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CONTACT US Word from the Head – 21 November 2025
Dear Parents,
This week, nine months of hard work has come to fruition at the Girls’ Schools Association Annual Conference. As President of the GSA this year it was my responsibility to pick the theme, invite the speakers and even organise the after-dinner entertainment. I chose the title ‘Fearless Females: Leadership that Lifts Girls Up’, with the aim of reaffirming the core purpose of an all-girls education – being 10% Braver, of course, and also underscoring the importance of developing the female staff who work in our schools.
Over the course of two days we heard from a series of inspiring speakers. Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, author of Smartphone Nation, gave a thought provoking opening keynote on why we are enslaved to the algorithm – and what we can do about it. Her work will form the content of next week’s Word from the Head as it’s so good it needs a whole week to itself! Also on Monday we heard from two former heads, Evelyn Forde MBE and Vivienne Porritt OBE. Evelyn’s recently published manifesto, Herstory, focuses on diversity and her session asked us to consider how we promote belonging in our schools. Vivienne is President of #WomenEd, who first asked that vital question, “What would you do if you were 10% braver?” back in 2015. It gave me real pleasure to offer her the opportunity to speak on the topic of promoting female leadership in our staff.
A highlight was the powerful speech from Jess Phillips MP, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence against Women and Girls, in her session on Tuesday. While she made headlines in at least three national newspapers with her suggestion that teachers should ‘whinge more’ and ‘be more Birmingham bin worker’, her speech had a much more serious message. She emphasised the huge personal, economic and social cost of violence against women and girls, saying “… All that effort you might put into their academia – it doesn’t matter how clever, how brilliant they are. If they fall prey to this violence, all of that will have been wasted”. It was an inspiring call to arms for all of us to continue to work with girls and boys, young women and men, on changing attitudes and behaviour to ensure that all our young people grow up safe.
However my proudest moment was watching Head Girls Annie and Natasha expertly interview two leading journalists, Hugo Rifkind of The Times and BBC special correspondent Lucy Manning. The all-Channing session captivated the audience as Annie and Natasha shared the insights they had gained from working with the School Council in the Senior School and Head Girls in the Junior School, exploring what it means to be a girl in 2025. They delved into societal pressures and stereotypes, asking what the media can do to change this narrative. “They were so impressive on stage”, said Donna Stevens, CEO of the GSA, afterwards. Impressive indeed, and they capped this by sharing their experience in the Senior School assembly this morning. Congratulation, Annie and Tash – you did yourselves, and Channing, proud.
My enormous thanks to the Channing parents who supported the Conference: Ms Manning and Mr Rifkind for giving up their time to take part in the conversation with Natasha and Annie, and to Ms Callman of Edulaw Chambers for their sponsorship of the Conference app, which was very much appreciated. A final thank you goes to my remarkable PA, Hanna Fathers. I couldn’t have done any of this without her creativity, humour and spreadsheets! Her support of me and work behind the scenes was invaluable in bringing the conference to life – thank you, Hanna.
One of the aspects of the conference which took most thought and gave me most pleasure was writing my Presidential address. I hope you might enjoy reading it here on the GSA website. You’ll certainly recognise many of the themes from my open morning talks, Founders’ Day speeches and previous Words from the Head. I was pleased to find that it resonated with my fellow Heads in just the way I had hoped it might, and I have a feeling that there are a lot of girls across the country who will be urged to be 10% braver over the coming weeks!
While I have been out of school, Mrs Walker and the Eco Reps have been running a highly successful Sustainability Week – do read their full report below. Next week we look forward to the much anticipated Hadestown, tickets for which sold out in only a few hours last Friday evening. I know a huge amount of work has gone into an extremely ambitious production and we are in for a treat!
For now, my best wishes for the weekend,
Lindsey Hughes
Headmistress
