Given the sexual assault statistics we need to move back to single sex schools

[jeaux90]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/oct/04/child-on-child-sexual-abuse-schools-england-and-wales

We could have a debate about the causes of course but the current government won’t ban porn for example so my view, we need to completely segregate at secondary school now if the government is serious about stopping VAWG.

Every girl you know over 13 has been assaulted? You should probably look at switching schools, and reporting it to police and ofsted, because it’s certainly not been experienced by my daughter or her friends.

Yes. We only saw boys as potential boyfriends at my single sex school. Whereas my dds have male friends to this day who they went to school with.

Not once have I painted that picture of boys being predators and girls being all hearts and flowers. The statistics are very very clear despite your own experiences.

I think you’ll find if you ask most woman they have some experience of sexual advances or inappropriate behaviour from being a young teenager. Yes every woman I know has had an experience from a young age,

No I don’t think girls and boys should be separated from each other during their schooling. I do agree that something urgent needs to be done regarding male attitudes towards women and girls, but segregation isn’t the answer- I actually think all boy schools sound horrific and will absolutely be a place where misogynistic attitudes thrive.

I also think many girls and boys get a huge amount from having platonic relationships with each other. My DD (13 yo) certainly does and she would hate to be in a school with just girls. Some of her closest friends are boys. She has encountered some awful boys, but the majority are lovely and look out for her.

I can can only go by the experience of my family but DD was at an all girl's grammar for five years and found it to be bitchy - she was bullied horribly in year 11 by her own friendship group. She moved to a mixed school in the neighbouring town for sixth form and says the culture is totally different, much more friendly and welcoming, and most of the boys are okay. There hasn't been any reports of anything untoward going on, but I can only speak foe DD's year group, but the boys seem mostly respectful from what I can gather.

These are schools in swale and medway respectively.

I went single-sex from eight and am a huge advocate, not least because evidence suggests both educational and equality outcomes are much better for girls in single-sex schools. The fact that despite the evidence we have abolished most single-sex schools seems to be purely because it seems boys are disadvantaged by them, and we as a nation have decided the wellbeing of boys matters more than the wellbeing of girls so therefore we'll use the school system that favours the male, no matter the harm to the female. Which disgusts me.

We did have plenty of opportunities to socialise with boys though, and there were many joint activities like orchestras, plays etc. I think that is also very important to teach the teenagers how to interact in a controlled setting. I would of course very much not support any form of Afghan style 'segregation'.

I am so sorry this was your experience. Thank you for sharing it though. I think it would make a huge difference to girls to just have 11-16 in a SS situation.

Schools are failing everyone involved in so many ways. Instead of looking at the problems at the root of this, those who could make changes turn a blind eye and generally blame those suffering.

This is yet another nail in the coffin of another failing government organisation.

I have never said SS schools do not have a bullying problem, I think a lot of schools do. But I don’t think this is anywhere near the topic of sexual assaults, who predominantly suffers or commits them.

There are still single-sex schools - comprehensive, grammar and private - across the country. I went to a single sex comprehensive myself and it still very much exists, as does the single sex comprehensive my brother went to.

FWIW, sexual violence absolutely happened at my single sex school in the 1990s. Among the preferred bullying tactics were opening toilet door from the outside (you could do it with a coin) to expose the girls using them, lifting up other girls' skirts in busy corridors, 'wedgies', and the 'tit punch'.

Plenty of non-sexual violence too.

So yeah. Good luck with that. Segregation of the sexes really doesn't stop anyone having a shitty time.

I'd also say that in my experience of relationships in my teens and early 20s, boys/men who had been to mixed schools typically had better attitudes to women than the ones who had been kept apart from girls at school. They were much more likely to see women as friends and equals and had less stereotypical views of them. I knew men at university who had no sisters and had been at school with only boys from the age of 11, and they were generally men I learned to steer clear of.

I can honestly say I havn't. But maybe I give off a "bugger off" death stare to males??

There arent really state single sex schools locally and i think thats a pity.
i actually dont just think its about the assaults (though that is horrifying)

Obviously boys behaviour in particular has nose dived. Not helped by not being able to exclude troublemakers
Online things make out saying sexual stuff to girls is fun!

