As the country goes to the polls, and several young people have their first opportunity to exercise their vote, those of us in education hope that we have prepared them to be thoughtful, informed and discerning.

In particular, those of us who have the privilege and challenge of educating girls know what a difference in the wider world, and especially the third world, educated women can make.

I recall the first time, several years’ ago, that I heard of Camfed, just one of many charities and organisations which now concentrate on educating girls in Africa.

Their strapline states that when you educate a girl everything changes: she will be much less likely to get HIV/AIDS, she will earn in the region of 25 percent more income and have a smaller, healthier family.

I also recall a talk by Sir David King, the Government’s former chief scientific adviser, at a major OISSP (Oxfordshire Independent and State Schools Partnership) event in October 2008. Here one of his main points — on the subject of climate change — was the importance of educating young women.

At Wychwood we are in the business of educating young women, not, of course, in the third world, but for roles all over the world. We value their contributions to our community and we hope that what they have learned in the safe and nurturing environment of our vibrant, caring and relaxed school will give them the skills, knowledge, wisdom and courage to make a difference. They leave us confident and capable, having had a well rounded education in which, by virtue of our small size, they have been able to take much responsibility, learn a variety of roles, make mistakes and move on from them, and have a focus beyond themselves to those whose need is greater.

At the start of this article I said that those of us in education aim to prepare pupils to be thoughtful, informed and discerning in the context of their right to vote, but — as we reflect on the unexpected events of the past fortnight — we realise how important it is to prepare them also to “be prepared”.

At Wychwood we prepare our girls to be calm and organised and to take in their stride whatever comes their way. As B F Skinner famously said in the New Scientist back in 1964: “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” I hope that our girls will be really educated in this sense, but also that they will not have forgotten everything we have taught them!

We will have an open evening in September, but we welcome visitors at different times and we always try to accommodate individual requests.

I invite you to discover for yourselves the personal touch and emphasis on preparing girls for the future which are just two of the hallmarks of a Wychwood education.

Mrs S Wingfield Digby, headmistress