Ratios of boys to girls

[rachelp73]

Hi. DS1 has just started Reception and seems to be settling in nicely. But I've noticed that there are 20 girls in the class and only 10 boys, and I'm starting to wonder what effect (if any) it'll have on pupil behaviour and relationships.

I can only go off my own experience of it being pretty much 50-50. DS1 is quite mature for his age so I can see it helping him in some ways in the sense that girls tend to be more "sensible" at school than boys the same age. But what if he just doesn't "click" with most of the boys - there's only a small pool of them. Or do boys make friends in different ways to girls - I mean, do they tend to just all muck about together at playtimes as opposed to the close friendships of 1 or 2 friends that girls tend to have in primary school?

I'm not really worried, just interested. There are 2 other classes in the year too, not sure what the ratio with them is. I assume the teachers would have spread them out evenly across the year?

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

I think you're right - girls do seem to settle into school more quickly than boys do, so the classroom may be quieter and calmer than if there were more boys. Looking at my daughter's class, the way in which the boys and girls make friends does seem to be different, too. The girls tend to form very tight-knit pairs or trios whereas the boys tend to be in bigger groups with shifting membership.

The boys may not be spread evenly between the classes though - some schools near here split the classes up by date of birth so the gender split cana be quite uneven.

I'm sure your son will be fine. With 10 boys in the class he won't be lonely.

[rachelp73]

sleepcat! Poor DD! Would have driven me insane when I was a studious little thing in primary school LOL!

[GobbledigookisThrifty]

Ds3's reception class has 21 boys and 9 girls. ROFL!

[GobbledigookisThrifty]

And can we please not tar all boys with the same brush? Thanks.

[GobbledigookisThrifty]

Sorry, twas a bit stroppy.

IME, boys tend to play with everyone and don't form rigid cliques like girls do. I'm sure your ds will be fine.

I have 3 boys btw.

Yes, I think generally gender is split as evenly as it could be. THe second reception class has about 20 boys to 10 girls I think.

[MadBadandDangerousToKnow]

I don't think anyone was being tarred.

I spoke about what I have seen in my daughter's class, where I have observed differences. To say that there is a difference between x and y isn't to say that one is any better than the other.
Of course, not all boys conform to the stereotype and nor do all girls, but there is nevertheless a difference.

[n5rje]

DS1 has only 4 boys in his year while DS2 and DS3 are in years where there are only 2/3 girls so it can be a problem but I'd say 10 boys should be plenty.

DS1 found it hardest in Yr R when the girls were all able to sit still and learn to read/write and he is a v active boy and just wasn't ready to do that. I don't think the teacher took this into account and he was often in trouble for what I classed as normal 4 yo boys behaviour.

He's fine now and doesn't seem to have any problems. I think its worse when there are fewer girls as I agree with Gobbledigok, girls are less easy going when it comes to friends.

[rachelp73]

Gobbledegookis, don't get me wrong, my boy is one of the quiet, mature types who gets uncomfortable around rowdy and slightly "naughty" behaviour, so how can I tar boys all with the same brush when I have experience of them NOT all conforming to the boisterous, unable-to-concentrate stereotype? When it comes to DS2, though, (2.5) I'm pretty sure he's heading towards being bang on the rowdy boy stereotype. When he starts school I'll be praying for loads of girls in his class to help tame him LOL!

N5rje, a friend of mine said there is an older teacher at DS1's school who just doesn't seem to "get" boys, and is forever telling them off just for acting how they naturally want to act, and calling them naughty. Just from little anecdotes I've heard from other people, I think that there is generally a bit of truth in the gender stereotype, but a good teacher should be able to make allowances for that and get them to behave without making them feel as if they ARE misbehaving, IYSWIM. I think DS1's teacher seems fab so far.

[mrz]

As a reception teacher I prefer a class with more boys than girls (less falling out)

[bran]

DS has 9 boys and 3 girls in his class, I'm not sure whether it will make any difference to him but I would feel sorry for the girls if they didn't all get along together as 3 is an odd number so one could be left out. His age group has always been very strongly male, there were very few girls his age at M&T groups or in his nursery so I wasn't surprised that it was quite a boyish reception class.

Are all schools quite oriented towards typical female behaviour? I wasn't sure whether it was just DS's school or schools in general but they seem very keen to discourage what I think of as normal behaviour in DS.

[Orinoco]

Message withdrawn

[Feenie]

I taught a Y2 class with 18 boys and 4 girls. Never had a minute's bother from any of the boys, but the 4 girls more than made up for it with spectacular fallouts!

[rachelp73]

God, yes, I sit and watch in amazement at those "You're not my friend anymore!" conversations that 4 year old girls have. When it goes on in the presence of my son, you can see the bewilderment on his face as he plays with his other (boy) friends - they all just carry on sheepisly playing football a few feet away and not having a clue what the girls are getting upset about. Goes totally over their heads! Where ARE the girls learning this type of behaviour? Some of them are so BITCHY. At the age of 4!!!