To be angry so many girls schools are going Co-Ed?

[FaeryRing]

Yet again it’s been proven girls do better in single sex schools (I have a son as well as a daughter so please don’t think I’m ’hating on boys’).

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/may/12/girls-do-better-in-exams-at-all-girls-schools-than-mixed-research-finds

In my hometown growing up there were 4 girls schools. 1 grammar, 1 private, and 2 regular secondaries, meaning pretty much all parents regardless of background had access to single sex education for their daughters if they wanted it.

2 have announced their plans to go Co-Ed, with 1 already having done so, leaving just 1 (the grammar, so working class girls will be inherently disadvantaged). This seems to be a pattern across the country.

AIBU to be angry this is happening? Can’t girls have anything to themselves?

I went to an all girls grammar, as did all my friends (still friends 25 years later). Lived it. None of us were disadvantaged when it came to interacting with boys. In fact I think it made us more resilient. We've all had healthy relationships with men.

My nieces go to all girls grammars and are thriving. The most popular A levels are biology, maths and physics. Their school is often the top performing school in the country. I ask her about behaviour and she never sees anything.

I wanted my dd to go to all girls but she wanted to go to co-ed grammar, mainly because that's where her friends were going. She's only year 7, but already there's drama about who wants to go out with who and girls 'stealing' other people's boyfriend. This drama wouldn't happen to the same degree in all girls, just because the boys wouldn't be taught with them. Out of sight out of mind. Even if my dd had gone to all girls she would still be interacting with males in our family and the various clubs she does.

I didn't realise that single-sex state schools existed. Are they only in specific areas/counties like grammar schools?

I'm in London. My dd is at a single sex state school. There is also a single sex state boys school in our borough.

I disagree. I went to an all girls school and then an all-girls college at university. I didn't have any problems integrating in a work environment because I had plenty of experience in working with and dealing with people as equals and had the confidence to know I could deal with anything. Often I didn't even notice that I was the only woman in the room I just got in with being capable and assertive. I suspect a lot of the socialisation which pressures girls to be nice and allows boys to take the lead just passed me by.

People have been sending kids to single sex schools since schooling began - only for boys.

The OP is that while there are still plenty of single sex boys schools the options for girls are reducing.

A lot of exaggeration on both sides of the argument. I went to both types. There are no huge advantages all girls schools academically but neither do they end up unable to interact with men or whatever else people are claiming. I wasn't bothered either way about whether my dds went to all girls or mixed schools.

You do have choice though OP, there is a girls grammar in your area and presumably other independent girls schools a bit further out that you've indicated you will pay for, so you'll get what you want?

Plenty of other people don't want a SS education for their child and wouldn't be keen on one as their catchment school, it works both ways.

A lot of the other stuff is frankly hyperbole - no, most boys don't turn into chair -throwing, up-skirting, sex pests as soon as they go to secondary school and good attentive parenting plays a big part here. As you have very young children at the moment, you're passing judgement on boys aged 11+ without actually seeming to know any. Many are kind and gentle and respectful of others, just as deserving of a good education and not just being written off as disruptive boys!

Googling for newspaper articles and citing an industry body 'study' is not conducting high quality research so there is just no way that it is as definitive as you've decided, whilst being pretty rude to people who disagree with you.

It doesn't make them 'bitter boy mums' to have different opinions (I have boys and girls before you turn on me too).

On MN we see, every day or week, women worrying about their awful husbands / boyfriends. The behaviours they talk about are hideous.

2 women a week in the uk are killed by men.

Men make up 96% of the prison population.

We have this Andrew Tait crap going round the internet. As well as porn and who knows what else.

All of these men were boys at school once.

I’ve not got boys, but if I did, I’d be helping them truly value girls and women. So many men don’t, and it starts from childhood.

So, to go back to the OP. Yes we need the choice for single sex schools, I totally agree. It’s sad they’re being phased out. Of course it only benefits males.

Actually shocked you would rather your daughter had an eating disorder!! WTF?!?!

We have one comp secondary in our catchment
zero choice some do manage to get out of catchment schools but most don’t.

id quite liked to have had one choice.

This is meant as goady just a genuine question

how do single sex schools manage the trans issue?

I agree with you.
It's the overemphasis of the good and the bad that is somewhat troubling.
In reality they may do slightly better and in reality many will cope in the 'real world' just fine.
Ideally I would like to see a fair state education system where girls and boys can thrive together, and where teachers and support staff exist in adequate numbers to give SEN and non-SEN pupils an empowering and positive education experience. Sadly that isn't the case for many just now.
Private education is a business, and so if CoEd isn't financially viable it isn't financially viable - saying it should exist won't change that.

Selective segregation isn't the answer to this.

Oh ok, I guess it is a city thing then. We only have one secondary school here, and it is mixed. I can't see how additional single-sex schools would be viable really as you would be spreading the existing 600 pupils very thinly.

I’m in a city but we don’t have single sex schools, we don’t have selective state schools, we have state comprehensive and church school and church academy at secondary level. Lots of private all girls schools in the wider county though.

A girls school I know had a girl who became a boy over time. No one batted an eye. I don't know if the same has happened in a boys school.

Why is reducing options for girls your only answer though?

I completely agree op. Girls school allow teen girls to focus on themselves. Not pandering to the male gaze at thirteen years of age. Studies show maths and the sciences especially thrive in all female environments.

Yes, the only all-girls school I can think of locally is private. There was another all-girls private school that went co-ed a few years ago, as it was either that or go bust. We've never had single-sex state schools as each town in the borough has one secondary school and they all feed into a single sixth form college (which was a grammar school up until the 70s).

So we are now blaming boys for girls apparent inability to focus on themselves in CoEd schools?

I didn't say 'reducing options for girls is my only answer'. Where are you getting that from? All state schools should be CoEd.

Are the girls choosing single sex? It will usually be parents and even then a minority.

It's not that.

It's girls being used to moderate the behaviour of disruptive boys - being sat with them and forced to partner with them so that they achieve less and thr boy achieves more.

It's teachers failing to notice the quieter but more knowledgeable pupils in class discussions, allowing the boys to dominate.

This was like my school. A lot of pregnant teens too. My brother's mixed comprehensive had a lot less of both. Although my all girls grammar did have more A grades.

from a practical logistics management point of view I can see that being fairly easy to manage

Would they allow a boy who identifies as a girl?