I would put kids in more sets for subjects. Our local stare school the behaviour is horrifying. But its spread over every class. At least setting more subjects gives kids time away any a consequence for behaviour that can make some parents take notice (the MC ones) where the kid is stuck in a class that not only wont do higher wxam papers but also most wont pass. Whereas my dc is stuck in eg a MFL class where Y10 half the class were sent out in lesson 1. And they are covering words about family - after 3 years already doing the language!!
Everything is geared to sort the disruptive kids.

I don’t think segregation at school level is the answer to the huge global issue that is MVAWG.

I think having mandatory lessons about respectful relationships and friendships, consent, misogyny, porn, social media, internet use, sex and sexual violence from a young age would help. Along with parents reinforcing this at home. Unfortunately, many adults don’t know what a healthy respectful relationship looks like either. It’s a massive cycle we need to break as a society, as the human race.

Also, sometimes I wish we could turn back time and rethink the internet. We’ve opened Pandora’s Box and I think it’ll be the downfall of the human race. Tighter regulations of the porn industry and social media would help.

I would definitely agree about splitting kids into more different groups/sets. Gives them more of a chance to "find their tribe" instead of always being stuck with the same small group of peers, and even worse when lazy teachers organise classroom seating plans or groups tasks by alphabetical order.

I know I did a lot better in one particular unpopular subject where I was free from my bullies and became friends with different kids I hadn't been in classes with previously. Gave me a whole new perspective and I actually excelled in that subject for those two years.

Absolutely agree.

The boy who sexually assaulted me repeatedly in year 7/8, then went on to be accused of rape in a park a few years later. Whether he had been in a single sex school or not, he was a risk to women

No doubt the internet has made things worse, but it really wasn't a land of "milk and honey" before the internet either. Especially since, as you say, many adults don't know what a healthy relationship looks like either, which are people brought up before the internet became so widespread, so you can't blame the internet for parents/grandparents' poor relationship attitudes.

At my school in the 80s the boys would gather to perve over the girls playing netball in gym skirts, and cluster under the metal fire escape we used to access the top floor science labs to try to see our knickers under our skirts. I don't think it's much worse now tbh. I think there is less tolerance of casual boundary crossing.

You don't make religious understanding and tolerance better by segregating religions, or racial harmony better by segregating races. Why would sex segregation in teen years make boys more respectful of women and girls?

I would add that my girls' schools were private, then grammar. Both in an extremely wealthy area. Almost all the grammars were single, whilst every single local secondary (for those who don't get into grammar) were mixed. I may be wrong, but I believe it is still the case that the vast majority of single-sex schools are private and grammar, with the occasional well-heeled comp. I'm not sure there are many where the primary catchment is less affluent? Which suggests they are almost entirely the preserve of the wealthier and more privileged, which doesn't really seem right.

My eldest DD has a lovely mixed sex friendship group, I’d say her favourite friends are the boys. One of them has been her best friend since reception.

She wouldn’t have got that in a single sex school, so for that YABU.

We all want what we don’t have I think. I’d say the provision for secondary schools where I am is 50/50 mixed sex/single sex in ROI.

We have mainly single sex in my town as an example. It is not the blissed out panacea you’d hope for.

I have sons and daughters and the boys have a much much better school on every possible level and have done for decades. This can go the other way in other towns.

The girl’s school here for example are less invested in wellbeing, less expectations of achievement, education outcomes are far worse.

These are girls whose brothers are in the boys school so level for every socioeconomic factor, home life factor etc etc.

There are less science subjects and subjects in general available for girls in the girls school but that translates across the country as practical subjects (woodwork/metalwork/technical drawing/ technology/computer science/Physics/applied maths) are not taught in girls schools to the same numbers. They just would not have the uptake to support it in the school so they are not taught .

This town has been crying out for the schools to amalgamate for decades. It will happen and most parents will be thrilled.

It’s not up to my daughter to domesticate this boy.

This is popping up everywhere since yesterday and I agree with many posters here that girls do better academically and in confidence and don't have ingrained stereotypes about what they can't do when educated without boys.
This discussion has led me to conclude we need a new ethos / religion whatever you want to call it. It would be the female version of Islam where males are required to cover up and have limited contact with females etc. Its beginning to sound like the only solution if we want to prevent some of the horrific on line and off line assaults i read here every day.

@MyFriendNorman well while not great that is incredibly minor in comparison.
Now you have things like

• a girl bends down in class to get a water bottle the boy knocked off, and get BJ suggestions

boys coming up to groups of girls asking for things like BJ they were in lunch hall.

I think mostly as mine is relatively young still its harassing the girls not actually sexual.