Fostering Self-Confidence for Academic Success

We have been hard at work to solidify routines while establishing new patterns of learning. Our students are continually encouraged to welcome challenges and to take academic risks that will help them to reach new levels of understanding. For example, our younger science students stepped outside the realm of convention to participate in a sticky, messy laboratory experiment relating to fluids. The learning objective was to be able to identify and demonstrate a non-Newtonian fluid. Only some were able to achieve the desired consistency and yet all learned successfully from this dynamic experiment.

In March earlier this year, the OECD released a report entitled The ABC of Gender Equality in Education, sparking significant news media attention and online discussion. One of the key findings was that high-school aged girls lack self-confidence in subject areas such as mathematics and science. They can experience anxiety in relation to performance in these subject areas even though they tend to perform very well and enjoy the school experience.

The researchers also identified several strategies to counteract these tendencies.  As you can see from the pictures, our girls are highly-engaged in the scientific activity and are enjoying the freedom to be themselves in an all-girls environment.   We value the importance of this type of research and strive, in every way, to build confidence in each girl’s ability to perform academically. Our approach is focused on providing an environment in which girls feel safe in taking academic risks and in which each is challenged to perform to the best of her ability. The results are evident.