Why a Girls’ School?
SHE CAN BE WHO SHE TRULY IS, AND BECOME WHAT SHE IS DESTINED TO BECOME, IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF LIKE-MINDED, PASSIONATE WOMEN.
Rest assured, the decisions you are faced with for your daughter’s education are shared by parents everywhere. Among the most fundamental of these is whether to enrol her in a co-educational or single-sex school.
To be fair, each has its merits. But, increasingly, there is a swelling amount of international research indicating that girls perform at their best — academically and personally — in a single-sex educational environment.
Through our junior, middle and senior years, Strathcona is a girls’ school. Our long and proud tradition of providing high-quality education is augmented by our emphasis on developing each girl according to her own strengths and interests. A girl is at her best when she is free to be herself, and though girls-only schools everywhere provide an environment for this to happen, at Strathcona we embed it into our culture.
SO PRECISELY WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH FIND? IN ESSENCE:
When it comes to subjects studied, girls feel freer to enter a much broader range of non-gender-stereotypical areas of study, in particular science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). If started early, this trend continues into tertiary education (in fact, as champions of science, Strathcona more than doubles the national average participation rate in Chemistry and Physics).
Girls only have themselves to compete against, with exclusive access to leadership roles, sports representation, drama, performance and music spots — in fact, any and every position or challenge within the student environment. This leads to a greater emphasis on risk-taking, articipation and positive competition, and less likelihood of bullying or feelings of inadequacy — all vital qualities to display later in life.
A higher proportion of students from single-sex schools progress to tertiary education than their counterparts in co-educational schools. In fact, some two-thirds of ‘high-performing’ schools are single-sex.
Girls in single-sex schools score higher on emotional and behavioural engagement at the end of Year 7 than their counterparts in co-ed schools.
Students at single-sex schools are more likely to complete secondary schooling, with better scores, to enter higher education, and have lower exposure to periods of unemployment thereafter.
While not the purview of research data, Strathcona can attest to the benefits of health and wellbeing programs tailored especially for girls at every stage of their journey, as well as uncompromising teaching that is personalised to the specific ways in which girls learn. But perhaps the greatest advantage of choosing a girls’ school for your daughter, from a Strathcona viewpoint, is that no matter what her interests and passions are, or evolve into, she will always be able to pursue them to the fullest. She can be who she truly is, and become what she is destined to become, in an environment of like-minded, passionate women.
