Reasons for choosing St Mary's

The Top Ten

It is not just because single-sex schools dominate the top of the examination league tables that St Mary's could be the right choice for your daughter.
Boys and girls mature at different rates. Parents with both sons and daughters will know that they learn in different ways. Girls can benefit from being at St Mary's because we recognise these differences and can provide an education geared specifically to their needs.
The girls of today will be tomorrow’s leaders, which is why we believe that there should be no limitations on their ambitions, either professionally or personally.
Women are expected to balance many roles during their lives, and their paths to future success will require leadership, confidence, independence, integrity and an instinct to achieve.
St Mary's creates a safe risk-taking environment where girls can learn from their mistakes without fear of being put down or dismissed. We provide an environment where there is no shame in working hard or being successful. This enables girls to develop confidence in their own abilities as individuals, and not define themselves by their gender.
We counter mass media influences by freeing girls from the pressure to conform to sexist patterns of behaviour, and providing them with a framework with which to judge the image of girls in today’s media. Girls are free to grow up at their own pace.
St Mary's supports a ‘can-do’ philosophy. Girls hold all the senior positions in the school; all the scientists are girls, all the mathematicians are girls. There is no subject area or activity of the school in which girls do not excel. This leads undoubtedly to a ‘can-do’ philosophy in the school.
We recognise the qualities of girls and how they learn and we are expert in recognising the qualities of girls and in understanding what makes them tick and how they learn. This knowledge is built up over years of experience of teaching girls.
St Mary's celebrates learning without social distractions. We offer an environment in which girls can concentrate on learning without the distraction of boys. Without the presence of boys, girls tend to display their intelligence and curiosity regardless of powerful age-determined notions of popularity, attractiveness or negative peer pressure.
St Mary's celebrates the female perspective and way of doing things; girls are accustomed to being heard and being valued for who they are, irrespective of what they look like or what they wear. Our environment affirms and encourages young women in their capacities as confident individuals, leaders and agents of social change.

(with thanks to the Girls' Schools Association)

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