When it comes to empowering young women to reach their full potential in life, The Mount School in York are very well-equipped. With a motto like ‘We know girls can’, it’s little wonder that the school continuously finds new ways to engage their students and get them interested in the world around them.
Not only do they prepare the girls for any challenges they may face, but their excellent staff are always on hand to bring out the very best in their students and to help them forge their own path no matter their interests.
"We strongly believe in in helping girls to accept and be comfortable with who they are free from 'gender stereotypes," said Adrienne Richmond, Principal of the UK’s only all-girl Quaker School.
"Girls learn from a young age that they are a valued member of our community and by learning their worth they are empowered to get in touch with their own inherent values.
"Our girls are happy, they trust in their choices and grow in self-esteem. They focus their energy on their learning and enjoyment. Within the classroom we instil our girls with a love of learning by teaching them in a way suited to girls.
"Tradition is combined with dynamic and forward-thinking teaching to equip girls with the skills, ambition and confidence to succeed.
“Pupils are encouraged to freely explore topics and ideas that interest them, sparking their interests and desire to achieve. Our Early Years Foundation Stage encourages this by having enough flexibility in the curriculum to be able to adapt teaching when the pupils are entranced by a particular idea.
"When Florence was fascinated by paper aeroplanes, the entire class took a session to make their own paper aeroplanes and practice flying them. They talked about being pilots and travelling far.”
The Junior School’s creative curriculum encourages the girls’ natural enthusiasm for learning and funnels their curiosity to delve more deeply into their topic of interest. There is a focus on open ended activities giving girls the chance to consolidate their learning in confidence.
This term Junior School girls are on a 'Mission to Mars' in their creative curriculum lessons. From recreating Mars through a variety of artistic medias or by designing their own Mars Rovers they have had they have had the opportunity to use their initiative and come up with a multitude of creative solution. The young girls are confident and excited to share their learnings.
“We had to draw what we think Mars looks like, using oil pastels. I know that Mars is not hot, it is actually quite cold.”
“Mars is not red! It's a butterscotch colour. There are little rocks, and sometimes they can burst, and that's what causes the red-looking colour.”
The Mount’s expert teachers are constantly striving to find diverse ways to bring learning to life, such as when Year 9 became film critics for a morning to review a selection of short films for York’s BAFTA-qualifying international film festival, Aesthetica, which was fully online for the first time this year.
“All of the films were very unique and different from each other. We watched five or six films for each category and wrote notes about the themes, how much we enjoyed them and how high we would rate them. We all enjoyed watching the films, which were each different in their own special way. Our Year’s favourite short film overall is called Mall," recalled Libby and Lilia, both in Year 9.
When learning about the First World War, Year 9 girls were tasked to ask their parents and relations what roles members of their family had had in the war. They then shared their findings with their classmates. Creating that personal connection with the conflict literally brought home the historian’s craft .
“I loved looking at all the records. There was a tonne of lists and then you spot the person who was in your family, and you are like - woah!” said Lily, Year 9.
In GCSE French, Year 11 pupils got a firm grasp of key words, important for understanding the detail and nuance of a sentence, by working on vocab retrieval, translating French negatives using the Wheel of Names to practise recall and translation. Girls studying Modern Foreign Languages for GCSE benefit from a weekly session with a native language Conversation Teacher to work on their speaking skills. This builds their confidence, spontaneity and accuracy for the GCSE speaking exam, which accounts for 25% of their final mark.
“Girls’ education is a specialised field. The confidence and security girls gain within our all-girls setting means they are free to focus their energies on their learning. Through our bespoke education and tailored teaching, girls are engaged with each subject. We inspire each girl to strive for personal excellence,” added Adrienne.
The Mount School York are hosting an Open Doors event on Saturday 19 June. Register at mountschoolyork.co.uk
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