ABOUT Each year, Bradford Girls Grammar School honours one of its Old Girls, Barbara Castle MP, by giving an award in her name. The London Old Girls commissioned David Hensel to sculpture a tribute to the Red Queen, the title given to the fiery and exceptional politician. The Old Girls wanted the recipient of this prize to reflect some of the qualities which Barbara Castle possessed; spirited, passionate in her beliefs, an individual prepared to stand alone. The Bradford Girls Grammar School campus comprises Lady Royd Preparatory School & Nursery which takes boys and girls aged 2 -11 years, The Senior School for girls aged 11 – 16 years and Foster Beaver Sixth Form College, for young women aged 16 – 18 years. The Campus The school is situated in a very pleasant 17 acre green site which includes a sports hall and swimming pool, all-weather hockey pitch, netball and tennis courts intertwined with gardens and trees to create a very pleasant and peaceful environment. Bradford Girls’ Grammar School offers a wide curriculum and by maintaining high academic standards, we gain a pass rate in Public Examinations approaching 100%. Latin, Business & Communication Systems, product design and politics are regularly studied. The school prides itself on encouraging girls to study traditionally male-dominated such as sciences, engineering and Design & Technology. Pupils from Bradford Girls’ Grammar School have won numerous engineering awards and competitions. The Culture The school is community-focussed - pupils are treated as individuals and the discipline of an orderly life comes from within. Social consciousness and responsibility are developed from an early age and pupils are encouraged to behave with maturity and discipline. However, fun and enjoyment are also expected! Girls do better without boys Getting the best for girls has always been a vexed issue. Do they do better in single-sex schools or when taught alongside boys? In recent years, single-sex schools have been tarred as old-fashioned and antiquated, a throwback to the Victorian era, but a recent report looks like the last word on the issue: girls really do do better in single-sex schools. The study, by The Good Schools Guide, followed 700,000 girls and found that those who sat GCSEs in single-sex state schools all did better than could have been predicted by their scores at the end of primary school. By contrast, 20% of those who attended co-ed schools did worse than could have been expected from their school records, aged 11. The effect was even more marked among less clever girls. According to Wallis, although her research focuses on GCSE results, the findings hold true for sixth-form study too. “Attending a single-sex school is likely to have a positive impact on girls’ academic performance up to the age of 18,” she says. Access Full article |