Messages from Branksome Hall Leadership

A Message from Our Chair of the Board

Inclusiveness is a core value at Branksome Hall and our work on DEI is a strategic priority. We strive to make progress, acknowledge areas where we can do better and find ways to make that happen. We want all students and employees to be treated with dignity, fairness and respect, creating an educational environment where all feel they belong.

As a leading, internationally minded girls’ school dedicated to preparing our students to thrive in a changing world, we are not standing still. Building on the findings and recommendations highlighted here, Branksome Hall is extending its commitment to innovation in the education landscape and continuing to evolve and to build a diverse, inclusive and equitable community for all. As a Board of Governors, we have improved our own diversity in the past two years, completed DEI learning, committed to creating an inclusive board environment, and confirmed the importance of DEI in the school’s strategic priorities.

2023 has already been an exciting and pivotal year for Branksome Hall. In addition to embarking on the strategy refresh effort, the Branksome community will now have an opportunity to collectively engage to shape our action planning going forward. On behalf of myself and the Board, we thank everyone for their commitment and we are excited about the opportunities ahead.

A Message from Our Principal and Head, Research & DEI

As a community of lifelong learners, Branksome Hall is dedicated to being a diverse, equitable and inclusive community guided by humility, compassion and ingenuity.

In 2020, we initiated our DEI journey, and one of the key steps we took was to launch a comprehensive audit of Branksome community members’ experiences and organizational practices. To embark on a proactive DEI assessment of this scale was significant for Branksome Hall, yet active learning requires a willingness to listen and to make change in order to progress. Anima Leadership, our third-party DEI auditor, noted that by committing to a review of this magnitude, Branksome Hall was breaking new ground with the comprehensive scope of this project, yielding an incredible wealth of quantitative and qualitative data that can inform strategic directions for years to come.

We, alongside our senior leadership team, recognize that true change comes with a whole-school view to the work that allows us to see the big picture as to how actions, partnership and choices can support growth across the school. The submission of Anima’s findings and recommendations present an important opportunity for us to understand our gaps and inform our efforts to improve. Rather than a checklist of immediate to-do’s, the following findings present the opportunity to re-evaluate and hone our DEI priorities, and in turn, translate them into a long-term action plan. We have been making changes every day alongside this audit and we look forward to sharing with you what is already in play and what we seek to build. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone in our community for sharing your stories and taking part in open and honest conversations. Recognizing DEI is a shared responsibility, your trust and engagement brings strength and clarity to our efforts.

We are pleased to invite you to review the audit findings and continue to walk with us, sharing your thoughts and staying involved as we take steps to respond to these recommendations and shape our path forward together.

Karen L. Jurjevich Principal Mona Malone Chair, Branksome Hall Board of Governors

Mira Gambhir Head, Research and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion