Single sex (girls) high school

[BambooPlate]

Our closets school is single sex and we are likely to get a place for dd. It's a great school but whenever I tell people that dd is likely to go there people are negative about it. They say that it's an artifical environment more bitchy and competitive.

My cousin says she would never send her dd there as girls are more likely to become gay in a single sex school or 'experiment' in this manner. Apart from being a homophobic attitude i believe this is bs right?

AIBU to think that single sex ed can be a good option? Or is it socially limiting?

I went to a single sex school as did DH. We both had homosexual experiences, tbh it was part of growing up and not something I would undo. I did STEM and I do think it builds girls' confidence in those areas.

I just wanted to add (again) I don't believe it made any difference to how I socialised with the opposite sex! I was just as awkward as my friends who went to mixed schools.

The casual sexism here about the 'bitchiness' of girls is also horrible reading. You get some nice children, some horrible children and the majority are somewhere in between and their sex won't change that. Being an arsehole isn't a male or female trait.

I spent 13 years at an independent girls' school and have reached the ripe old age of 48 without having ever felt any lesbian urges.

I have boys and girls, and they are all at single-sex independent schools. I am evangelical about them.

I went to a mixed school first and then an all girls school (from 14 to 16) and then back to a mixed school in the sixth form. There wasn't any difference in the amount of bitchiness and I find it bizarre that anyone think there would be. Apart from the fact that it doesn't make sense there is something a bit misogynist about it. People are basically saying that boys are nicer than girls and need to be present to make girls behave more nicely. As if!
The comment about it making girls more likely to be gay is obviously homophobic bullshit although I suspect that being gay is more likely to be accepted in an all girl environment. i.e. there aren't more gay people but they are more likely to be open about it so it could appear that way.

What Dungeondragon15 said.

I've just asked my dd aged 14 what she thinks as she's at a girls school. She loves it and feels she's getting a better education as nothing is closed off from her. Personally I would rather she was at a good mixed school but that wasn't an option.

I've been to both all girls and mixed secondary school.

My experience of girls' school is that their is both pros and cons. It nurtures confidence in girls, both generally, and to pursue stem subjects. We had lots of positive female role models, as the staff was predominantly female. It was very competitive academically, but this was probably more down to the particular school. There was less pressure to be well groomed for boys in an all girls' school,band as clichéd as it sounds, I think I benefited academically from not having boys as a distraction.

The comment about making girls gay is absolute rubbish, and I believe has homophobic undertones, as if there is something wrong with being homosexual.

Sure, some girls experimented with lesbian relationships, but I'm sure this is the case at all schools. Perhaps in an all girls' environment, girls feel more able to be open about this. There was certainly no homophobia in my girls school.

I want my daughters to go to a girls school. I want them to have an education where male voices aren’t drowning them out and they don’t get any silly ideas like maths/ science/ rugby is for boys

I went to a state girls school and don't regret it in the slightest x

I went to an all girls school and hated it. It was snobby, bitchy and I was bullied throughout. In later life my mum admitted it wasn't the right school for me (but I got a scholarship, so it was thought to be a great thing).
Hopefully things have changed.

As for girls being more accepting of lesbianism I didn't necessarily find that to be true of the all-girls' school I went to either.

I want them to have an education where male voices aren’t drowning them out and they don’t get any silly ideas like maths/ science/ rugby is for boys
That's fine as long as the same options from a mixed sex school is available at the single sexed one. Mine only offered Rugby for one term during one year of school, the rest was non masculine sports like netball, rounders, tennis, athletics, etc. Triple sciences weren't offered, only the inferior double science and maths wasn't really pushed.

"I want my daughters to go to a girls school. I want them to have an education where male voices aren’t drowning them out and they don’t get any silly ideas like maths/ science/ rugby is for boys "
Please believe me, this is not standard in a mixed school. Spoken as a mother of three girls at a mixed comp.

I went to an all girls school and then taught in a mixed comp, so I’ve got experience of both, of from two different perspectives.

I loved going to an all girls school. I can appreciate since that my education was not as affected by sexism as some mixed sex schools. We had high expectations of us, it never occurred to me that I shouldn’t be doing STEM subjects (and I went into maths). It was only at uni, when I was one of 4 girls on my course that I realised there was a gender imbalance in my subject. I was never talked over by boys in my class, I never had to suffer the subconscious sexism of teachers in a classroom and I feel that there was an absence of ‘distravtion’.

Of course we saw boys, and had boyfriends, and interacted with them all the tine. But they weren’t in my lessons.

Research shows that girls benefit academically from single sex classes, whereas boys benefit from mixed classes. In fact, in the mixed comp I taught in, for one of the year groups we decided to teach maths in single sex groups to push the girls more.

I didn’t find single sex schooling more bitchy. In my experience, arguing over boys causes quite a lot of bitchiness and that’s just not as much of an issue in a single sex school.

@Missingstreetlife I know that I went to a mixed school before a girls school and we had the same thing there, but with girls schools everything seems more bitchy and nasty and if your not in a "top clique" you was bullied

Going to single sex school definitely does not cause homosexuality 😂. For me it would depend on the school set up as I do think mixed sex socialisation is important. We have four local grammars, but essentially it is two just split for gender. So school A high for girls and school A high for boys, and then school B high for girls and school B high for boys. The different sex campuses are within spitting distance and whilst they don't share facilities, they have joint drama productions, concerts, DofE groups, social events and so on. If it's like that I'd be wholly in favour, if not I'd be more cautious but if the school seems the best environment for DD go for it. I know lots of people who went to single sex schools and loved it, and have no issues communicating with the opposite sex at all.

DD just started a all girls secondary. I wasn’t convinced, coming from a country where single sex education is virtually unknown, at least in the state sector and private is tiny, I wanted to push for mixed education.

Well, reality means, we didn’t get a space. When we toured the school I was quite surprised, they are very good in making the girls feel they can achieve everything, nothing is out of bounds for them to try.

They have excellent results in STEM but also in arts/drama so it is very well rounded.

I am still not convinced that single sex suits every child and yes, I do think it is an artificial environment. As DD has virtually no male interaction with family or friends apart from adults we put her into Scouts for her to learn how to deal with boys.

I also like the fact that there is a good proportion of male teachers at her school,.

I went to an all girls school. I absolutely loved it but won't be sending my DDs to a single sex school. I went a bit mad boy-wise when I started uni, fancied half the boys I met. And, more importantly, it took me a few years to realise in the workplace that life isn't fair and you have to push and strive for what you want, particularly as a woman.

That might have come from the fact it was a private school, rather than a single sex school, where we were wrapped in cotton wool and if you worked hard, you did well. So I came into the work place a little naïve.

So for that reason too, they'll be going to a state school.