No more ‘head girls’ at elite single-sex school
AN ELITE girls’ school which counts actor Rachelweisz as a former pupil has decided to stop using the term “head girl” due to its “binary connotations”.
St Paul’s School for Girls will instead refer to the position as “head of school” from the next academic year.
This has prompted an outcry from some staff of the £26,000-a-year independent school in Hammersmith, west London, which also boasts former vaccines taskforce chief Dame Kate Bingham andthe Pursuit Of Love star Emily Mortimer among its high-profile former pupils.
A source told a national newspaper: “Why do the girls have to change their name?
“They should be teaching young women to be proud of their sex, not ashamed of it. It’s very contradictory.
How can you be a single-sex school that exists to empower girls to do well and at the same time support girls to identify out of being a girl?”
The senior pupil at St Paul’s, which was founded by theworshipful
Company of Mercers in 1904, was known as head of school for decades after it opened before it was changed to head girl.
The school said its decision was a result of senior pupils considering themselves young women rather than “girls”, but acknowledged the “binary connotations” were also a factor.
It said senior pupils felt the historic title was “more modern, age appropriate and inclusive”.
Yet the school, for girls aged 11 to 18, does not believe it needs to change its name under the same logic.
It came as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity Stonewall urged schools to use the term “learners” instead of “boys” and “girls”.
Documents issued for guidance by the organisation also suggested teachers hold mixed sex PE classes and ditch all gendered uniforms.