Ruyton Girls’ School is widely recognised as a high-performing school – but here, success is more than purely academic, it also comes down to a strong and deliberate focus on powerful learning and the empowerment of girls and young women.
For Ruyton, success requires an emphasis on acquiring knowledge and gaining skills, with opportunities to pose and solve problems and apply learning in new and unfamiliar situations. It is the ability to innovate; to determine what to do when we actually don’t know what to do; to be bold and thoughtful by asking deep questions, interrogating information and applying our thinking in different contexts. It is the ability to empower young women to understand their true identity and capacity. These are the new measures of true learning that are being embraced at Ruyton.
Personal development, wellbeing and recognising the challenges girls and young women face in today’s world are important characteristics of success at Ruyton. The school strives to provide opportunities and inspiration for girls to put their learning into action, to test their leadership and self-confidence, and to engage in the local and global community. It means identifying personal strengths, learning from failures, developing resilience and grit, and leading purposeful lives. As Ruyton prepares its girls for tomorrow’s world, the development of skills and understanding in collaboration, communication, creative thinking, character, enterprise and global citizenship are essential components of its educational focus.
At Ruyton success is deeply personal. Teaching staff are immersed in developing powerful learning for their girls, learning what matters to them not only now but well into their futures. At the foundation of the school’s learning culture is the unwavering intent to ensure academic growth for every girl through a clear focus on personalised learning. The learning culture is so much more than a programme: it is an approach to learning through the identification of progressive methods and practices, the value of personalised data and feedback, and the promotion of intellectual curiosity. Ruyton knows that a growth mindset supports its girls in working towards their personal best.
The size of Ruyton enables the school to know its girls well and for them to develop strong relationships and networks across the community. Ruyton enjoys a strong sense of connection where each girl knows she is valued for who she is. It seeks to support its girls in their development as well-rounded individuals capable of meeting the challenges of life. The school believes its rich co-curricular programme is an integral component of a Ruyton education. Through their engagement in Performing Arts, Sports, Debating, Writing, Visual Arts, Sustainability and Community Service, Ruyton’s girls discover and hone their talents, set personal challenges, make a difference or find their passion.
Traditionally students have been expected to recall a defined body of knowledge, to give a right answer, to get the right grade, and to proceed through a linear and defined pathway of schooling. Ruyton recognises the need for the old norms to give way to deeper, broader and more individualised perspectives on learning, living and success. The shared vision in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Report on Education 2030 is that our young people “will need to be responsible and empowered, placing collaboration above division, and sustainability above short-term gain. In the face of an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, education can make the difference as to whether people embrace the challenges they are confronted with or whether they are defeated by them.”
The school takes its responsibility to educate young women for their future very seriously. It knows that girls learn best and engage fully when learning is meaningful and real purpose and challenge exist. The school strives to provide opportunities for student voice and agency, while equipping its young women with future-focussed skills, attitudes and dispositions.
Ruyton Girls’ School is a dynamic and engaging community where girls come first. It is a place where girls and young women have the opportunity to dream, discover and develop as capable and confident young women, with the support of an engaged community.
Ruyton inspires girls to be bold. It educates girls to live lives of impact and purpose. It is a community that believes in girls. This is who Ruyton is.