Your success tied with a ribbon

A warm welcome from Head Sue Baillie

"Queen Margaret's is a really special place.

We are able to really look after girls and nurture them in this wonderful environment, but yet we are only 20 or so minutes from York. All-girls boarding is such a great opportunity for girls and young women to really find themselves and engage with the world around them.

In the modern world, young women are going to be challenged in so many ways, and they need to have the opportunity to reach their aspirations and exceed them. What we're trying to do is give them those opportunities, as well as the confidence and courage to stretch their wings and fly.

A solid, fantastic academic education is what every girl needs and at QM we pride ourselves on understanding the potential of our girls and bringing that out in the classroom. Because it's about learning. Learning about yourself, learning about the world, and learning how you're going to engage in it as you move on in your life.

I'm really proud of the way that we support girls in their academic work. Our GCSE and A Level results demonstrate how effective an all-girls education with dedicated teaches and small class sizes can really help girls to thrive and realise their academic potential.

One of the things that first struck me when I first came to QM was just what a friendly and welcoming place this is. We are a community. We are a school where everybody matters. Where we invest our time in relationships and make sure we really can get to know each other, and that means that girls really benefit from us understanding how they tick.

We have a horizontal boarding structure here at QM, and that means that girls in the same year, at the same age, are really able to forge their friendships and support each other in their boarding houses.

One of the things that I've loved to do is to get out of my office, get round the school, and see all of the things the girls are doing. Whether that's standing at the touchline on a Saturday afternoon watching some lacrosse, watching them play hockey, enjoying one of the superb productions in our theatre in the evening... so many things that you can see the girls enjoying and getting stuck into life at QM.

The one thing I've said to girls, right from the start, is don't be afraid to try.

Queen Margaret's is a fantastic school, and I feel hugely privileged to be leading it. Girls education has never been more relevant than it is now and for me, QM should be and will be a school where every girl can succeed."