Global Girl Leading Summit 2024

On 11th October 2024, Mulberry held its annual Global Girl Leading Summit, bringing together girls from across the UK and around the world to discuss and celebrate how women lead change at local, national and international levels.

Throughout the day, students heard from a range of inspirational speakers and had the chance to engage with other students in important conversations around equality and leadership.

Each of the Global Girl Leading projects were showcased at the event alongside several fantastic student performances.

For more information, please visit the Events and Conferences section on the Global Girl Leading page.

If you are interested in taking part in future events, please email info@mulberryschoolsfoundation.org.

Fundraising for Lenana Girls High School

In February 2024, Mulberry Schools Trust was contacted by Lenana Girls High School in Kenya about taking part in Global Girl Leading. Lenana is a boarding school near Nairobi that was set up by the charity Common Ground for Africa. It supports orphaned, vulnerable and dispossessed girls aged 11-22.

Throughout 2024, students from Lenana have taken part in a range of Global Girl Leading activities including Letters to Our Daughters and Speakers’ Corner. They will now be coming to London in October 2025 to take part in the next Global Girl Leading conference.

In order to support the visit, students from across Mulberry Schools Trust led an amazing series of fundraising events, raising over £5000. This incredible effort means that Mulberry will be able to support the Lenana students’ visit and make it a life-changing experience for them and students in Mulberry schools.

Thank you to everyone who got involved!

Shoulder to Shoulder

On Wednesday 10th July, Mulberry Schools Trust took over the legendary Wilton’s Music Hall in Shadwell.

Shoulder to Shoulder featured students from across the Trust performing in a wide variety of pieces, including a group from the Trust Choir and Trust Orchestra, a drama performance exploring the past, present and future, the premiere of Letters to Our Daughters, and a special performance of My Shot from Hamilton with actor Karl Queensborough.

Students performed to a warm and generous audience full of friends of Mulberry, trustees, governors, parents and carers, and our community.

The event was held to raise awareness and funds for the Mulberry Schools Foundation and was hugely successful, raising over £20,000. It has enabled the Foundation to start offering new opportunities to young people from across our schools and the communities we serve.

Global Girl Leading Study Tour

From 17th-22nd March, eight students from across Mulberry Schools Trust travelled to New York for a Global Girl Leading study tour. Students took part in the United Nations International School’s 2024 Conference: Equal Rights Equal Heights: Climbing the Ladder of Gender Equality. They engaged with a variety of activities, including school visits and cultural opportunities.

The aims of the tour were to:

  • Engage students as global citizens
  • To share priorities for girls’ education, voice and leadership
  • To conduct an educational enquiry
  • To explore ideas for partnership work through Global Girl Leading
  • To enable students to act as ambassadors for their peers and local communities

7th Annual Education Lecture in celebration of International Day of the Girl 2023

Wednesday 11th October 2023

The Mulberry Schools Trust is a flourishing collaboration of schools and partners that believe in the power of education to bring about lasting social change. The Trust currently includes Mulberry School for Girls, Mulberry UTC, Mulberry Academy Shoreditch, Mulberry Stepney Green Maths, Computing and Science College, Mulberry Wood Wharf Primary, Mulberry Academy Woodside, Mulberry Canon Barnett Primary and Mulberry Academy London Dock. At the heart of our Trust sits the commitment to ‘outstanding achievement for all’. We provide our students with the knowledge and skills to become successful, confident individuals capable of making a valuable contribution to their own community, to British society and to global well-being.

The Mulberry Schools Trust was delighted to welcome Susan Acland-Hood, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education to deliver our Annual Lecture on the International Day of the Girl 2023 to an audience of pupils, parents and friends of Mulberry. Susan Acland-Hood has been the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education (DfE) since September 2020. Susan studied at Cambridge University and has a History MA and an MPhil in Intellectual History and the History of Political Thought.

Her Civil Service career began in the then Department for Education and Employment in 1999. Before taking on the role at the DfE, Susan was Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service. From 2015 to 2016 she was Director of Enterprise and Growth at HM Treasury, responsible for policies on growth, energy, the environment, business, infrastructure, exports, competition and markets. She was Director of the Education and Funding Group at the DfE from 2013 to 2015, and before that held a range of posts covering education and justice policy, including in the Prime Minister’s Office in No.10, the Home Office, the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Social Exclusion Unit.

In her role as Permanent Secretary, Susan leads the day-to-day running of the department and heads the senior leadership teams. Susan is responsible and accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of the department’s budget and ensuring value for money as the Principal Accounting Officer. Susan is also the Chief Policy Adviser to the Secretary of State and the ministerial team.

Global Girl Leading Conference 2023

Mulberry Schools Trust held its annual Global Girl Leading conference on Wednesday 11th October 2023 to celebrate the International Day of the Girl.

Now in its 11th year, the day highlights and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.

The event brought students together from across the world to address these aims in a truly global way, celebrating the progress that has been made so far and learning how to face future challenges that may lie ahead.

Students heard from trailblazers in a variety of sectors, with panels focusing on media representation and responding to humanitarian crises.

The event was run in person at Mulberry School for Girls and streamed online.

The recording can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGZsWezZShg.