Abbreviation | GSA |
---|---|
Formation | 1974 |
Purpose | Professional association for headteachers of girls' independent schools |
Headquarters | Regent Road Leicester England |
Region served
|
Mainly United Kingdom |
Membership
|
Approx 260 schools |
President
|
Alun Jones |
Affiliations | ISC |
Website | gsa |
The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is a professional association of the heads of independent girls' schools. It is a constituent member of the Independent Schools Council.
The GSA can trace its history back to the Association of Headmistresses which was founded in 1874. Its president in 1964–66, Diana Reader Harris, ensured that it made a strong and considered response to the influential Plowden Report. It was established 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 its current headquarters in Leicester in 1984, where it now shares offices with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Since 1994 the GSA has been supported by a professional secretariat led by Sheila Cooper, Executive Director.
In January 2009 the Girls' Schools Association set up a website at MyDaughter.co.uk offering advice to parents of daughters on all aspects of raising and educating girls. Advice is provided by head teachers from the member schools of the Girls' Schools Association and other specialists in fields such as nutrition, psychology, health education and business. The information on the MyDaughter website was subsequently merged into the main Girls' Schools Association website at www.gsa.uk.com .
The GSA is a member-led organisation providing mutual professional support and representing the views of practising heads of girls' schools. The current President of the GSA, as of 2015, is Alun Jones, the head of St. Gabriel's School in Newbury.
Below is a list of GSA member schools. Some members are the girls' sections of "Diamond Schools".