The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a membership association for the heads of independent and state girls' schools in the United Kingdom. It is a constituent member of the
Independent Schools Council
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 private schools in the United Kingdom. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the business interests of its ...
(ISC), and works with the
Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
History
The GSA started life as the Association of Headmistresses – an organisation founded in 1874 by
Dorothea Beale and
Frances Buss, with the intention of improving access to education for girls.
Buss was the founding president.
Enid Essame of
Queenswood School was an honorary secretary before she became president in 1960.
She was succeeded by
Diana Reader Harris in 1964. She was in post until 1966, and organised a response to the
Plowden Report.
In the early years of the twentieth century, the association was involved in supporting teachers who emigrated to the
colonies
A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their '' metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often or ...
, or returned to Britain having taught abroad; it had links with the
Colonial Intelligence League for Educated Women.
Later in the twentieth century, the organisation promoted the teaching of
domestic science at girls' schools.
The GSA was established in its current form in 1974 following the amalgamation of two of the AHM's sub-groups: the Association of Heads of Girls' Boarding Schools and the Association of Independent and Direct Grant Schools. It moved from London to new headquarters in Leicester in 1984, where it shared offices with the
Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) before moving to its current office, still in Leicester.
Structure
The chief executive is
Donna Stevens.
See also
*
Girls' Day School Trust
*
List of girls' schools in the United Kingdom
*
The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC)
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
Education in Leicester
1974 establishments in England
Organisations based in Leicestershire
Private school organisations in England
Teacher associations based in the United Kingdom
Educational organizations established in 1974