Is there an argument for some subjects to be taught in single sex classes?

Plan a challenging curriculum for all & staff need to teach like it's for everyone. What's in someone's pants doesn't make you better at one subject over another.

Studies consistently show that girls learn better in a single sex environment and boys learn better in a mixed sex environment.
Most of the time the schools prioritize the benefits for boys.

What pissed me off was teachers in primary school talking about my DS2 who really couldn't get into reading books "oh well it's a boy thing". EVERY time, I'd say, well, DS1 goes through series and series of novels at a rate of knots and had a reading age of 13+ when he was 9. Explain that?! And my friends of girls, who used to be repeatedly asked if they understood the maths ok because "we started a new topic and it's quite tricky". These are decent teachers on the whole, with good spelling (!) and exciting creative methods of teaching the curriculum. It just seems to be so embedded that girls find STEM hard and boys hate English. They are getting labelled so young that it's not surprising that some boys are bored by that Y3/4 testosterone surge time and then some girls are being turned off anything remotely "boyish" by the time they pick their options. (I know these are generalisations and not all children etc etc)

I suspect if there was more of a 50/50 split in M/F primary teachers that this would be less of an issue? I have found that my sons' male teachers have been much less unconsciously biased towards the different learning styles of girls and boys. I find it all totally fascinating from a psychological theoretical viewpoint and would be interested in more of your experiences. Good thread OP

You won't be surprised that I do not agree with this. If children need extra help with literacy or mathematics then that should be available. I don't support separate , additional literacy classes for boys- how are girls who are struggling catered for?

The only class I would support this for is PE and possibly to a very limited extent in relation to sex and relationship education.

There is no reason for boys not to learn all about periods and girls to learn about nocturnal emissions and unwanted erections. These are natural body functions and reactions and both sexes should know these are just things which happen to everyone of the relevant sex. There may be a justification for separate classes on dealing with the practicalities of these. So far as issues such as consent, respect I think these should be taught as mixed but with a separate session by way of discussion with teachers.

So far as biology unless the curriculum has changed hugely since I sat Higher Biology very little of the syllabus concerned human reproduction and even then I can't see any need to separate that out.

If boys are aware that the girls are moderating their behaviour surely it tells them that they're expected to behave worse? I feel like this is yet another example of children being let down by low expectations

Tbh I personally don't think it works. It's a small classroom not a country. They just yell across or throw shit instead. Least sat together they can just annoy eachother and destroy eachothers work...

Personally I hope dds school next yr does this. Im done trying to make up crap about learning to deal with distractions or being grateful she knows how to behave herself to try and explain why a method that's down fuck all good for the past six years will suddenly just work now

She's had nothing but grief off boys the past few weeks and the sooner she gets some space away from them even if it's just pe, the better.

Flame away..

Oh and completely agrre with maisys post at 17.46

I was recommending mumsnet staffroom to a young trainee teacher the other day

He told me that they have been advised to steer clear of mumsnet in case they ever 'see themselves ' on here

waddle

Yes i agrre funny though...

Ds1 had masses of teen books, dystopian fiction but loads of them had a female protagonist....well over 50%

Ds2 went through them the other day to see if there were any he wanted...he took a pile away

When i looked at th ones he had left they all had a female protagonist

Except for one series in which the sex of the main protagonist is kept a secret til the end of the first book

Two boys, same upbringing and education but one completely dismissing females in what i believe was an unconscious bias

Definitely in biology.

If boys are aware that the girls are moderating their behaviour surely it tells them that they're expected to behave worse? I feel like this is yet another example of children being let down by low expectations.

When I was at school we had sessions of single sex and mixed sex PSHE and PE. As a girl, single sex was always better because you could ask questions without the usual suspects (cough all happened to be boys) taking the mick, and PE was far, far, more enjoyable without the over competitive boys quite literally pushing past us.

