Our Principal, Fiona Johnston, recently spoke at the Educating Girls Symposium in New Zealand on how St Hilda’s built Australia’s most extensive entrepreneurship program.
Inspiring an entrepreneurial spirit in our girls
Girls’ education feels alive and thriving when you bring 500 passionate educators and leaders together in a shared space to talk, learn and explore contemporary issues, challenges and advances in girls’ schools across Australia and New Zealand. We have discussed girls as global citizens, entrepreneurs and innovators, social activists, political leaders, artists, creators and performers, environmental champions, scientists, and happy and healthy individuals.
Reflecting on these discussions, I am reminded that girls’ schools are more relevant today than ever. The experiences and opportunities that our girls are exposed to and embrace reinforce the strength of single-sex education. At schools like ours, every opportunity goes to a girl. At St Hilda’s, girls hold all leadership responsibilities, occupy all team positions, and fill all clubs and committee places.
Put simply, an all-girls environment equals more opportunities for girls without fear or favour. Whether our girls want to be astronauts, ambassadors, authors, or attorneys, they must know that gender should not stand in their way. St Hilda’s is known for its trailblazing DNA, creating a learning culture where teachers can challenge limits and inspire girls to imagine and explore possibilities that perhaps they had never considered before. Our students are inspired to become informed, engaged global citizens who lead with courage, competence, and empathy.
Global research discussed at the symposium reiterated that young women who attend girls’ schools are more likely to:
- Participate in community social action programs such as volunteering or the environment as they deem this essential.
- Count their desire to understand others with different beliefs and work cooperatively with diverse people as a strength.
- Value keeping up with political affairs and publicly communicating their opinion about a cause.
Girls’ schools are leading the way in STEM education for women worldwide and continue to close the gap in the number of women going into STEM-related fields. Graduates of girls’ schools are six times more likely to consider majoring in math, science, and technology and three times more likely to consider engineering compared to girls who attended co-educational schools. Recent research with our 2019 graduates has reflected this. Over half of our survey respondents said they were working or studying in a science-related field.
Girls’ schools encourage students to speak their minds without interruption. A national survey found that nearly 87% of girls’ school students feel their voices and opinions are respected, compared to 58% of girls at co-educational schools.
The myth that girls’ schools shelter their students from the ‘real world’ was among many discussion opportunities throughout the symposium. Research tells us that the greater sense of respect that girls feel at girls’ schools enables them to better find and use their voices, first in the classroom and then beyond at university, in the workforce, in boardrooms, on the political stage, or in any other arena.
The robust innovation agenda in girls’ schools and an appetite to share leading practices and new educational initiatives recently took me to New Zealand. It was an honour to present at this symposium and share the journey of how St Hilda’s built Australia’s most extensive entrepreneurship program with ESSTEAM.
