Help girls develop a backbone, heads told

Girls must show “grit” and develop a backbone in order to overcome the fear of failing, the president of the Girls’ Schools Association will claim today.

Charlotte Avery, headmistress of St Mary’s School, a private girls’ school in Cambridge, believes that girls should be open to failure in order to become more resilient.

“Courage develops with practice and with repetition. Developing courage counteracts atychiphobia,” Mrs Avery will tell GSA’S annual conference in Manchester today.

She will tell heads to support their pupils in taking “intellectual risks”.