The GDST Difference
Royal High School Bath is part of the Girls’ Day School Trust – the GDST, a unique family of 25 schools and academies, united in our aims and aspirations to support girls learning without limits.
Leaders in education for girls
We are proud to be part of the Girls Day School Trust, the UK’s leading family of 25 independent girls’ schools. In all GDST schools, academic excellence is a given – at the GDST we develop character beyond the curriculum.
We focus not only on what is learned but how it is learned. Ensuring our girls are confident and fearless, determined to show what they can do. Nothing holds our girls back – they’re encouraged to embrace every role and subject. As a result, they trust their own abilities and are alive to every opportunity. This is the GDST Difference.
We concentrate on creating an environment where all can thrive and learn from one another. Physical and emotional wellbeing is paramount, which is why every GDST school provides an incredible array of extra-curricular activities and pastoral and wellbeing programmes.
The GDST was founded 150 years ago by a group of pioneering women who believed that girls should be entitled to the same academic education as their brothers. The principles of breadth, fearlessness, inclusiveness and a focus on developing the individual to achieve her potential were all enshrined from the GDST’s early beginnings, and remain true of the GDST family of schools today.
Why choose a GDST school?
There is clear evidence that a girls-only education ensures girls thrive; to build self-confidence, resilience and academic achievement. Girls' schools today offer an education designed to support and empower successful, happy, confident young women fully prepared to make their mark in the world.
To mark the GDST’s 150th anniversary, the GDST commissioned a landmark piece of research, the Girls’ Futures Report, surveying 1358 girls from non GDST schools (academies, state and independent schools), 374 boys and 4126 girls from schools in our GDST network. The aim was to discover what girls and young women feel about their future: their ambitions, their priorities, and the challenges they face.
The Girls’ Futures research found that girls from non-GDST schools across England and Wales experience a significant fall in confidence between the ages of 14 and 18. But GDST girls reported differently: they have a greater belief in achieving their goals and greater confidence in their schools’ ability to prepare them for the future than girls attending non-GDST school. Read more about the GDST Difference here.
“ This research provides clear evidence that girls do genuinely thrive, not just in a girls’ school, but in a GDST school, more than they might do anywhere else. We found that, in comparison to girls at other schools across the UK, GDST students are more passionate about pursuing leadership positions, more comfortable speaking out and expressing their views, and significantly less likely to feel that being a girl holds them back from participating in activities. GDST girls feel more prepared to face their futures, more confident that they can overcome problems, and more able to look after their physical and mental wellbeing – an important reflection of the all-round experience girls have in a GDST school.”Cheryl Giovannoni, Chief Executive of the GDST