Our judges aren’t looking for a glossy brochure or a string of slogans. They want the real story of your school in 2025–26 — told with pride, warmth and a dash of conviction.

What has this year actually felt like for the girls in your care? What’s the atmosphere as they sweep through the doors in the morning? What does learning look and sound like in a school designed entirely around girls — their ambitions, their energy, their way of seeing the world? We want to understand why the experience you offer isn’t merely strong, but genuinely exceptional.

So, bring it to life. Share the colour and character of your days. Of course, include the results and the hard evidence that underpin your case — the figures matter — but avoid long, dry lists. Instead, show us what those achievements mean in practice. If our judges were lucky enough to walk through your corridors, what would strike them? The confidence? The camaraderie? The sense of purpose? Let us see the school as it truly is.

Resilience is very much the watchword of the moment in our sector, prompting a clear-eyed focus on the future amongst leadership teams up and down the country. So please weave an explanation of how your school is taking sensible, forward-thinking steps to shore up its long-term stability into your answers.

These are the key questions we’d like you to address — and do keep the focus firmly on your identity as a first-rate single-sex girls’ school.

• Why do you think your school is special?
  What is it about the life of your community that sets you apart from other girls’ schools? Where does your particular magic lie? Tell us about the defining successes of 2025–26 — the academic triumphs, the cultural or sporting achievements, the moments of leadership and grit — and explain why they mark you out as “best in class”. We’re not just interested in outcomes, impressive though they may be, but in the atmosphere that makes those outcomes possible: a place where girls back themselves, speak up, take intellectual risks and quietly — or boldly — excel. (Around 200 words.)

• Why has your single-sex approach truly delivered for girls this year?
  In what ways has an education tailored specifically to their needs made a tangible difference in 2025–26? Perhaps you’ve launched an initiative encouraging girls into STEM, strengthened wellbeing provision, or created leadership opportunities that emboldened even the shyest pupil to find her voice. Tell us what you did, why it mattered and how you know it worked. We want to see that your single-sex provision is thoughtful and purposeful — not simply a structure, but a powerful advantage. (Around 150 words.)

• What are the essential values that shape your school?
  How do they influence the girls who pass through your care? In a fast-moving, demanding century, how are you preparing them not just for university or careers, but for life — as confident, capable young women? Show us how those values are lived day to day, in classrooms, on the sports field, in the way pupils treat one another. And explain how your environment gives girls the space to lead, to question and to grow into their place in modern society. (Around 150 words.)

In short, make us feel the spirit of your school. Show us a girls’ school that is not only successful, but purposeful — a place where young women are encouraged to aim high, think deeply and step into the world ready to shape it.