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?

It’s all a moot point. They are closing down because parents and students don’t want them and they’re not being filled.Both private and state can’t afford to spend billions on half empty schools. As regards state education any spare cash needs to go on the buildings that are crumbling and filled along with Sen provision.

Coed and single sex are popular for different reasons. The general consensus is that girls do better academically in single sex schools while for boys it doesn’t make any difference; there is also a sense that boys are better off being around the maturity of girls.

There is still a great demand for single sex girls schools and the competition to get into the best all girls private and state schools indicates.

In the private sector schools are generally going coed to survive financially as their fees have risen out of proportion to inflation and fewer parents can afford them full stop. Boys’ public schools have earns a bad reputation as elitist, misogynist and anachronistic, so admitting girls goes some way to mitigate that.

I question the calibre of girls’ school you were considering if they favoured cooking over physics. I never went to a girls school were cooking was even an option. My senior school was as outstanding in science as it was in humanities.

Finally, I don’t think denying the tendency of misogynist cultures among schoolboys does anyone any favours. I encountered myself when I was at school and I don’t know any teenage girls who haven’t encountered it either. Some teenage boys are lovely and some are arseholes and you will be at school with both.

Do you somehow think that the message of my post was that co-ed schools teaching boys that girls are equals is not in the best interests of girls?

Certainly in the private sector that’s not true. The shift towards coed is really coming from boys schools. The top girls’ schools aren’t going coed. I’m not sure how you explain the insane competition to get into them.

They’re closing down for a reason. If they were that popular the numbers wouldn’t be dwindling.

My point is that if there is such a great demand for them, why are many becoming co-Ed? The private ones are going co-Ed because they can’t fill places with single sex.

Some teenage boys are lovely and some are arseholes and you will be at school with both.

Yes, and it’s exactly the same with girls. Some lovely, some most definitely not lovely. It’s impossible to generalise.

Did you read my post? Top girls’ schools are not shutting down. Nor are they admitting boys. Do you realise how oversubscribed they are?

Top girls schools being oversubscribed might well go some way to explaining the apparent better outcomes - after all it's going to be a a biased cohort to compare with a standard comp cohort.

The top girls schools are usually grammar schools or selective private though and while they get better results than mixed comprehensives it's because they are selective rather than because they are single sex.

The point about private schools is that they are diversifying across the board to survive as their fees have risen way out of step with inflation. So they have opened their doors to international students as well as the other gender.

I can’t speak for state schools but none of the single sex girls’ state schools I know of admit boys or are even considering it. There is still a strong demand.

The OP has said that, in their area, single sex girls schools are disappearing. I know of one near us which has gone co Ed in recent times too. Private schools are trying to ensure they’re filling all their spaces. If they could fill every single space easily, they wouldn’t be looking at changing.

There are plenty of coed selective schools to compare them to. And there are also non-selective single sex schools.

OP has, but in other areas they are going strong.

If private schools could fill their spaces easily with U.K. students they would but they can’t so they admit increasing numbers of foreign students. That’s the point.

No, I was linking it back to the OP which is about choices being taken away and why they are important.

It's great that for some girls co-ed works. For some it doesn't and there need to be options.

How will a parent know that a co ed school will or won't work for their child compared with a single sex school?. Their are pros and cons to both and a parent can't possibly know when their child is at primary school what they will prefer as a teenager.

The selective co-ed schools and the single sex selective schools are similar academically where I live.

I think it's fine if people want to pay for single sex schools but it's arguably problematic for the state to fund options that are beneficial to girls/detrimental to boys, given that girls have been soaring ahead in terms of education for decades now.

Some people will say "well, that's not the girls problem" but if we take that attitude then how can we expect men to care about 'female problems' like the lack of women in leadership roles and STEM subjects. It's not in men's interest to increase the competition in an area they currently dominate in.

In my head I always thought the being co-ed would be a better growing up experience. You know getting to know the other sex, teenage crushes and heartbreaks etc.

Sure, but as per the research the OP, individually, the girls in the single sex selectives will achieve 10% better exam grades than those in coed.

Not when everything else was equivalent. The all girls schools were only slightly better academically.

Sounds like a great recipe for a learning environment.

This is a long thread so apologies if this is already old news: The head of SHSK in Abingdon has just sent a letter out (May 13 a.m.) saying that SHSK is remaining single-sex, despite the announcement that Abingdon (boys) School is going co-ed from 2026 (Y7 and L6 entry). My DD will be relieved (as are we) as will I. From the tone of the letter I suspect there have been some feisty discussions.

But still better. And there is evidence (although not concrete, but still evidence) it is better for confidence and mental health. On these grounds they should not be merged.

Excellent news! Very relieved for you and your DD.

Very slightly better academically. What evidence is there that all girls schools are better for mental health?