GDST becomes founding partner of International Coalition of Girls’ Schools

In the same week as the GDST turned 150, we also became founding members of the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS). The ICGS’ Global Forum on Girls’ Education, held in Boston, Massachusetts, brought together advocates for girls’ education from more than 225 girls’ schools and professional associations in 13 countries across the world, to hear from inspirational speakers and educators, amongst them 17 GDST research fellows from the Global Action Research Collaborative.

The past two years have been a time of significant cultural change and societal shifts and much of the change and progress made has been directed by female activists. The ICGS’ third Global Forum on Girls’ Education was a chance for educators and advocates for girls’ education representing a community of over 300,000 female students across the globe to come together in person, to celebrate the deep sense of shared identity, potential, and power amongst girls and women, and to discuss how best to prepare and empower them to be ethical, globally minded change makers who lead with courage, competence, and empathy.

Speakers included Shabana Basij-Rasikh, founder of the School of Leadership Afghanistan (SOLA), who spoke about how she evacuated her students and staff from Kabul in August 2021 to re-establish the school in Rwanda. The school’s mission is to educate the future leaders of Afghanistan, now the only country in the world where girls’ education is illegal.

“We focus on educating Afghan girls in exile as they will be the next generation of Afghan leaders. These girls will be instrumental in re-establishing the future.”

At the time of speaking, the US Supreme Court had overturned Roe v Wade abortion legislation two days before. Commenting on this, she said,  ‘What’s happening in Afghanistan is linked to what’s happening in the US. It comes down to people who should not be in power controlling womens’ freedoms and bodies. My message to the world is: Don’t look away. Not just for the sake of Afghan women and girls – for the sake of all of us.’

In attendance at the conference were the GDST’s 17 Global Action Research Collaborative (GARC) fellows from 2021, 2022 and 2023 cohorts. Those 2022 fellows presented their action research findings, on topics from Building confidence in Physics and Harnessing the self-critic for positive change in Drama, to Design Thinking in Philosophy and Collaboration in Scientific Enquiry. Suzy Pett, Director of Studies at Wimbledon High School and herself a 2022 GARC fellow, was awarded Researcher of the Year for her action research project entitled “The Classics can Console, but Not Enough”: The Impact of Self-Reflexive Exploration of Postcolonial Fiction to Help Year 13 Girls Build Confidence in Engaging With Complex Social Problems of Race. ‘It is so exciting to be in an atmosphere where everyone is working towards making sure that girls’ voices are loud, and heard,’ she said of her involvement with GARC. ‘Action Research means being so purposeful about your practice. It means being alert to what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and the impact it has: it can be absolutely transformational to be that attuned to your teaching.’

Priya Christie, teacher of English from Bromley High School, is embarking on research on using experiential learning in a Y7 English classroom, which she will present at the fourth Global Forum in June 2023, in Cleveland, Ohio. ‘I aim to use this to bring literature to life not just to appreciate the world around us but to engage critically, actively, and empathetically with the world around us,’ she explains. ‘With young people seeking asylum from Ukraine joining Bromley High as students, we are building out students’ cultural awareness to develop them as global citizens.’

GDST Heads were also in Boston to share expertise in girls’ education. Jo Sharrock, Head of Shrewsbury High School, presented on the benefits of an All Through, All Girl education, speaking on how such schools are leading the way in the happy, healthy development of girls, and highlighting the huge benefits of educating a girl from early years to graduation. ‘It means a great deal to be here representing Shrewsbury High School, as we are a small school in a small town,’ Jo explains, ‘but we always say we offer access to a world beyond the town walls – so to be here in Boston is incredibly exciting – to be representing my students on a global stage feels like living that promise.’

Fionnuala Kennedy, Head of Wimbledon High School, presented on the concept of Civil Discourse and how to empower girls to engage in debate and disagreement in the current climate of cancel culture, the frequency of polarised views, and how this can play out online. ‘The greatest takeaway for me has been being able to come together as educators to understand and articulate our passion together for girls and young women,’ she said.

“It’s so important that we as the GDST are part of global conversation to make sure that they are put at the centre of innovation – as we have seen recently, particularly in America, that progress can go backwards very quickly if we become complacent.”

