A small number of female sixth formers had taken their A-levels at the school previously and today there are girls studying in years 7 and 8, and 12 and 13.
The Elizabeth College Junior School has been fully co-educational for many years.
Pictured: Although girls were never explicitly excluded from a senior school education at Elizabeth College, it was 2021 before the school accepted female students in Year 7 and Year 12.
Globally recognised, IWD is marked on 8 March annually.
It is a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. One of its aims is to “celebrate women’s achievements”.
With that in mind, Magnus Buchanan, Head of English at Elizabeth College, shared work written by three girls to be published today in recognition of their hard work and talent on International Women’s Day.
The girls had been studying a text written by Emily Dickinson called ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’ and they were tasked with writing poems based on the inspiration they received from Ms Dickinson’s work.
Led by Sarah Tribe, the students – both girls and boys – selected different emotions to focus on, and developed their own metaphors to represent how those emotions might be imagined.
The unit on Emily Dickinson was developed to provide more balance to the school’s poetry curriculum as it continues to embrace co-education with a long term aim to explore more diverse voices.
The three poems are below, in alphabetical order by author.
Holly Jones aged 13 – ‘Anger is a thing with sharp claws’
Tallulah-Mae Rautenbach aged 12 – ‘”Grief” is the thing that swallows us whole’
Chloe Sebire aged 13 – ‘Forgiveness is a fresh start’
