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?

@FaeryRing speaking as a mum of two boys and two girls, not all boys are like this.

My eldest DD is at a single sex school and she is full of complaints about girls making weird sexual moaning noises when she passes in the corridor and she's the only one at a fee paying school!

My older boy is in Y7 and his friends are all
Lovely. Obsessed with football and not much else (and yes, I do check his phone).

I think it's a shame that some people pass their fear of men onto their daughters when said daughters would otherwise likely be well adjusted.

Would you bet £50 that girls and boys are equally as disruptive in the classroom?

Like the ones doing worse in their exams?

The best option I ever heard was single sex classes in a mixed sex school.
Best of both worlds.
Sadly it was many years ago and would not survive modern gender madness.

Absolutely! And an ED is what my dd ended up with. The behaviour and huge amount of mental health difficulties in her Outstanding all girls school was shocking. All girl environments can be utterly toxic. They had so many with EDs they struggled to cope at lunchtime. Biggest parenting mistake I ever made sending my dd there. The all boys school was no better, it’s not a natural environment for either sex.

My Children are young so maybe I'm not well qualified but I agree. The child who provides my daugther with the most comfort at school and will hug her when she's sad (if she wants by the way!) is a really kind little boy. She is situationally mute and quite anxious.. She maybe isn't the easiest to form friendships with as a result. His comfort has meant the world to me ad a parent who spends a lot of time worrying about her daughter at school.

Because exam results are all that matters. 🙄

Yes, I was going to say this. I came across it three or four years ago in a school I visited. Single sex lessons from age 13 to 16, as I remember.

Studies do often show girls do better in single sex classes, but boys do better in mixed. It's like men are happier being married and women are happier not. Very difficult!

I think quite a few posters are missing the point. Some of us had very good experiences at all girls schools and would like the choice for our children. I’m not saying all schools should be single sex, I’m saying it’s a shame if they were all Co-Ed and parents had even less choice than they do now. If you believe single sex schools are awful then no doubt you’ll have the choice of a Co-Ed but why deny other parents that choice?

After seeing a few people that said they had been to a single sex school on the show First Dates they did not seem well-adjusted at all.

Academic achievement isn't everything - young people need to learn to cope in the world too.

Yes, I actually would in the case of my children’s own experiences.

Girls have: bullied, controlled, been physically aggressive, behaved in ways which have disrupted the class (all very well dealt with by the school). Ironically the bully was removed by her parents and sent to an all girls school.

Boys: sometimes naughty and loud, some disruption to the class, generally a bit irritating times usually from being over-excited. My girls have never been bullied, controlled, threatened or hurt by boys whereas they have been by girls.

They both have mixed friendship groups which I think are healthy.

It seems to me that some parents want single sex schools for their girls and mixed sex schools for their boys - ie they’re very happy for other people’s girls to go to a mixed sex school so their boys can do better.

A friends daughter went to a single sex prep and is now at a girls’ comp. She has a brother who she hates, and her dad is a waste of space. She doesn’t know any boys outside of school. Yes, she may get better results academically, but at what social cost?

Some of my best friends at school were boys, my time there would have been much worse if I’d gone to a single sex school. My daughter is the same, yes there are no doubt some idiots at her mixed comp, but she has great friendships with a lot of boys.

I work in a public space where we have frequent problems with teenagers and disruptive behaviour. So much so we have had to have police involvement. The ring leaders have always been girls with male hangers on. All the worst issues my daughter had at school were with other girls. On the other hand I am a big fan of single sex spaces for those that choose them.

By all accounts hardly any teens are coping at the moment, MH issues seem to be peaking and they all seem to have anxiety. Plus the complaints about sexualised behaviour, upskirting and sexual assault. It’s no wonder!

But that’s the point parents don’t if single sex exist. Other parents of girls and boys are then lumbered with it.

I’d take better exam results with a huge pinch of salt too. Single sex are often selective with few SEN.

What do you mean ‘lumbered with it’?

You've articulated exactly what I was trying to say. It would be good if we didn't need to 'learn to cope' with men, but the reality is that we do. So why wait until you're just about to enter the work world where it'll have the biggest implications?

We always hear on here about mansplaining and how men will often repackage/take credit for their female colleagues ideas and everybody will applaud them.

Why not get some experience in playing the game?

Funny how single sex spaces are fiercely protected on here yet girls schools - proven to be better for the girls learning - bring out all the nonsense about males providing diversity in their space, how girls are actually bitchy/catty and need them, etc

They’re not better for the mental heath of girls, far from it.

Because I think your career opportunities matter more than that. Different priorities I guess. You don’t get a chance to retake all your exams and do school again, you have the rest of your life to ‘understand men’ and at least you’ll be of a legal age then rather than navigating them at 13

Source?

I would rather have good results and be socially adept than have exceptional results and struggle with soft skills/team interactions.

A 2021 meta-analysis by AQR (a commercial company that administers psychometric tests and provides training programmes to increase performance) was reported at an event organised by the Girls Schools Association GSA) in summer 2021. The GSA reported, ‘It analyses the responses of girls in single-sex Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) schools, compared with girls in other schools. The findings indicate that girls in GSA girls’ schools generally possess higher mental toughness scores than girls in state and independent coeducational schools, particularly for emotional control and confidence. The GSA girls in general have greater commitment, greater control – particularly emotional control – as well as greater confidence, both in terms of confidence in their abilities and their inter-personal confidence’. These findings were repeated by a number of independent schools but the meta-analysis itself does not seem to be in the public domain, making further analysis difficult

I always thought girls were supposed to do better in single sex schools and I’ve just googled single sex education studies and fallen down a google rabbit hole. (I went to an all girls school, no option for single sex round here - all schools are coed comprehensives.)

One of the latest biggest studies actually says there’s no advantage to single sex education.
https://www.ul.ie/research/news/university-of-limerick-research-reveals-no-academic-advantage-to-attending-single-sex

Others stated that there wasn’t much benefit apart from stereotypes in terms of options. Other suggested that they do make a difference, but these tended to be older studies. I don’t think the evidence is now as clear cut as it was.