To wish my DD's Girls Grammar School did not admit boys to the Sixth Form

[redange]

My DD1 has just collected her GCSE's from her school which is an Essex girls Grammar with high standards. DD1 has done very well and 'likes' single sex teaching (if she wanted to learn with boys she would got to the Boys Grammar for Sixth Form). However, like most Grammar Schools whether Boys or Girls they are Co -Ed or in my DD's School partially with around 30 Boys in both Year 12 and 13. I know this seems to be the fashion that Girls Schools which really should be single sex all through are admitting boys these days into year 12. I guess it is probably due to funding though personally I would prefer single sex availability for girls with the Boys Grammars offering the Co=Ed experience if wanted.

I went to a girls’ grammar school from 11-16 then moved to a co-ed independent school for 16-18 on a scholarship. I actually found it much more chilled out with boys around and I really don’t think I’d have done so well academically if I’d stayed in my girls’ grammar. It also taught how to be friends with and set boundaries with boys in a safe way before going off to university.

I am also a teacher in a boys’ school but have previously taught in girls’ school. I actually really enjoy teaching boys at sixth form level. They mature SO much between y10 and y12 and are genuinely great; cracking sense of humour !

It’ll be great, honestly !

Whatever my feelings about single sex or partially co-ed education is irrelevant in reality as the school has chosen its Sixth Form admission criteria. I just liked my own single sex Sixth Form Grammar experience some 37-35 years or so ago. On a personal experience I was much more suited to the traditional pathway i had experienced from the 'first year' secondary - Lower and Upper Sixth. My first experience of co-ed teaching after primary being University. Which in hindsight though it might not be agreeable on here I was personally grateful for.

I think it’s a nice soft entry into the world of blokes! My impression of boys who choose the girls sixth form is they are quite mature / feminist - they’re unlikely to choose a girls’ school otherwise

Does your daughter feel as you do @redange ?

If you are both on the same page maybe you can have a conversation about moving to a single sex school.

The only local secondary school with a sixth form is a boys school. They started accepting girls about 7 years ago. They’re competing with some very good and very large sixth form colleges in the area, it’s the only way they can survive. I suspect they will close it one day. I’m sure the same applies to your dds school.

Did you struggle to send you DD to this school in year 7 knowing there were boys there aged 16 to 18 years old - Did this worry you at all. Just curious . Or is it that they will be in the same class.

I hope and think, within a few weeks for you, it will be a non issue. (Unless she decides she takes a shine to one of them of course!!)

My view of rugby lads is skewed by the behaviour of some of the elite rugby players who are unfortunately at DDs mixed 6th form. Admittedly not all of them but a group. They are absolutely hideous to the girls. Unspeakable. But the school won’t act because they are sponsored by a big name club 🙄🤮. I used to think rugby players were decent now I do not. The majority of normal boys detest them too.

If you didn't want your daughter mixing with boys then perhaps you should have sent her to a nunnery?

What do you think is going to happen at College, University and the wider working world?

I'm not reading all the replies, I'm on holiday. DS1 went to an Essex Grammar, the top Essex one.. They admit girls in the sixth form. I think it's an excellent choice, it made his sixth form more rounded and more diverse. I'm generally against single sex and he went to this school because he wanted to go there and he got in. I think you're being unreasonable. The real world is mixed sex, school should be too.

I went to an all girls school and then on to an all girls college. The college wasn't specifically single sex but it was a female heavy profession. Never had a problem dealing with men.

So you have never actually spent any time with a boy in a classroom environment since primary school? You still haven’t explained what, specifically, the boys will do to diminish the girls’ learning experience.

"You can't always get what you want" 🎶🎵🎶

Do it yourself...

Boys talk over girls. They believe themselves to be better at STEM subjects
Thats the biggest thing i noticed moving crom Mixed to All Girls at 16. (I moved due to A level combination, and found an added bonus)

I went to all girls from 8-18. Found co-ed at uni really difficult as boys/ men have a different way of speaking / arguing in seminars etc
wish boys had been introduced at 6th form tbh

yanbu and I’d be disappointed too. Dd was in mixed education in primary, and moving to single sex was a breath of fresh air. The boys had been allowed to dominate the classroom, refused to pass the ball in sports, took up a disproportionate percentage of special ed resources.

She has plenty of interaction with boys through her hobbies, old school friends, family and ds’ friends. School might not be preparing her for the reality of working alongside men, but a short break from that is doing her the world of good,

Luckily the principal is a passionate advocate of single sex education and active in European forums so it’s unlikely to change,