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?

Well not many other parents, a minority.

💯

I haven't got time to read the reports which conclude outcomes for girls are better if they have attended single-sex schools. Do they (can they?) allow for parental input/investment? Actively choosing to send your daughter to an all-girls school, even (especially?) a state school, suggests parents who are already invested in securing what they perceive to be the best outcomes for their daughters. Is it the fact that they are in a single sex environment, or the fact their parents have put more thought than simply "where is the closest school" into their choice of secondary?

I have no particular skin in this game. There are no single sex schools where I live so it wasn't a choice I could make. Both my son and my daughter have attended the local co-ed comp. My own DD, in Y13, has never reported any concerns about boys' behaviour, although I'm sure other girls might have a different opinion.

Specifically in my daughter's year, the highest-performing students are overwhelmingly girls and most of them are taking at least 1 STEM subject. HOWEVER almost every single one of those same high-performing girls have been all the way through Girlguiding (i.e. age 5-18). So perhaps access to a single-sex space is key, even if it isn't at school.

You complaining about bias has to be some kind of joke.

No, I mean Grammars. They are predominantly made up of middle class children.

@Greengablesfables I wish your daughter well. I hope she is able to start meeting the sort of female role models she actually needs to meet.

I'm merely pointing out that not all articles are equal. Stop attacking.

100 what?

No, they really aren't. Most are rich, the odd token poor person. Money mattered. And the consequence of all the money going to the Grammars (and church schools) - the other secondary schools are awful. This is my experience as a pupil and a parent. If you can't get your DC into a Grammar or Church school their education will be much poorer. If they have SEN, you'll highly likely end up with a school refuser, ime.

We’re not the ones moaning about the lack of provision for our bespoke choices. The op and you are. The numbers are dwindling for a reason( hence the op) and will continue to do so. All the weak links from over invested posters trying to make them into something they aren’t won’t change that.

We don't have the grammar school system, but my understanding is that they no longer function in the way they were intended to function?

Yu

My daughters. Thanks. What do you mean?

Where I am the girls schools are Grammar or Church so mainly middle class families. I would think there is this bias in many areas?

I live in a grammar school area. My dds, their friends and everyone I have met chooses them because they are grammar schools. If anything the fact that they are all girls is a negative for many rather than a positive.

They might be these days. There are so few of them. There used to be many more - so they were for many more intelligent children from all backgrounds. My parents, my pil, friends parents - All went to grammars. Most if not all, were from working class backgrounds.

Today though as there are hardly any grammar schools - wealthier people can afford to buy in the grammar catchment areas. They have tutors to get the kids in etc. So I agree they are more mc.

This is Labours doing. And again now we see - they’re exacerbating that problem even more. Entrenching privilege not dissipating it. As always.

But I digress.

I didn't realise there was more than one daughter. I meant what I wrote - all girls need to meet a variety of diverse role models throughout their lives (as do boys).

Edit - of course parents can be role models too, but they do need good external role models and, dare I say it, sometimes prefer to listen to folk other than their own parents (hope that makes sense). Sadly there are bad female role models too, and I hope they don't have to suffer so many of those.

I wouldn’t listen to that poster at all, they don’t even have daughters and know nothing about raising them, or single sex schools for that matter

I'm wishing the pp's daughter(s) well and hoping they meet the role models they need to meet, yet you're trying to make this into something negative?
I despair.

Well I have daughters and current experience of single sex schools.

Makes me laugh as the op only really cares about the top 10% of girls and a fraction of that ie the tiny minority whose parents want single sex education.

She doesn’t actually care about all girls it’s just protecting all girls super selective education.

Insinuating the poster isn’t the role model her daughter needs. I despair. You are the least qualified person on here to comment yet have spammed the thread senseless with your nonsense and ruined the flow of it. I stopped posting because your endless feeble replies just prevented any kind of flowing interesting discussion.

Well, I think the original idea was to replicate a fee-paying school for intelligent DC whose parents couldn't afford it. The reality is many parents of DC at private schools try and get them into one of the Grammars first and only if they don't get a place (after lots of tutoring they can afford to pay for.) do they send them to one of the private secondaries. Then there's the rest of the middle class that can afford tutoring or practice books. Tend to have more books at home, read to more often etc. they get most of the other places and then a few poor kids make it too. The church DC get into the church schools - again predominantly middle class, perhaps a few more poor kids. These schools are where the money is and they have vastly superior facilities and teachers than the comprehensives. These schools are really not great and if your DC has SEN you're really in trouble. It's a really unfair system. And I say that having a DD benefiting from the system.

Did you miss the part where I specifically mentioned a non selective girls comprehensive that is closing in my OP?

I have siblings and friends with kids at grammars. Their kids who wanted a SS education chose that, the ones who wanted coed chose coeds - unsurprisingly.

What now?
I wasn't insinuating anything.
I'm sure pp is a good role model, but any parent knows that teens need to meet other good role models - in fact they often prefer to listen to/learn from/emulate people other than their parents. I've clarified to pp what I meant, in light of your determination to meddle.

I've already addressed the rest of your made up points.