Would a move back to single sex education help our girls?

I went to a mixed sex school but I didn’t like boys while I was at school, other than my dad I didn’t have any males in my life and I really didn’t know how to speak to them. So being in a mixed sex school didn’t help me interact with them.

I had very, very limited opportunities to form friendships with boys and grew up with no clue how to relate to them. Thankfully I got out and went to a mixed sex sixth form.

How strange to think girls who go to single sex schools can’t form healthy relationships with boys. I went to a girls boarding school, I knew plenty of boys despite this, met my future husband at 17 and still together 30 years later!! I absolutely loved going to an all girls school- secondary only. It’s just one stage of my life and I got to spend it predominantly with other females. It was awesome!

And as someone who attended an all girls school and knows lots of women there are plenty who made perfectly responsible relationship choices. Just like there are plenty women who attended mixed sex schools who’ve made appalling relationship decisions.

No idea about boys" is not good in my opinion.

You’ve misunderstood this comment. I meant I have no idea if single sex education was better for boys than mixed.

"No idea about boys" is not good in my opinion. I had friends from an all girls school who idolized boys and had no idea how to interact with them. Their boyfriend choices were awful.

As far as harassment, I suspect there are other changes that could have very strong effects, one like another poster said reducing social media, and another being smaller schools.

But overall, if they are well run, I do tend to favour single sex schools. I think up to about adolescence girls and boys tend to have different educational needs, and later there are different social needs. I tend to think it is usually least important for the last two or three years.

Any school that's poorly run will have problems though.

Makes? Males!

What a girls school gives you, in my experience,is a valuable counterweight to a culture which tells you that makes should be the centre of your existence. They simply don’t matter very much to you during that formative period. My dd will go all girls boarding in September.

Anecdotally dd1 is thriving in single sex. Much freer away from the male gaze. Know there are pros and cons but for her it’s ideal. I had a lot of grim low level sexual stuff at my mixed comp that she just doesn’t have to contend with

I definitely found them damaging.

Single sex schools are damaging !

That's a very sweeping statement. They suit some people very well, I certainly don't think I was damaged. If anything I feel sorry for girls who've had to put up with the harassment that can occur in mixed sex schools.

No, life is about mixing.
Single sex schools are damaging !

Thinking about the mix of schools in my LEA at secondary:

5 s/s girls (inc 1 super selective)
4 s/s boys (inc 1 super selective)
7 mixed

Think am really lucky - had a total choice at secondary for dd and ds where realistic options we could get in to were of 2 girls and 3 mixed for dd and 2 boys and 3 mixed for ds.

Ds2 would prob suit a ss setting more than ds1 but I really do think that mixed schools are better for boys. Ds1’s school splits boys and girls for cookery, PE, textiles and DT as well as for drama and dance.

Girls though, if it’s a good school, don’t have any of the crap associated with sexism, no misogyny, no conception of STEM being for boys. Most sixth forms are mixed (all, I think, round here) so will see what difference that makes to dd next year. Bit of trepidation really.

I went to an all girls school and my heart breaks when I hear more and more reports of the shit girls are having to deal with in schools today. I am so grateful I didn’t have that. I had friends who went to mixed sex schools and there was very much a difference in the conversations they were having in school compared to what I was having with classmates. Lots of focus on make up, skirts being as short as they could get away with, who was seeing who, who got how far with who, and I remember some silly games they played that involved boys sliding their hand up the girls leg/down her blouse and she had to tolerate it as high/low as possible or be called frigid I thought it horrible at the time and was so glad I wasn’t at that school.

I definitely think there is a benefit for girls in single sex education. No idea about boys. I have the option of single sex or mixed for my DSes. One already goes to mixed secondary. I think he would be just as happy in single sex. My preference for the second is mixed grammar and that’s entirely due to his personality. He definitely has better friendships with girls and struggles with boys.

There can be ken but they are certainly dealt with very effectively, at dds school at least.

There are bullying and disrespectful girls at single sex and private schools!!!!

I think it can be good for girls, and if I had a daughter I’d definitely consider it.

However I have boys and I really don’t think my boy would do well at all in an all boys’ school. He’s very studious, quiet, well behaved and has no time for disruptive idiots and carry on in class, which lets face it unless it’s changed since I was at school, is largely boys.

There's an element of self selection to it as well.
There were disruptive and bullying girls at my mixed sex school.
They probably wouldn't be the ones going to an all girl's school, so you'd filter out the most undesirable girls as well as the boys.
I believe this is one of the reasons why private schools are better too.

But it happens and that's the real world. I could have done with some experience and coping strategies.

I went to a girls school and was unprepared for dealing with sexism in the workplace

good

no girl should be prepared for sexism in the workplace

I'd say no. I went to a girls school and was unprepared for dealing with sexism in the workplace.

I went to an all girl's school and there were pros and cons. Although I obviously don't really know any difference!
I did miss socialising with boys though. I missed out on learning how to be friends with boys.
Now I feel I missed a key aspect of growing up.

I think the diamond model is over rated personally

I like single sex schools at secondary level and I wish there were more of them so girls in particular don’t have to travel a long way away to get to them.
Also I wish fewer single sex schools came with specific religious entry requirements or ethos because actually I think all families whatever their faith or none, should be able to have the choice of a single sex education at secondary level.
It annoys me that quite a few girls’ schools locally have gone mixed at sixth form level, making fewer places for girls to do A-level in a single sex environment.