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?

"Nearly 90% of girls and nearly 50% of boys, said being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers." Ofsted Review - Sexual Harassment and Safeguarding Concerns in Schools 2021

The key things here are a culture of mutual respect, commonly agreed expectations of behaviour, and extensive supervision.

My DS and DD went to single-sex secondary schools but that choice was mainly driven by the two mixed-sex schools we were in the catchment area for were both awful. But we were living in a town big enough to have that option. If we were in a small town or village where there's only a single secondary it's just not practical to insist that there are single-sex options.

So how do you prevent sexual assault in schools? Because at school is where boys are learning they can get away with it.

Yes they should imo.

I consider us to be very lucky that we live near a brilliant, state, girls school....which my DD attends... secondary obviously.

I'd be extremely unhappy and worried if she was in a mixed school

But there could be an obligation to provide some single sex options in larger areas; say a pair in each city of a certain size. Nobody will ever get the fullest choice they could possibly want, but that's no reason why the choice shouldn't exist anywhere. Interesting that the single sex schools were the ones that weren't awful.

Some schools do joint form time but then split the sexes for teaching, which I think is best of all worlds.

As far as I am aware most (all?) bigger towns and cities already have mixed- and same-sex school options. Are you thinking of any in particular that don't?

As for my local schools, there were some excellent mixed-sex ones as well as the bad ones. The good ones were so popular it meant they had very small catchment areas that we were outside of. The same-sex schools were a bit less popular (although still good) so they had wider catchments.

I chose a single sex secondary school for my girls and would do so again (I don't have boys so can't say what I would have done for them).

But it is unrealistic to expect all areas to be able to offer that choice. Many small towns, such as the one I grew up in, have one secondary school.

It would make no sense to split that into three - or to make children travel to a town 7 or 8 miles away to get to the nearest school of the right type.

I seem to remember vaguely hearing a few years ago that some schools were experimenting with single sex classes for some subjects (other than PE where I assume they all do). It would be interesting to know whether they found it made any difference and whether they are continuing.

I was single sex from 8 and strongly support it. Going through puberty's hard enough without a load of boys mocking you - and distracting you! Think also better for the boys as the male puberty is not terribly dignified and I'm sure many boys would prefer their voices to crack, their spots to erupt and their accidental erections to sprout without a gaggle of girls sniggering at them?

Much more importantly, we had no 'girls' subjects and I had long left school before I learnt that females weren't supposed to do maths or science (they were more popular than arts subjects so I was very confused to learn that wasn't universal!). We also didn't have to compare ourselves to male sports teams and develop the suspicion that even at our best we could only ever achieve 'good for a girl'. I've never met anyone in real life who's regretted having an all-girls education, or anyone's that's been terribly glad they didn't. I have however met plenty of women who have said how envious they were of me and regaled me with shocking accounts of male behaviour from their co-ed schools.

I was very lucky though in that my school was just across from a boys' school and so we had the benefit of socialising with them without them negatively impacting our education. Maybe I'd be slightly less keen if I'd been cloistered away in the middle of nowhere.

I don’t think the state could afford it. It’s just not practical and I don’t know if it’s really needed.

Better education, stronger punishment, better support for the girls so they feel confident to report minor issues earlier so they can be delt with before problems escalate, stronger links with parents so that problem parents can be identified and punished.

The issue is all the things the girls are having to put up with because of the boys in school.
So not going to toilet easily.
Inappropriate touching even in class.
Behaviour issues that then make other kids behave worse
Boys who wont work woth giros anyway
Jealousy if a girl is better than them at something
Topics with football built in to appeal to the boys
Maths that perhaps focuses on speed rather than abiloty.
Extra extension groups that are mainoy just boys (from primary)
Top maths sets mainoy boys
But possibly no setting for languages or englosh where giros may be more likely to be top.

In any town large enough to have multiple secondary schools, why would it cost more?

