To think that the state should offer single sex education as part of parental choice?

[KTheGrey]

Everyonesinvited.uk states as fact that there are three sexual assaults in primary schools reported to police every day (2016 figures), and that 9/10 girls had received unsolicited images (2021 from Ofsted). The Attainment 8 data analysis by gsa.uk (2019) shows an over 10% average higher point score by girls in girls' schools than by boys in boys' schools and over 20% higher average point score than all students in co-ed schools. A 2018 Queensland University study showed girls from single sex education emerged more confident. Many studies have shown they are more likely to engage with STEM at a higher level.

Should the state admit that it has failed in its primary duty of care in keeping girls safe, (as well as promoting every child's chances of getting their best results from school) and start providing single sex options to parents?

Is that a joke?

There are many countries considered to have higher standards which eschew single sex education.

Parental choice has had awful consequences in England. It's led to much greater divides between those who can play the system or not, it has people driving their kids all over the place instead of going to the local school they could probably walk to, which in turn reduces the sense of community. Everyone makes a choice based pretty much on a single measure, so it's a farce anyway that just makes lots of people feel as if they've failed or made a bad choice.

It would be even worse to add in another whole element to the choices. Society (and the environment and kids health) would improve going back to a catchment system.

Yes. Well done for spotting it.

There's a school near me which is mixed sex but has single sex classes for years 7-9, single sex for core subjects at GCSE, then mixed for A Level.

Used to be a separate girls and boys school and they still have two separate sites so they've made it an upper school and a lower school so when your child starts in year 7 they are only with 11-14 years olds which I think would be less intimidating.

Our school funds a counsellor for 1 afternoon per week. 3 x 45 slots available, each child is allocated 6 weeks/a half term and then this is reviewed to evaluate whether the child needs it to continue and this is balanced against needs of others on wait list for it.

I think part of the better achievement in Ireland is the smaller classes, stricter rules in many church schools, the less 'progressive' culture overall meaning they have a stronger core focus, plus more rural so everyone knows everyone in many areas and you know your parents will find out pretty quickly if you have been naughty. My husband is Irish, his mum is a teacher and taught both there and here and she feels that behaviour is the single biggest reason for difference in achievement

I hope you told them No or it becomes a self-perpetuating problem, maybe allow the inadequate to watch you do it, once, then they go away and practice. I think a lot of people choose to be useless and expect the more intelligent and able to bail them out all the time.

We had 1 boys and 1 girls school here. They have literally just gone co Ed. It was needed for a few reasons. But I wanted the single sex schools. But it is what it is

My locality has about 5% student population referred to CAMHS - 3 sessions a week wouldn't touch the sides, and there would be about 60 sets of parents in each school asking why their child was not being prioritised.

To be fair, schools are designed to meet teaching needs not mental health ones.

Also YouTube is so good for that stuff.

This is for a small village junior school with about 200 pupils, so 5% for us would be about 10 students per year We have capacity for up to 18 students to receive a 6 week block per year. Of course a few need more than that, and we have other options for intensive SEMH support on an ongoing basis

0.04% of children are sexually assaulted each year in primary schools. That includes male on male assaults.

I'm not saying it's tolerable, but it isn't grounds to restructure the education system into something a lot more expensive and resource heavy, especially given how underfunded it already is. I think there's far greater priorities.

I fought to get my dc into coed as local state school was single sex. No way did I want my DDs at single sex, it's a bad idea. My friend did send her dd there and was terrible, all the girls were boy obsessed it seems

The only time I was assaulted at school was by another girl whacking me with a tennis racket!

0.04% are reported, the true number may be far higher
But I this this suggestion was more aimed at secondary?
I think children should have options. My oldest is keen to go to a single sex secondary as she reports the boys in her class are really disruptive and she struggles to focus. But the only single sex in our areas are grammar, which it's borderline whether she will get in.

I also wanted my dd in a single sex school as I felt it would give her a wider pool of girls to form friendships with. In primary school she was in a boy heavy class. 9 girls and 21 boys! Girls were all lovely but she didn't gel with several of them so it really limited her friendships. If it's a class of 30 girls, then she has 29 in which she can potentially make friends with. The odds are just better. And no, before anyone says, she never was interested in being friends with the boys in her class.

My eldest DS is one of those boys who is almost exclusively friends with girls and I have no doubt he would really struggle in an all boys environment.

not opposed to single sex education in general, but it doesn’t work for everyone.

Where we live we don’t have grammar schools, think the issues that most people already have with getting their child into a decent school is stressful enough, having the co ed/ single sex choice would just exacerbate this for most people surely?

No I followed the words of a Christian aid poster of a few years back
Give a man a fish and he will have a meal - teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime (or something like that)

Just to clarify something, girls do slightly better academically in single-sex education. This is a fact which is supported by data.

Whether they do better socially is questionable. It is certainly no more than a matter of opinion as there is no data to support it.

On MN threads on the subject, opinion is usually pretty divided – in general, similar numbers of posters say they hated their single-sex education as say they loved it. Horses for courses maybe?

Horses for courses maybe?

Yes, depends on both the individual and the specific school, obviously.

Well no. The OP specifically said there are 3 sexual assaults reported every day in primary schools. There's a population of 1,657,000 in primary schools and there are 195 school days meaning 585 sexual assaults each year. And this is in primary schools, not boy on girl assaults, so includes incidents involving children of the same sex.

Education provision should be as inclusive as possible whilst offering the most value for the investment and be driven by need rather than preference.

Yes I absolutely agree it should be inclusive and need driven.
But I think some children need a quiet classroom to be able to focus, especially girls who are ND, and forcing them into a noisy classroom with boys is neither inclusive of their disability nor meets their need for a quiet classroom to focus. My daughter acheived excellent grades last year, this year 3 very boisterous boys have joined their class and she has really struggled, needed extra support,tutoring and booster sessions to catch up, some funded by the school and some by us, and at least 4 of her classmates are in the same position. It's not cost effective to put children in a space where they cannot learn effectively and need extra (costly) support.

I declined a place at a single sex school as I didn't feel I needed it, so am not especially pro single sex schools. But I also recognise that one size doesn't fit all, and some children will benefit from this.

It's not available in state schools near us, so we will have to stretch to either tutor for grammar or pay for private. For some that's completely out of reach, and they don't have that option so have to struggle on.

Until the day it's your child? Or still not a priority?

Absolutely zero SA is tolerable in a primary school environment.

However you will notice I was favourably impressed with the diamond structure idea, which would need better safeguarding but not necessarily single sex education at primary level.

I totally agree op, my DD has been in single sex schools her whole school life and l have only the highest regard for them.
However on a practical note it seems impossible as too costly/ more schools required to give the choice etc..... and that is without the issue of boys being in single sex schools which IMHO is a disaster..

Do you think it's effective?