Alison Sefton, Head of Norwich High School, also spoke about the importance of being part of the Global Forum. ‘As the GDST turns 150, we must make sure we are continuing that pioneering work,’ she explained. ‘Norwich High School was the first GDST school to be established outside of London and being here with the ICGS has made me even more committed to continuing the message of our original founders and continuing the conversation about the relevance of girls’ education in a modern world.’ Alison co-presented a session on Enjoying The Room, focusing on allowing girls to be themselves and enjoy human contact and meaningful engagement with others, rather than feeling they have to be confident enough to ‘own the room’.

GDST’s partnership with ICGS is similarly transformational, allowing the 25 schools in our family, and the wider organisation, to engage and share with, as well, vitally, as learning from, other international experts in girls’ education, and to harness the power of our global network. Going forward, all GDST schools will have membership of the ICGS, thus accessing a rich variety of resources, professional development opportunities and research, with which to enrich our educational provision.

CEO Cheryl Giovannoni said: ‘Being strategic partners of ICGS provides us at the GDST with a brilliant platform to amplify the generations of work we have always done in girls’ education; it also expands the opportunities for action research in allowing GDST teachers to be part of this global coalition through GARC which in turn not only benefits our students, but is instrumental for the growth and development of our schools and our organisation.’

Cheryl Giovannoni’s speech at the conference focused on the role that girls’ education, and the GDST have to play in overcoming the biggest challenges the world faces, and the time and investment that this will require. Citing Michelle Obama, who said that meeting Nelson Mandela helped to give her perspective around change, that ‘real change happens slowly, not just over months and years but over decades and lifetimes’ – Cheryl reminded us that we must not lose sight of that fact that every action, every innovation, every lesson in every classroom in every corner of the world is building towards the world we all want to see – a place for girls to thrive. As part of her speech, Cheryl outlined the GDST innovations contributing to this, which included the new Space Tech diploma, the LEAD Leadership and Enterprise programme, the Biophilic classroom, and the Mighty Girls initiative.

GDST’s Director of Marketing, Communications & Philanthropy Amy Bouchier was also in attendance at the Global Forum. ‘We wanted to be at the Global Forum to hear what the global conversation is on girls’ education and see how we can be part of it,’ she explains. ‘We wanted to come here and share our research – but more than that we wanted to learn from others, as this is so critical to how we develop and grow in the future as an organisation and as experts in girls’ education.’

Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee gave a keynote lecture on Day 2 of the forum, speaking on global and local activism, and the need for educators of girls to be fearless in their approach. Telling the story of how she stepped in to help a girl being bullied, she asked,

“How good is our global activism if we can’t make it local? Stand up for your sister when you see it.”

She also addressed the issue that girls can find it hard to be confrontational or can feel the need to be liked. Urging the 570 delegates present, she asked us to remind our students that they have to respect everyone – but that they don’t have to be friends with everyone. ‘Imagine if the 300,000 girls (in the ICGS network) were not afraid to speak their truth and didn’t feel they had to stay friends with everyone,’ she said, continuing, ‘We need to begin to step into spaces and do things that make people uncomfortable. They say do one thing every day that scares you. I say: do one thing in your education of girls that everyone else is scared to do.’

Celebrating the GDST’s 150th birthday with international colleagues and fellow advocates of girls’ education courtesy of ICGS felt particularly fitting. ‘Being CEO of the GDST at this point in our history feels incredible,’ shares Cheryl Giovannoni.

“Being in Boston for our 150th birthday celebrating the fact that we have had 150 years of great innovation in girls’ education and looking ahead to the next 150: we couldn’t be in a better place to bring that ambitious mission to fruition.”

Speaking on the GDST’s partnership with her organisation, Megan Murphy, Executive Director of the ICGS, said ‘When I think about the world’s great challenges: whether it’s climate change, political polarisation, racism, gender inequity, poverty – we will need more women around the table of decision-making and problem-solving to tackle these global issues – and the women who are going to be solving those problems and making those changes are going to come from girls’ schools. What you are doing at the GDST is nurturing and developing those change-makers and bridge-builders – they are the future and will be essential in bringing our full human potential to solving these problems.’

GDST Heads Fionnuala Kennedy of Wimbledon High School, Alison Sefton of Norwich High School and Jo Sharrock of Shrewsbury High School joined the ICGS’s podcast ‘On Educating Girls’ for an episode discussing how best to encourage girls to speak up and out with confidence and authority. Listen to this episode here.