Gillian Low - new President for GSA

1 January 2010

Mrs Gillian Low, head of The Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, is the 2010  President of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA), taking over from Jill Berry, head of Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford. 

GSA is the association that represents the independent girls’ schools in England, Scotland and Wales, including all the schools in the Girls’ Day School Trust. It is one of the eight professional associations in the Independent Schools Council. Its schools educate approximately 110,000 girls. 

Gillian Low has been head of The Lady Eleanor Holles School (LEH) since 2004. Her previous posts were head of Francis Holland School (1998-2004) and deputy head of The Godolphin and Latymer School (1994-1998), both GSA schools. Before that she was Head of English, and later Director of Studies, at Bishop Ramsey Church of England School in Ruislip, a mixed comprehensive school.

She is the GSA representative on the Council of the International Confederation of Principals and is a member of the GSA/HMC Universities Committee.

Mrs Low was educated at The North London Collegiate School; Somerville College Oxford (BA Hons, later converted to MA, in English Language and Literature); and Trinity College Cambridge (PGCE). She has two daughters and a son.

Mrs Low said: ‘I am delighted to have the opportunity to represent GSA this coming year. Recent debate on single-sex schooling has served to highlight the outstanding contribution that girls’ schools make to the education of young women in this country. Our schools, far from being Victorian relics, provide a style of education that is utterly contemporary and relevant, supported not only by sustained successful practice, but by research. We offer a specialised approach that has proved hugely effective in enabling girls to thrive intellectually and personally building their confidence and aspirations in an atmosphere that focuses on their needs and natures, and where teaching is fully geared to the particular ways in which girls learn best.

Media enquiries to Sheila Thompson on 0207 591 9610 sheilat@blj.co.uk.