The Independent Schools Council is a politically independent, not-for-profit organisation representing 1,270 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children. It exists to promote choice, diversity and excellence in education, developing talent at all levels of ability and from all backgrounds.

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New President for Girls` Schools Association

14 December 2005

Dr Brenda Despontin, Headmistress of Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls in Wales, is to become the President of the Girls' Schools Association on 1 January 2006, taking over from Ms Clarissa Farr, Principal of Queenswood School in Hertfordshire.

The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) is one of the five professional associations in the Independent Schools Council. Its 207 members are all single-sex schools, educating over 107,000 girls in England, Scotland and Wales. Year on year, GSA schools dominate the academic league tables.

‘Over the coming year,' said Dr Despontin, ‘I shall continue to work with the other associations to pursue unity in the independent sector. We will thereby strengthen our voice nationally and play a more proactive part in shaping educational policy. Equally, I shall continue to raise awareness of the important role played by girls' schools in the learning landscape of the 21st century.

‘When girls leave our schools, they are well-qualified, confident young women, free to consider every imaginable career avenue. Later, they will undoubtedly face important decisions about their work/life/family balance, but they will be confident enough to consider those choices pragmatically and be comfortable enough about who they are to then live with their decisions.

‘There is a widely reported debate on the future on our schools in this country, and our evolving assessment process. What needs equal attention is clear "succession planning" for the next generation of head teachers to run those schools. The nurturing of leadership skills in young people is valued in most schools as part of their enrichment programme. Nurturing school leadership must be a priority, and is a challenge those of us in post cannot afford to ignore. No amount of polices or White Papers will work without the right leaders to implement them. ‘

Biography
Dr Despontin (55) has been Headmistress of Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls since 1997. She was educated at Lewis Girls' Grammar School in Wales, and at Cardiff University where she completed her BA in psychology, an MA on Thomas Hardy and a PhD in children's literature. She intended to become an educational psychologist and took her PGCE at Bath University but found a love of teaching instead. After a short spell teaching at a British school in Brussels (where she met her husband, also a teacher) and working as a residential supervisor in a home for disturbed teenage girls, she went on to teach at a comprehensive school and then an independent school (seven years at each) before setting up the girls' division at King's School, Macclesfield. She recently completed an MBA - on educational leadership - by distance learning. She won the Promethean Award for Leadership in a Welsh Secondary School from the Teaching Awards Trust and has, for two years, co-chaired the GSA/HMC Education and Academic Policy Committee.

Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls
HMSG educates pupils from 7 to 18. There are 650 pupils on the roll, of whom 90 are in the prep school and 170 in the sixth form. Boarding is available from the age of 10 and around 25% of the girls are full-time or weekly boarders. Investors in People has recognised HMSG since 2000.