Heather Hanbury has been named as president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA).
As president, Mrs Hanbury will work closely with GSA member schools, teachers and girls themselves, to explain the benefits of girls-only educational settings. She will take over the presidential role from Sam Price from Benenden School and will work alongside the chief executive Donna Stevens.
Mrs Hanbury went to school in Belfast then attended Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities. She worked initially as a market analyst, and moved on to be a senior management consultant with Touche Ross, where she spent seven years.
She ran the corporate fundraising department of Voluntary Service Overseas for two years before embarking on her career in education. She took a PGCE in 1995 and was later appointed to her first headship at Wimbledon High School. She is now head of Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton, London.
She said: “I’m proud to represent the best interests of all our students. The GSA and its members have deep experience and understanding of the transformative power of single-sex education. It can be life changing for girls, who have every right to realise their own talents and boldly play to their own strengths: to become champions in their own lives.
“The world needs girls who have the confidence and the courage to pursue their aspirations and ambitions. Collectively, the female voice and female action can create a more equitable world for everyone.”
Donna Stevens, chief executive of the GSA, added: “I welcome Heather as new president and look forward to working alongside her in our continued and important mission at GSA. Our goal is to enable our pupils to work towards a world as it should be: a place where every girl can achieve and lead. It is our firm belief that an all-girls education gifts its pupils with the skills and confidence they need to realise a brilliant life.”
