enCourage: January 13, 2022

Carrie Hughes-GrantNews

Why a School for Girls?


The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools says: “At girls schools, we believe that single-sex education is not merely a matter of separating girls and boys. It’s about making sure girls take centre stage, while drawing upon all that we know about the way they grow and learn. It’s not just the classroom. It’s the combination of the community, the culture and the climate that girls' schools offer that makes all-girl education such a powerful and transformative experience.”

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Carrie Hughes-Grant
Head of School
Why are girls' schools so relevant in 2022?

Women receive the message they don’t “make the cut” as early as elementary school, where research shows boys dominate classroom discussions, are perceived to be better in maths and science, and are given more attention than girls. There are countless reasons you can give to answer the question, “why a school for girls?”. Here are our top 10:

1. Girls’ schools inspire leadership
2. Girls’ schools build self-confidence.
3. Girls’ schools are innovators (and create innovators!).
4. Girls do better academically in single-sex schools than in co-ed schools.
5. All-girls schools understand how girls learn and cater to their educational needs and learning styles.
6. The curriculum at all-girls schools argues against and helps redefine the pervasive images and expectations offered by the mass media.
7. All-girls schools provide an environment where girls can feel safe to take risks and stretch their intellectual, creative, and educational boundaries.
8. At an all-girls school, all subjects are girls’ subjects.
9. Classroom management can tend to favour boys.
10. At all-girls schools, the female perspective is celebrated.

Girls’ schools are more relevant today than ever before as we prepare girls to become the influential contributors and leaders our world needs.

At Holy Name of Mary College School, we truly do believe that the sum of the experience is greater than its individual parts. That it’s the trifecta of that combination of community, culture, and climate that creates the magic. We believe that the individual parts of the story include the research and the statistics and the theories. But the piece that’s bigger—and in the end more compelling than those individual parts-is simply this: the experience.

And it’s in the experience of each girl that the answer to the question lies: why a school for girls? Because that experience can transform lives.