Why are private schools often single sex?

[bronya]

Just wondering!

Traditional and haven't all made the transition?

Some believe girls and boys learn differently so teach accordingly.

That said our local state provision is single sex.

There are rafts of parents who are looking for single sex education for their DC.

Why though? What benefit does it bring?

Supposedly girls can do badly in mixed schools. For some subconscious reason, teachers chose boys to contribute in class and girls are ignored more.
I remember reading that ages ago but don't have any link sorry.
I think another reason is that parents would prefer their children not to be distracted by the opposite sex in school, but I don't agree with this personally. When I started uni, it was very obvious who was coming from single sec achools
The girls were coy and silly in mixed groups and this affected their uni education. Group projects were a nightmare.

Is it because many boys schools were old foundations, when people didn't bother much with a girl's education?

Then some pioneers e.g. Misses Beale and Buss and some others founded girls' schools to redress the balance?

Schools used to divide children more - even state infants had boys and girls entrances and divided them up in play right back to the 1900s I think.

These days many of us pay for education which is single sex because girls do better when not in mixed schools - particularly science, maths. Boys do in some schools too and eg easier to get a boy to sing in choirs if it is not seen as a "girls' thing" as there are no girls in the school going it, lessons can be directed at the boy rather than boys being a naughty aberration, everyone is a boy instead in those schools.

Most of the top schools for A level results and Oxbridge entrance are single sex - Eton, north London Collegiate etc etc etc etc

Quite nice not to have children in schools where flirting, make up, how you look is part of life. If there is no one of the opposite sex around then children tend to concentrate on work better and get better exam results and do better in life.

Plenty choose them for religious and cultural reasons too - Muslims not wanting the sexes to mix and plenty of other religions too.

I was very anti-single sex schools until I sent my children to them. There are benefits for both genders. A new teacher came to my DS's school from an all-girls and wouldn't start the lessons until the boys were sitting quietly- boys don't sit quietly and not a lot of teaching happened for a while. Her methods have altered.
Expectations about the way the genders learn need to be different but ambition should be equal. We rejected a co-ed school for DD2 because only a handfull of girls did physics and maths at A Level- her current school has about 40% chosing STEM subjects.
DD2 spent a year in a co-ed for yr 5 and really didn't like that the boys were 'badly behaved' (i.e. being boys) and she couldn't concentrate.
I do agree about being able to spot freshers who've been to single sex (this is a boarding school rather than a day school problem) but if you take the initiative to ensure that they do co-ed activities outside of school, this won't be an issue.

I don't think that there is any advantage in separating them when they are little, but it seems that as we learn more about how the adolescent brain develops there are several good reasons for teaching them separately. The brains of teenage girls and boys are about as different as they can be, as is explained very well in Blame My Brain.

Also, as posters above have mentioned it removes the prejudices about 'boys' subjects and 'girls' activities which actually gives some children a greater choice.

In fact, if you looked at the whole sector I think that you might be surprised at how few single sex schools actually remain, many have gone co-ed now. Perhaps it is significant that nearly all of the best known ones are still single sex though.

Incidentally I believe that Eton considered going co-ed back in the 70s, and conducted a trial with the daughters of the housemasters. However, they decided against it in the end.

I think that many co-ed schools are only co-ed in the sixth form. Is it correct that of the boys public schools only Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Radley are now the only ones which still only take boys?

History.
And the charitable foundations often specify

Sherborne is all boys too, but otherwise I think you're right.

For boarding schools that is, I think there are more if you include day schools.

LaVolcan - my mother always said she felt that the traditionally all-male boarding schools were now saying that they 'offered girls in the 6th form' as a kind of extra-curricular activity...

Although I have heard that girls from places like CLSG and SPGS are actively head-hunted as they boost the results.

In answer to the OP, the reason is a mix of tradition and continuing parental demand. Having been to an all-boys (was one of 3 girls), and all-girls and a co-ed, there are a lot of differences in how things are taught and of expectations - especially with certain subjects such as maths and science.

DD is currently in a mixed state primary, but we are definitely going for an all-girls secondary for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons is that she is likely to have a late puberty (familial history and endocrine issues) and it's harder to deal with that when you are 16, look like a 10 year-old and are both seeing your peers with their boyfriends in school and dealing with the comments on how flat-chested and small you are!

There are lots of single sex state schools too (more in some areas than others).

There are lots of single sex state schools too!

Could also be that many schools were run by religious institutions, which advocated separating the sexes?
78bunion -make-up and how you look, is just as much in all girls schools!
I agree its a disadvantage to be segregated from naturally with the opposite sex, so I dont like the idea anymore of single sex schools. ? rather British idea as they dont do this in France, for example.

Lavolcan SPS is definitely only boys as is Tonbridge Indrid i think Sherbourne boys and Sherbourne girls come together for many subjects in the 6 th form. I don't think there ate that many more all boys schools in the independent sector.
It's tradition and parents like it we certainly do.

I think my dd's school is ideal in that it is co-ed but the boys and girls are taught separately for core subjects. Each year there is a class of boys and a class of girls and maths, English, science, PE and a few other subjects are taught separately but history, geography, drama etc are taught together, and of course they are together in the playground.

I believe it offers the best of both worlds, the classes can be tailored to the boys/girls and but they still have the interaction.