NEWS GDST Life 2022/23
NEWS
OLYMPIC HEROES
The GDST was enormously proud to have five alumnae competing in the 2020 Olympics held in Tokyo last year as well as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
rules she lives by on page 46. GDST schools also sent two ice dancers to Beijing - with Lilah Fear (South Hampstead) representing Team GB and Olivia Smart (Sheffield Girls’) competing for Spain.
INSPIRING FUTURE FEMALE FOUNDERS RAISE HER UP – A NEW PODCAST LAUNCHES
Following the success of the GDST Talks series in 2020, the GDST moved into the podcast space with the launch of Raise Her Up, conversations designed to help parents embrace and navigate the ups and downs of raising girls. Each fortnight, Raise Her Up features an expert guest – including GDST alumnae - discussing some of the burning issues for girls and women today. Recent episodes have featured Sheffield Girls’ alumna Debbie Wosskow (pictured below) talking on Girls, Change and Power, and South Hampstead alumna Professor Abi Gewirtz discussing the theme from her book, When the World Feels Like a Scary Place. You can find all episodes here (shows.acast.com/raise-her-up).
Photograph: Sailing Energy Team GB flag bearer, Hannah Mills OBE, an alumna of Howell’s School, became the most successful female sailor in Olympic history adding a second gold medal to her Rio 2016 win, and her London 2012 silver medal; while Sarah Jones, also from Howell’s (read her story on page 34), brought home a bronze medal in her debut Olympics as a member of the GB hockey team. Eleanor Robinson MBE, an alumna of Northampton High School, took fifth place in the Paralympics 50m Butterfly final, despite having faced what she called “one of the hardest years of my life”. Battling against a painful hip condition, she was determined to end her sporting career on her own terms, “a story of triumph, not a story of defeat” as she put it. Eleanor shares some of the
W ith the growing focus on empowering girls to create real change for the future - one of the GDST’s stated sustainability goals - several initiatives were put in place during 2021 to give sixth formers a real edge in business and entrepreneurship. In September, the GDST launched its LEAD (Leadership Enterprise Advanced Diploma) Programme, in partnership with LSE Generate, the entrepreneurial arm of the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE). Incorporating a powerful mentorship component, the course has been designed exclusively for GDST sixth formers to learn about entrepreneurship while developing their own leadership skills. At the same time, Notting Hill & Ealing High School launched its own leadership, management and enterprise programme, using a blend of live and self-guided lessons, while Putney High School has introduced its own Entrepreneur in Residence role. A special mention should go, too, to the girls at Royal High School Bath who, for the GDST’s Design Thinking course which asked them to find solutions to some of the problems faced during the Covid-19 crisis, came up with the idea of masks for teddy bears, to help younger children feel less intimated by face masks.
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