Branksome Hall, a Private All-Girls

¶ … Branksome Hall, a private all-girls school based in Toronto. The school has been open for 104 years and the popularity of the school appears to have increased over recent years. The school bases itself upon the model of the three Cs, claiming that their aim is to help girls to develop confidence, connectedness and competence. The author explains that this is not the only school to base itself upon this model, but that it reflects the general state of the Canadian all-girls school system at the present time. Many all-boys schools have changed to co-educational schools in recent years due to declining popularity. This has not been necessary with all-girls schools as these have surprisingly remained very popular. The article states the Linden School in Toronto as a prime example, which opened in 1993 with 37 students and now has 140.

There are several reasons discussed throughout the article as possible explanations for the growing popularity of these schools. For example at the Linden school in Toronto it is suggested that the close relationships which are able to develop between staff and pupils is a key factor. State-run schools notoriously suffer from over-crowding in classes, where in these private schools the pupil to teacher ratio is much lower. The atmosphere at the school is also more intimate, with staff and pupils on a first-name basis, and greater interaction encouraged between the pupils. It has also been suggested that all-girls schools aid in progress of females in a world which is still very much male-dominated. It is stressed that the modern all-girls schools are very different to those which were around many years ago. The article also suggests that the perception of safety is a critical factor in the decision to send a child to an all-girls school. This was believed to be particularly important for those girls attending the school which had travelled from another country.

The article also explains that there is expected to be a decrease in the overall population of school-aged children in the near future. The all-girls schools in Toronto are protecting their own interest by ensuring that extra money is allocated to marketing strategies. The all-girls schools in Toronto are choosing to pursue a different strategy to that of the all-boys schools in the area which went co-ed in order to attract a wider market. Instead they are using diversity as their new initiative, encouraging students from diverse backgrounds from around the world to attend their school.

Paradigm Approach

This article takes the neo-conservative approach. This may be seen in the social attitudes of the article. The author appears to be in favor of freedom from government coercion as they appear to believe that the independent actions of the school are those which contribute greatest to the popularity. The article also appears to support the use of a free market and competitive capitalism which are both elements of the private school system reviewed. Both of these elements are important to all-girl schools, as they are run as businesses and must attract ample numbers of students to remain profitable. For example the article discusses the marketing techniques of the school in attracting pupils, who may be considered as clients. The paradigm is considered to be the neo-capitalist approach as opposed to the liberalism paradigm, as the nature of schools means that there is some governmental control exerted over the business to ensure it meets legislation and standards.

Critical Analysis

The article is well written overall, for instance the structure is laid out to describe a personal story, but with external examples used to provide explanations. The provision of examples may have been improved, however. The use of one school in Toronto to provide figures illustrating the school's popularity was successful in illustrating that the one specific school had increased their intake between 1993 and the present. This popularity was then applied as a generalization to the entire all-girl schooling system in Canada. There were no overall figures presented to illustrate this conclusion however. The fact that one school had increased the number of enrolled children does not necessarily indicate that all-girl schools overall have experienced increased popularity. For example it may simply be that as the school was only opened recently the size has only expanded slowly to accommodate a large number of pupils. It may be that if the school had been opened for many more years it would have already reached the current capacity at some stage in the past.