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 interesting to hear people's stories on this. I think it also comes down the the individual and their upbringing/family dynamic. If they had a brother and met lots of his friends then that might somewhat change the dynamic.

I found it really easy to get on with boys as I'd socialised with them for most of secondary school and sixth form. Some of my friends who didn't have brothers and didn't attend mixed environments struggled socially and seemed a bit anxious around men. Not all though.

Yes the stories from mums I know are horrific. Just the other day a colleague was upset her 11 year old had been shown some really hardcore porn by an older boy at school. Sadly she can’t ‘undo’ this.

There is a boys school here which is going coed because despite whatever they say, they need more kids.
But what annoys me is their reasons are all about the boys. Boys will do better with girls in the class. Behaviour etc

None of it is about the girls!

The girls school has results miles above any other local schools. They don’t need to take boys because they are so over subscribed.

Should we also separate pupils by socioeconomic status so the posh kids don't get distracted by antisocial behaviour?

Exam results don’t make up for woeful mental health. The all girls school that my dd went to has a massive MH problem. I think girls need boys as much as boys need girls. State single sex schools need to be scraped.

In my experience of being at a high achieving girls school, this is correct - devoid of boys, it was just the norm for girls to achieve and to be top of the class, in all subjects. We didn’t think twice about whether girls should be good at science/maths/technology because it was only girls studying it there, if that makes sense. There was no sex split or gender stereotypes to gradually bend to, because it was simply all girls.

This would probs be more logical tbf because you can't really avoid being around men but you can defo avoid being around 'rough uns' by getting a high flying job/good qualifications.

There are plenty of co-Ed schools and I wouldn’t say they should be scrapped despite my feelings. Why do you want to control the choices of other parents?

If they are going co-ed I’m afraid that it clearly implies that not enough parents agree with you, they don’t want single sex education.

If the schools had long waiting lists of eager parents they wouldn’t make the change.

We offered our eldest the choice, she picked co-ed and I was rather glad as most of the women I have known who went to all girls schools (and granted there will be some where I don’t know) have had rather odd relationships later in life and/or gone off the rails a little at uni. And of the three sets of parents I know who have chosen all girls for their daughters two are decidedly odd. Not a representative sample granted.

Then you know very little about eating disorders. It's a field I still work in and I would make a very, very different choice.

I want to an all girls state. It was an ok experience but I wouldn't want to send my girls there. I do feel I was a bit awkard around men after school and I personally feelit's unnatural to segregate by boy/girl. I want my own children to be able to access to same education throughout.

Personally, as a teen, I was annoyed I couldn't do Spanish and the girls could!

I don't believe they do worst at all academically.

And, why do you your son doesn't deserve the positive influence from girls? Is he really that bad, being born a boy, that he should be kept away?

Every study says they do.

I've never seen boys throwing chairs around the classroom.

I went to an all girls school and think it greatly damaged me, socially and in terms of my self-esteem. I left completely unused to interacting with men, putting them on some kind of pedestal as they were a mystery to me. And school itself left my self esteem in tatters due to constant bitchiness. It was a grammar school but no one was competing to excel academically, the only thing that was valued was being skinny and wearing the right clothes and makeup, while walking the tightrope so you were neither called a slut or frigid.

You say "girls won't be raised in a vacuum" but where will they meet these boys if not in school? The girls at my school either didn't really interact with boys at all, or they were obsessing over them as forbidden fruit, drinking with them in the park and shagging them. Not sure that's more desirable than sitting next to them in maths.

No, every study you read say so.

Google this website and ‘throwing chairs’. Look at every thread and tell me the sex of the thrower. I’ve heard this from a lot of teachers. My DD is 5 and regularly complains about 2 boys in her class being disruptive, hitting her and other pupils.

Can you find a study which shows girls do worse academically in single sex schools?

Generally, people talking about single sex schools aren't talking about the local comp. Are boys at private schools really trashing the classroom regularly? 🤔

The only children who have ever upset my daughters at school have been other girls. Doesn’t make girls an issue.

Your class clearly has a disruptive child issue, not a boy issue.

The problem, I guess, is that not enough people agree with you so they aren't economically viable. Which must be frustrating if it isn't what you want.

I have never said they did worse. I don't believe they do better.

…despite the studies? Ok then

Sadly, I agree with this.

Having been to an all girls school and excelled academically, I now struggle a bit with men and have tended to default to “passive” around them which is tricky! I remember at university struggling to handle how some of the men deal with working together. I guess at a mixed school I could have been beaten back by boys in the same way so may have been a similar outcome (or worse!) but I can’t help think that exposure at a younger age may have taught me different coping strategies.

Although reading back, that doesn’t sound an especially ringing endorsement for mixed schools! Also worth noting I did go into a female dominated industry so haven’t had to deal with too many men in a work situation but struggled when I was temping and also in relationships I think it affects me.

Every study I’ve ever seen says girls do better in single sex education environments. It’s been received wisdom for decades.