To go alongside the thread about all girls schools: are there any advantages to educating your son in a single sex school?

Boys schools allow boys to do anything they want without it being labelled a “ girl thing “ or a “ boy thing”. DS sang treble. I have no doubt he wouldn’t have sung at secondary school if there were teenage girls singing as well. He found it hard enough at primary in a mixed choir.
It was easier to study arts subjects as not pigeonholed into sciences too.

I agree with what Kilash said. When we were looking around, the local mixed school only had half a dozen boys doing Food Tech for GCSE, the all boys school had two forms doing it.

There is probably more scope to find people you get on with because there is more choice.

My son is at a state all boys school. yes, it is heavy on discipline and yes it is competitive, but what i like is the that the boys aren't sterotyped. Humanaties are taught well - often younger boys struggle because texts are very 'girl orientated' e.g in English. (by the time they got to GCSE they were ready for Romeo and Juliet!). Drama and Food Tech similarly and I loved seeing all the tough rugby boys agonising over thier choux pastry at GCSE time.

There is plenyt of female influence within the teaching staff and the school is mixed at 6th form. the school has done my son proud. Before he went I would never envisoned sending him to a single sex school. If the school is the right 'fit for your child it will work wether it's single sex or mixed.

I think at prep school my sons got outside more every day - probably more physical stuff than most mixed primaries and that was a good thing (and indeed for girls too - running around outside and dominating the playground if you want to as girls amongst only girls and climbing your trees and the like [ I just came in from the garden having taken down a tree myself with my saw by the way - not saying that is due to having gone to a single sex school of course; my mother was very good at garden stuff so probably from her]...

I'm in Sydney where most public (State) schools are co-ed but the majority of private schools are single sex. There tends to be boy and girl school "pairings" for social events, plays etc.

My DS is at a boy's school. We didn't set out to look for one, both me and OH went to mixed, but given the choice we had, we felt it was the best school for him for other reasons. 5 years on from starting and he's happy there - the boys are in an environment where they can just be themselves, very little bullying, and the academic achievements are very high. He had to travel with girls on service buses and says he hates the journey as the girls are bickering with each other and flicking their hair for the boys and his school friends are acting up and being loud/boistrous to attract the girls - he's said many times he's glad they don't have girls in the classrooms as the same boys are a lot quieter and well behaved in his school but completely change on the bus with the girls. So a big thumbs up from us.

My DS go to a selective private all boys school. We liked the fact that lessons like English are aimed at boys to keep their interest. It works really well. They can also use their vast experience to cope with the boys work ethic (especially when young) and the need to blow of steam either on the rugby pitch or in the music room. It really works for my boys. Having said that there are plenty of interactions with the local girls schools, so they don't miss out on the girls too much.

IME it's not the actually content of the lesson that is changed depending on the sex of the student, more the approach and style of teaching. It's an ethos-type thing.
DS did Romeo and Juliet for GCSE which might be seen as a more 'girly' play with themes of love etc. But as said upthread, he has had fantastic opportunities singing which I am sure he wouldn't have ever approached in a mixed environment.
I went to an all girls grammar 30 years ago. I took maths and physics as two of my A levels - because I enjoyed them. They were on offer, I took them. When I went on to do my degree, the general chit-chat amongst Freshers always included what A levels you had done. I was told several times that I couldn't have done those as I was a girl. I was stunned - I couldn't grasp the concept of why I couldn't have done them. They were subjects like any other subject? That's why my DD goes to a girls school.

am going to second Infinitecurve's dd's headteacher!

I have one of each.

ds goes to a boys' school because he needed to be among like minded souls. Girls are generally so much harder working at this age that he would have been comfortably below average in a mixed school. Comparing himself to other boys gives him a boost. The whole ethos of the school is to get boys interested in stuff whether that's academia, sport or anything else - and so far it's really working for him.

dd goes to a mixed school for the same reason! She is a hard working, competitive child and I just think an all girls school might have intensified that whereas she is seeing that it's ok to get stuff wrong as long as you have a go.

My son went to an all-boys selective secondary that expanded and amalgamated with the selective girls' school about halfway through his school career.

When it was an all-boys school the boys did everything - arts, cooking, humanities, music, and they had superb choirs, orchestras and musical groups. As soon as the girls joined, gender stereotyping began, and almost all the boys dropped out of music and the choirs, especially, the standard of which dropped dramatically.

My son, a keen musician and singer, in later years toured all the classes with the very popular barbershop group to try to recruit more boys to the choirs, and out of a school of 1100, only 2 boys joined!

I used to be a fan of co-ed, but my opinion has changed and I now think boys, especially, need a protected environment to flourish and be themselves, as education nowadays is so slanted towards girls in pace and learning style.

Infinite, one of my sons found the "boy" emphasis sometimes a bit much at his boys' school - eg he hates all sports including football and rugby so if your English teachers pick books that will appeal to boys who like that (not an unreasonable thing to do if you want most of the class interested in the subject) then he felt that was a bit sexist but I am sure he coped.

In my area (Kent) as a general rule the grammars are single sex and the non selectives are mixed which adds a whole extra level to consider.
My DDs first headteacher ( non selective,mixed school,and she was an excellent head) thought that mixed schools were good for girls because the boys tended to be more laid back with regard to studying,while girls tended to be perfectionist and more obsessive about getting it right and it helped them to see you could achieve without total obsession.And she thought single sex for boys.She had one of each herself.

