines mental toughness as, ‘a personality trait which determines in large part how individuals deal effectively with challenge, opportunity, stressors, and pressure…irrespective of circumstances’ (Clough & Strycharczyk, 2015). Mental toughness is therefore generally acknowledged as the ability to develop skills in control, commitment, challenge, and confidence, which in turn are recognised as the tools used to develop ‘character and resilience’ in young people.

The following diagram from this study demonstrates the components of mental toughness.

Following are extracts from the findings of this study: 

• ‘The data indicates that girls in single-sex girls’ schools generally possess higher mental toughness scores than girls in coeducational schools, particularly for emotional control and confidence. Separate research indicates that higher levels of mental toughness are associated with enhanced academic performance (St Clair-Thompson et al, 2014), a finding that is compatible with other research that indicates girls in girls’ schools do better academically (eg Alice Thomson et al, 2008).’ 

In addition, this study also found that:

• ‘Scores for girls at single-sex girls’ schools are, generally, higher when assessing confidence and emotional control/management, compared with girls in coeducational schools. This might explain why girls in girls’ schools typically do better academically and are more likely to choose to study STEM subjects than girls in coeducational schools.’
• ‘Research generally shows that having higher levels of mental toughness confers an advantage for those individuals, all things being equal. They are more likely to deal effectively with stress, pressure opportunity and challenge. Recently published research indicates that this is indeed the case for many.’

We already knew the impact of single-sex education for girls, but it is always nice to have further research confirm this.

Dr Nicole Archard

Principal