writes Helen Jeys, President of the Girls’ Schools Association and Head Mistress of Manchester High School for Girls
Girls in the UK miss out on 280 million hours of sport every year. Helen Jeys asks what is keeping them off the pitch, and why girls in GSA schools keep playing.
Girls’ sport has been in the news again but, unfortunately, not for the right reasons. Sky’s Game Changing report, produced by Public First and published in September 2025, found that girls in the UK are missing 280 million hours of sport every year. That gap is deeply worrying. Sky’s constituency-level data, published in July 2026, shows how this plays out locally. In Cheadle, where I live – a leafy Manchester suburb – boys play 7 hours 2 minutes of sport a week and girls 6 hours 6 minutes: 13% less. In Manchester Central this increases to 15% less sport and in Bolton, 18%. Closing that gap nationally would be worth £643m a year in productivity gains and NHS savings, and £6.5bn by 2035.
In September, a colleague tracked the top five sport stories on the BBC website each day for a week. Of those 35 stories, just three related to women in sport, and one of these was in reference to the ‘Sweeney ad [as] a barrier for girls in sport.’ Billie Jean King popularised the quote “if you can see it, you can be it”. Girls are not seeing those sporting role models consistently and if they can’t see them, how can we expect them to take part in sport that brings such benefits, both now and as they grow older?
What keeps girls off the pitch
The health benefits of sport for girls are well known, and the economic case is striking. Sky’s report notes that “getting a physically inactive 18-year-old girl involved in sport generates a lifetime benefit of £30,000 to the UK economy per person.”
Nor are the barriers solely about a lack of role models. Sky reports that a third (33%) of 11 to 18-year-old girls experience sexist comments while playing sport. Girls also have fewer sports to choose from, due in part to unequal access to facilities, and can feel excluded from sports usually associated with boys. It is not easy to be a young girl wanting to play football and being told that she has to join the boys’ team because there aren’t enough girls to warrant a separate girls’ team. Nor should we underestimate the impact of the physical changes girls experience as they get older. More than a third (37%) of girls said that they dropped out of sport because they didn’t feel comfortable in the kit. A lack of education about period-proof sportswear and sports bras has a real impact too. We need to ensure that girls feel comfortable in their kit, comfortable playing and that they avoid feeling judged by those around them when they do play.
What girls lose
Due to this lack of participation, girls are also missing out on the skills developed through sport. Sky’s research finds that girls who played sport growing up are 30% more likely to believe they can handle a lot of pressure, 20% more likely to enjoy trying new things and 30% more likely to bounce back quickly after hard times. The development of resilience, teamwork and leadership skills that so many girls are missing out on is a real loss.
What girls’ schools show
As Head Mistress of Manchester High School for Girls, I feel that the girls in my school are well served when it comes to participation and involvement. Some perform at elite level: last year’s Head Girl, for instance, achieved her A levels and a place at medical school while captaining the GB hockey team but, more importantly, our inclusive approach to sport, where all girls are actively encouraged to take part, builds real character. Our Director of Sport, Sarah Newman, talks about the perseverance, leadership and teamwork, the determination and tenacity that she sees being developed when girls engage in sport. She sees girls being able to handle setbacks in a way that produces strong, independent young women who are proactive in how they respond and who develop confidence in the classroom as a result. She also says, not surprisingly, that girls involved in elite level sport are highly organised. After all, they need to be when they are juggling their sport alongside their examination work.
Sport does not only benefit those at elite level. It benefits everyone.
Sarah talked to me about the joy she experienced alongside the girls, when seven girls who were non-swimmers at the start of the year were able to swim a length of the pool for the first time. She spoke of the “sheer elation” at their success, and of the support the girls showed one another as they reached this milestone.
None of this is luck; it is by design. In a GSA school, every sporting opportunity – from cricket to football, water polo to hockey – is for girls. Girls take part, they enjoy doing so and they benefit from their participation, both in terms of their health and the development of character. Research by the Girls’ Schools Association shows that girls in all-girls settings have higher levels of sports participation and engagement than girls nationally. Girls in GSA schools participate in 25% more curriculum sport and, where nationally there is a 65% drop-off in the time girls spend playing sport between the ages of 14 and 18, in GSA schools, this drop-off is limited to just 25%. They are also nearly five times more likely to play cricket and 30% more likely to play football than girls in other types of schools.
What needs to change
It is clear that more needs to be done for all girls. We need to ensure that young girls receive specialist teaching from the primary age, that they are surrounded by, and exposed to, female sporting role models and that they are encouraged to have a go – even in sports where women are under-represented. I heard Jazmin Sawyers, the British long jumper, speak recently and was inspired by her hugely positive message at the GSA Girls Go Gold Event at Loughborough University on women in sport. She calls on us all to normalise conversations with girls about those issues that impact their participation, such as periods. “Let’s normalise the conversation” she says and “end the shame.” When period pain and shame are cited as key reasons why 65% of girls drop out of sport these conversations need to happen and they must, absolutely, be normalised. She talks of the “personal empowerment, equality, social cohesion and leadership “that sport brings to society, and insists that “every child deserves the chance to succeed.”
Girls are telling us, clearly, what keeps them off the pitch: kit that doesn’t fit, periods no one talks about, comments no one challenges. The first step is to listen. The next is to act: at least two hours of PE a week for every girl, and equal access to sport wherever public money is spent.
Girls’ schools show what is possible. Every girl deserves a level playing field.