click here to link to mydaughter.co.uk

New Website for Parents

I am delighted to let you know about a new website launched this month by the Girls' Schools Association for parents of girls, mydaughter.co.uk. As a member of the GSA I would like to recommend this site to you. What is special about it is that it sets out to help parents fathom out some of the mysteries of parenting a daughter! It also details why girls thrive at girls' schools.

mydaughter.co.uk aims to unlock and share the expertise and experience of the heads and staff within girls' schools. We deal with girls day in and day out and over the years have had thousands of girls pass through our care. There cannot be many issues to do with educating or raising girls that we have not had to face in our careers or been asked to advise parents about. Many of us are parents, too. We think that we are particularly well placed to offer the sort of objective, up-to-date information and advice that parents tell us they are looking for about raising and educating their daughters.   Schools don't have all the answers, but do have an idea of what is a normative experience and are likely to have more experience of the exceptional.

We decided to create this new website in response to parents' concerns, and hope that it gives you the sort of help you are looking for. There is no doubt that many mothers and fathers  worry about getting the balance right between helping their daughters realise their academic potential while at the same time enabling them to be happy and keep safe.

mydaughter.co.uk contains advice and guidance on issues such as education choices; realising girls' full academic potential; recognising eating disorders and signs of bullying; development stages; relationships; social pressures; social networking sites and internet safety, and communicating with teenage girls.

The section on ‘Educating your daughter' includes tips for parents on education choices and development stages from under 5 through to 18 plus. There are also case studies written by parents and students, independent research reports and a schools' directory.

The section on ‘Raising your daughter' includes advice on relationships with friends and family; social pressures such as sexual relationships, drugs and alcohol, food and diet, bullying and self-esteem; personal and internet safety, and self-discovery.

The site also offers an interactive forum for those who register with mydaughter.co.uk.

There is provision for you to offer feedback, comments and to pose your own questions.  We would welcome any contributions that you might wish to make to the site, either in providing case studies, being an advocate, contributing an article or comment and joining the forum discussions.

mydaughter.co.uk is a unique resource for parents of girls and will develop according to your responses, queries and contribution. We hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

Hilary French
Headmistress