I went to a single sex school,and the biggest advantage was that we had no gender stereotyping of subjects.But it's interesting that the argument that no gender stereotyping of subjects is a plus seems accompanied by the idea that a gender based teaching style is also a plus - how does that work,really?Separation for STEM subjects,I can see the advantage.But humanities taught with a girl or boy bias sounds awful,both as a parent and an ex girl with very non stereotypical interests.

Single sex boys schools tend to have the highest teaching standards of all thelree options as a general rule in my experience.

I am sure science is compulsory for GCSE. Some schools insist on triple science (a little bit harder then double science and include extra work to do). Both sciences include all three: physics, chemistry and biology.

@brisk Our DC are at a boys' school (private day school) Lots of the boys are STEM-inclined, and the school insists on all three sciences to GCSE, which doesn't suit them all. But English and humanities subjects are also terrifcally popular in sixth form. They have a lot of PPE candidates at A level. Maybe not as many as STEM, but at least three classes' worth.

I'm fine with my son's mixed school but one of the reasons i avoided another mixed school was that the entire A-level art class was female. Ds is good at art and it just rang the wrong bells for me. 'Accidentally' single sex classes at a big mixed school simply shouldn't happen.

It will be fine either way. It was certainly not the biggest factor in our choice of school. It sounds like the co-ed is good.

I and my children were all absolutely delighted to give up all but 3 or 4 subjects at 16 and some of my children had their only B in their language at GCSE and hated doing a language so I am not always sure having to keep up more subjects and doing an IB is best for everyone. My daughter's old school - North London Collegiate - i think does both you can either choose A levels or IB.

Thanks, that's really helpful and interesting. Xenia, part of the reason we're considering the private co-ed is because it's likely to have more opportunities for things like music and drama, as well as the broader subject range. It also helps that it's an IB school, so all the boys as well as girls would have to do English plus a language until 18 - so hopefully that would reduce any perception of them as girls' subjects.

brisk, that's unusual in our experience but we are London private day schools so that may be a reason - my sons' schools have all had loads of music (my sporty son was constantly torn between the two and was music prefect and their school did loads of drama too often teaming up with a local all girl school for that although my boys were not into drama).

The othe rparents (not the school) were very into Stem subjects, dentistry, medicine etc but that is because they are keen on children getting into professions and because the school is majority Asian not because it's a boys' school. In fact the school was very clear about keeping boys away from maths A level unless they are good as so many boys had parents making them do maths when they would get a C or D and not really up to it (obviously some are really good at maths, but not all).

My sons did French (and dropped Latin and Spanish). they could have done those 3 languages had they wanted so I didn't get the imkpression it was non arts and also all 3 of my sons at their schools did arts, not science, A levels (other than economics I suppose which I and they really liked)

I read a quite a bit about an Australian system where it was coed but they were separated for STEM/English and taught different books and Shakespeare plays based on what appealed more to boys and girls. Apparently results improved because girls were more likely to speak up in stem without boys around and boys were more likely to engage in the specially selected literature

My ds went to an all boys school and that particular school really, really suited him.
We weren't particularly looking for an all boys' school, nor a mixed - had no strong feeling either way - but, in the area we live, we just felt this was the best school for him.
I know it is a generalisation, but I feel some boys do approach school and learning in a different way from the majority of girls. I confirm there are many exceptions to this, and I really genuinely feel that ds's school would have been the best school for dd1 to attend - she would have slotted right in there, so I know there are lots of girls and lots of boys that don't fit the 'stereotypes', whilst I still understand that stereotype arise because of fairly typical behaviour amongs a group of individuals. I think the fact that teachers had opted to apply to an all boys school might mean they enjoy teaching boys, together, as a group.

I really am not expressing this very well

But I couldn't recommend my ds's school highly enough to other parents. He is/was bright but disorganised. Liked classes and interesting discussions etc but hated homework and writing things up. Chatty and friendly but could see he could be annoying in class . Loved the emphasis the school put on outdoor education and the many chances he had to get out and use up energy. I felt so many of the staff at the school really 'got him'. Possibly jst as many would at a mixed school - I have no 'control' to prove / disprove my theory of course.

I'm really interested in the point about 'boys'' and 'girls'' subjects. We're looking at single sex grammar vs private co-ed, and one of the things that's putting me off the grammars is the seeming focus on 'boys'' subjects. When we looked round it was all STEM, STEM, STEM. English was definitely a poor cousin (confirmed by the numbers taking it at A Level), MFL seemed like an afterthought, and when we asked about drama, the answer was 'er... we don't really do that here'. But that all sounds like the opposite of what other people are saying about single sex schools!

Same here. All accidents were promptly dealt with. Very strict discipline inside and outside school. Students learnt how to be responsible for their behaviour.

My DS selective private is not violent either. Pastoral care is very good and the very minor instances of bullying / teasing that we brought to schools attention was stamped on immediately.

Pastoral care has come along way in schools in the last 20 to 30 years.

I can't answer for non selective state, but my sons have not experienced violence at all boys' day fee paying schools and are not violent themselves either.