It was quite successful and my understanding is that a fair bit of the English literature reading is aimed at boys as it seems that girls are 'happier' reading on any subject
Every school I've worked in has had some English push aimed at boys, with some looking at designing a curriculum with lots of war and drugs texts because it will engage the boys. I hate it with a passion.

Plan a challenging curriculum for all & staff need to teach like it's for everyone. What's in someone's pants doesn't make you better at one subject over another.

Last year I did Romeo and Juliet. The boys loved it more than the girls. Someone asked me 'how i hooked the boys'. I didn't. I taught the play.
Nobody ever says 'how did you hook the girls with war poetry?'

I quite like teaching mixed sex classes and think a lot of issues would be ironed out with better teaching, but maybe that's controversial.

Im hoping Im secondary it's not so bad but.....

I didn't realise that was 'a thing'. Why do you accept it? I'd be in there shouting the odds at the effect this would have on my daughter

There have been many a thread on this and the consensus is that whilst people are sympathetic, there are apparently few options, as the seating plans are merticulous, there is no where ekse to pit the kid. The disruptive kid deserves an education too. It is good for kids to learn to set the example etc

I don't think the impact on what is usually the well behaved girls is truly acknowledged

But as girls often don't kick up a fuss it's deemed a success.

My dd has been the a victim.of this method too. To the point her work was regularly disrupted. She really didn't do as well as she should have done in yr 5 and it wasn't until months later I found out why

Rufustheyawningreindeer
It was quite successful and my understanding is that a fair bit of the English literature reading is aimed at boys as it seems that girls are 'happier' reading on any subject
Is that because the girls are less used to seeing female protagonists etc

I am one of the parents who has a "good" girl who keeps getting paired with a boy in the class who is very badly behaved, clearly this is not done to advantage her! It's for him and the teachers. What message does this sort of thing send girls

I didn't realise that was 'a thing'. Why do you accept it? I'd be in there shouting the odds at the effect this would have on my daughter. 😡

I went to an all-girl school, and have always been glad of that. My more academic DD went to an all-girl school, the less-academic went to a mixed.

I have no issue with extra support for boys with reading where needed.

Name

. It was very successful and made a measurable difference, but some people were very uneasy about the perceived discrimination

I wonder if they would still be uneasy about discrimination if schools allowed boys to fail by doing nothing.

There are times it doesn't matter of you are am alien from mars.

But there are times that you have to admit there are differences. Pretending there is no difference is often nore discriminatory
To fix a problem you have to make the problem

"But by removing the girls you screw up the boys chances".

There are plenty of high performing boys schools. So it's not the fact of all boys that is the issue.

The difference is biggest I think in physics if you look at the iop stats, they recently did a study, it's across the board that girls have much higher take up in single sex schools.

I am one of the parents who has a "good" girl who keeps getting paired with a boy in the class who is very badly behaved, clearly this is not done to advantage her! It's for him and the teachers. What message does this sort of thing send girls.

Agree with giles

The other problem in a comprehensive intake would be those at either end of the ability range. If eg a school has 180 intake and six maths sets, then separating by sex too would mean 3 sets each, resulting in a wide ability range in sets 1 & 3. Even more so for intakes without a genuine ability spread to start with.

millicent

English was the other subject i was thinking about

In a local infant school they did have separate lessons for boys who were struggling and sadly already being put off reading

It was quite successful and my understanding is that a fair bit of the English literature reading is aimed at boys as it seems that girls are 'happier' reading on any subject

Oh I understand that stats

And as i said I don't disagree with them per se

But ds1 did not do well...strike that, he did not do as well as he should have done

But then its hard to concentrate when someone is flicking burning paper at you

Ds2 would flick it back and not miss a beat

Statistically girls do better in same sex Stem classes. Boys do better in mixed classes.

Perhaps it's because there's no choice but to have to learn to deal with it?

Sadly the single sex schools round here are grammars so the intake is completely different too. Which must make a big difference

We are all well aware there exceptions. But i do think that mixed schools are perhaos too reliant on the calming influences of other children