Why All Girls?

Girls’ Schools are More Relevant Today than Ever Before

Excellent schools encourage and assist pupils to realize their potential, and are designed to equip them for success and fulfillment in the world beyond. Girls’ schools are founded on the principle that these aims are best achieved by educating girls separately. 

Whether your daughter wants to be an astronaut, ambassador, author, or attorney, she needs to know—not just think, but really know, deep down—there’s nothing that can stand in her way. That’s the incredibly important message girls’ schools send each and every day.

There is strong evidence that girls-only education leads to higher academic achievement, greater diversity of subject choice, stronger self-confidence and resilience, and enhanced career progression. 

In single-sex schools, girls: 

• are less likely to conform to gender stereotypes, 

• are less constrained in their choice of subjects, 

• show a greater propensity to take risks and innovate, 

• perform better in examinations, 

• have more opportunities to show leadership, and 

• are more successful in the job market. 

These effects do not follow inevitably from the mere act of separating the sexes in education. Single-sex education at Merion Mercy Academy is more than an organizational device—it is underpinned by a set of principles, and articulated in a set of practices, whereby your daughter is nurtured, challenged and empowered. 

Merion Mercy Academy maximizes opportunities for your daughter to realize her potential. We do this through: 

• the design of the school itself, including not just the classrooms but also social spaces and informal learning areas, 

• the timetable (length of lessons and structure of the school day), 

• curriculum content and classroom interaction, 

• the pedagogical practice of teachers, 

• subject choice and co-curricular opportunities, 

• girls-only sports and fitness activities, and 

• a whole-school culture conducive to girls’ education. 

Girls schools like Merion Mercy seek to challenge traditional gender stereotypes, give girls space to develop a strong sense of themselves and their value, and nurture the confidence to make their own choices, free of any sense that the script has been written for them. 

Want to learn more about the girls' school advantage?

Check out this ICGS podcast, which offers wisdom and guidance on each part of this exploratory journey—and be assured: It is definitely a journey! Finding the right school is a matter of both head and heart. It is about partnering with your daughter to ask the right questions as you think about the relationships that you and she will want with those in her school community. 

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