Annual Review

Our annual Engage Survey is an important way for colleagues to have their say, with the results providing invaluable insights into our employees’ experience of working at the GDST. The strong response to the 2023 – 2024 survey (69%) has provided rich and diverse insights for us to take forward. Inclusion, teamwork and recognition from line managers were key strengths across the organisation.

All GDST pupils from Year 5 upwards are invited to share their thoughts with us in our annual Undivided Student Survey. This groundbreaking survey helps build upon our understanding of student experience, ensuring student voice is at the heart of our schools. In 2023-2024, over 11,000 students shared their views with 92% of respondents stating their culture, faith and background are respected and valued at school.

Our school flourish as diverse communities that celebrate a range of events across the year, as part of their diversity calendars – from lively celebrations of Eid and Chinese New Year to various activities during International Week. A particular highlight is an annual International Gala at Royal High School Bath, an entirely student-led event which brings the whole school together with music, dance, a food fair and an international catwalk.

Neurodiversity Week 2024 celebrations at Northampton High School included a parents’ coffee morning with ADHD Wise UK, that explored how best to support neurodiverse pupils. For Black History Month, the school welcomed guest speaker Anthea Davis Barclay, poet, writer and motivational speaker, and for Pride Month, voluntary work association, Q Space, gave an informative session to Senior pupils on their commitment to improving the lives of Northampton’s LGBTQ+ community through helping young people with their personal, social and spiritual development.

As a founding member of the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS) advocating for best practice in girls’ education globally, we were proud to have a strong presence at the first-ever ICGS UK Symposium in September 2023. Students, teachers and alumnae from across the GDST attended, making important contributions to a thought-provoking conference programme that celebrated the power of girls’ schools and female leadership.

In June 2024, the ICGS’s Educating Girls Symposium in Baltimore, USA provided a unique opportunity for our educators to have crucial conversations about the latest challenges and opportunities in girls’ education with like-minded and passionate colleagues from schools and countries all over the world, and most importantly, the opportunity to present the findings of their Global Action Research Collaborative on Girls’ Education (GARC) research projects.

Through our EdTech initiatives, we leverage cutting-edge technology to enhance the learning experience. Our focus on EdTech not only enriches the educational process but also prepares our students to navigate an increasingly digital world with confidence.

Colleagues shared GDST insights on the global stage at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) 2024 EdTech Conference in Denver, Colorado, and two of our schools were recognised among the best in the UK for their outstanding use of technology – Sutton High School and Sheffield Girls’ were shortlisted as finalists for the TES 2024 Award for Best Use of Technology, and Sheffield Girls’ also received recognition from Google for its leading strategy on technology in education.

We invest in our staff to help everyone enjoy rewarding careers and lead purposeful lives. During the 2023-2024 academic year, 2,091 individual staff benefited from 466 learnings sessions that were run as part of 297 programmes, courses and conference, delivered face-to-face or online.

Our extensive apprenticeship provision, which includes a wide range of programmes for both our support staff and our teachers, saw 38 staff starting an apprenticeship during the year, including 27 staff who have started their Initial Teacher Training (ITT) with us.

Our schools were rated among the best value-for-money schools in the UK independent sector by Telegraph Money in 2024. The latest analysis in Telegraph Money compares results at both GCSE and A-Level, relative to fees. Whilst the true value of a GDST education lies in the achievement of each individual student and their readiness to go out into the world with lifelong purpose, confidence and self-assurance, we were heartened to see that academic excellence alongside being excellent value for money, was recognised as a significant strength of the GDST.

In 2023 – 2024, The Belvedere Academy in Liverpool has developed alternative provision as an onsite therapeutic offering for Key Stage 3 students to successfully reintegrate girls into mainstream education. Meanwhile, Birkenhead High School Academy has delivered innovation in SEND for students who have difficulty in accessing the full curriculum when transitioning from primary to secondary school. Small group provision in core subjects of English, maths, and science at Years 7 and 8 is providing opportunities to teach and build social and emotional literacy skills.

In March 2024, over 50 students from six Norfolk schools joined together at Norwich High School for Girls for the 2024 ‘Hack-her-thon’ – an exciting day of coding, cyber challenges and creativity. The event was themed around dragons and offered a dynamic platform for students to dive into the world of coding, going way beyond learning programming languages.

Blackheath High School has partnered with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich since 2011 to fund a prestigious GCSE in astronomy, which is offered to aspiring physicists from across the London borough. Around 30 Year 9 students are selected each year to attend the GCSE course, which takes place on Sunday mornings throughout the year. The partnership stretches and challenges students beyond the standard maths and physics curriculum, preparing them for A-Levels and onwards.

In May 2024, we held a special evening at Curzon, Victoria that showcased the benefits of GDST bursaries to a handpicked list of donors, alumnae and bursary students and their families. The event demonstrated and celebrated the collective power of our GDST Bursary Programme, featuring some of our award-winning Spotlight films. An enlightening and powerful Q&A hosted by Putney High School Head, Jo Sharrock, featured three current bursary students.

In September 2023 we welcomed the first group of Year 7 students joining us on GDST 150 Bursary Awards. Our GDST 150 Bursary Awards fundraising campaign, ignited to mark our 150^th anniversary last academic year, will ultimately see 150 additional transformational bursaries created over three years.

Several GDST schools also celebrated their anniversaries by launching their own bursary appeals. Notting Hill & Ealing High School, for example, set itself an ambitious fundraising target of raising funds for two new all-through Senior School bursaries and hosted a Giving Day to support the appeal – a 36-hour celebration and fundraising challenge for the whole school community, present and past.