Totally agree with @otnot, I was in a single sex school from 11 and she's written all the points I was going to make.

I could never understand how mixed sex schools got any work done, it must be so distracting trying to concentrate on lessons when the boy you are obsessed with is passing notes to another girl right in front of you!
Or if you break up and have to go back and share classes the next day!

I'm not sure how it's the state's fault. It's the parents of the children to blame.

Girls go better in single sex secondary schools
Boys do better in mixed sex schools
thats obviously why mixed sex schools are more prevalent

Also agree. Having taught in both single sex and co-ed, private, grammar, comprehensive, I feel lucky that family finances allow us to choose single sex, private education. The amount of shit girls deal with, daily, in co-eds is rising and it is very, very worrying. I don't know what the answers are and it is a complex, multi-faceted problem. It needs research, funding, strategies and education around the risks of online behaviour and exposure, access to porn, extremist views, violent misogyny and the dangers of letting out young people down.

In the meantime, all I can do is use the money we have to minimise risk to my girls. And for those that saying I'm o.t.t.....having worked in both pastoral and safeguarding roles...I know I'm not.

Our average size market town has one secondary. The next nearest is 8 miles away. In order to offer genuine choice it would need three. Otherwise its only a choice for those families that can facilitate long journeys, potentially in opposite directions. The nearest large town with multiple secondary options is 20 miles away.

Because not everyone wants single sex schools.
I’d have thought you’d need to create new single sex schools and that would cost.

Yes I read about this recently in some pedegogical research, it seems that it would be much to the advantage of girls to have the option but the disadvantage of boys as the girls regulate them and they perform better in mixed environment I think I read. This would typically be the type of thing I wouldn't support but my 12 year old girl has already had photos she didn't give permission for posted on group chats, she asked for them not to be taken then asked for them to be deleted (nothing indecent etc but assume the lure was purely she didn't want the photos taken of her). Her first year of high school has undoubtedly been disrupted by several unruly boys in her class, a teacher has told me it's a challenging class due to those boys and she has also been praised be several teachers for helping a few boys get on with their work, admirable on her part but unfair she is paired with boys she might calm down. She is best friends with a group of boys with similar interests too so I know she would miss out on this experience and relationships but it's actually being friends with the boys that then makes her a target for other boys who tease and bully her about it. When she was younger she had boys physically fighting over her, one saying he was protecting her from the other, fighting over who sat next to her and she didn't ask or want anything to do with it, it was a pain. I know plenty of girls who have problems with girls too, and as I said my girl actually finds a lot of the boys less problematic than the girl groups but overwhelmingly the disruption, behavioural issues and incidents in her schooling involving her personally and not have been boys. I am starting to wonder if it's fair on the girls that they have to put up with it. I have a boy too who is diligent and well behaved I suppose it's not fair on him either but he's not experienced the same sort of direct hassles that my daughter has, maybe we need to make school a better environment generally, i think teachers have their work cut out with behaviour issues at the moment.

Because not everyone wants single sex schools.

And not everyone wants mixed either.

Obviously smaller towns/rural areas can't support multiple schools.

Thanks for this, it's really interesting. I don't have the option for my girl really but I agree with you that research is needed here, why are girls not been given the choice of an environment that we know suits them better, and then perhaps a more focused approach could be taken to improving things for boys as well. It's not secret that in our society male violence is a problem, perhaps if boys were single sex educated this could be targeted, instead of using the girls to level out the boys.

My DSiS went to a single sex school and it was a hot bed of female on female sexual assault, drug use, self harm and suicides. She went on to University, but couldn’t cope with the co-Ed environment so dropped out. She is now a SAHM.

Yes I read about this recently in some pedegogical research, it seems that it would be much to the advantage of girls to have the option but the disadvantage of boys as the girls regulate them and they perform better in mixed environment I think I read.

Best get girls used to their role as support humans, even if it's to their disadvantage...