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Original poster

Are single sex schools good or bad?

102 replies

Wills · 05/09/2006 14:25

My gut instinct is bad but I'm not sure why I feel like this.

To give you the background. We've just moved counties and focused on finding dd1 an infant school. Having done that we are now having to look (almost immeidately) at Junior schools. Our house is basically placed between two that seem fairly similar on paper (need to visit of course) so I thought I'd have a quick look at the senior schools to see if there was an obvious better one. I was completely blown away by how good the senior schools are but.... most of them are single sex. There is only one good mixed school.

From articles I've read in the newspapers it appears that single sex schools can focus their teaching style appropriately and therefore get better results. BUT I want my kids to grow up realising that the opposite is merely the opposite sex and not something that should be put either on a pedestal or to be scared of. Are my fears stupid?

OP posts:
harpsichordcarrier · 06/09/2006 23:23

hmmm, yes you may be right. not sure how relevant that is today. all the teenage girls I know seem wildly over confident anyway
I wonder, too, whether it sends the right message to say - you can do anything you want... but you can't be taught with the boys... because otherwise you will be too distracted and it won't be good for your confidence?
I wonder what they think about it?

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 06/09/2006 23:23

I agree totally with you on the sex thing. I knew people from girls schools, people from boys schools and from mixed and each covered the full spectrum in terms of what they got up to - far more to do with personality than education

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 06/09/2006 23:25

you may well be right - I think 20 years ago it still was relevant, but maybe not now. interesting. must go to bed now. dh is turning lights off around me...

harpsichordcarrier · 06/09/2006 23:25

(I should say that my most recent experience is of a girls' school and I found the atmosphere a bit odd and claustrophobic)

FloatingOnTheMed · 06/09/2006 23:30

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FloatingOnTheMed · 06/09/2006 23:31

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Hallgerda · 07/09/2006 07:33

FloatingontheMed, my old school (all girls) had a number of teenage pregnancies. All the girls who became pregnant were Catholics whose parents wouldn't let them attend the contraception talk.

Wordsmith · 07/09/2006 07:39

That's amazing! My nympho freinds went to a catholic girls' school. maybe the religion, rarher than the gender is the important thing?

batters · 07/09/2006 09:01

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hulababy · 07/09/2006 09:17

The competitive thing isn't always relevant either IME.

I know a women who went to an all girl's school from primary age. She did well there and went onto uni to do a mainly male orientated course. She successfully completed there, achieving a 1st and coming above most, if not all, the males there. She worked alongside them, and competed against the,. She now works in a male oprientated office in a male orientated career, again doing exceptionally well and doing as well, if not better, than the men around her. Goign to an all girl's school gave her the conifdence to feel she could compete against them. It certainly didn't put her at a disadvantage in her work place.

I think much more of this is all down to individual personalities TBH, rather than schooling.

Blu · 07/09/2006 12:44

Actually, I was hoping that someone would come back and say 'Oh yes you are a nympho, Blu'!

( I knew Wordsmith was joking.....but would have to agree with her about it being the religious facto that counts. i mean, look at marianne faithfull. Or perhaps it is single sex catholic BOARDING schools that creates the magic mix for nympomania?)

Pamina3 · 07/09/2006 12:50

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Blu · 07/09/2006 14:11

I went to a girls school, and was part of the girls county athletic team. The boys team training statrted immediately after ours finished. One night, for a flirty bet, (which i accepted, obviusly, being a nympho) a boy challenged me to a 400m race - and I won. I got a right telling off from our team coach for 'showing off', but was told that we should never race the boys and win because it wasn't fair on them, it would undermine them, and we shouldn't do that

clumsymum · 07/09/2006 16:20

aw, bless!

TheRealCam · 07/09/2006 17:27

God forbid that girls should be allowed to undermine boys Blu, poor delicate little flowers

FillyjonktheFluffy · 07/09/2006 17:31

Bad.

The boys not being around thing was fine. I mean, they're not hard to find, and it was actually quite useful for the less stringently heterosexual among us, but...

the science and maths teaching was shite. Absolutely shocking.

Every time I walk into a GPs surgery I feel resentment because I should f'ing well have been doing that. Tw*ks.

quanglewangle · 07/09/2006 17:58

Academically, yes.
Socially, no.

Therefore I used to come down on the side of single sex.

However, now I have teenage boys, and I see how much more socially adept they are than I was, I have shifted sides.

It is easier to catch up academically than socially and you are at a disadvantage when competing with by confident competition. It can take a long time to make up the ground.

quanglewangle · 07/09/2006 18:05

FillyJonk, the science and maths teaching at my school was first rate. That was where the advantage lay as no one told us girls weren't supposed to like science. We divided equally between arts and science subjects which is as it should be.

But then the head was a scientist so knew what she was about. The neighbouring girls' school had an arts-biased head and the sciences were shamefully neglected. This became apparent when the schools merged. The good news was that a boys school merged with us too - and we were much better than them at sciences!! HA HA HA!!

FillyjonktheFluffy · 07/09/2006 18:08

am jealous, quangle.

To be fair, no one ever ever told us that girls shouldn't do science.

Its just that chemistry teaching consisted of memorising the periodic table.

Am doing a science degree now with the OU and am shocked at a. how non-mystifying and b. how fascinating it is.

My ex-school is regularly named "school of the year" btw.

TheRealCam · 07/09/2006 18:12

I read some article once which said that girls do better at single-sex shools but boys do better at mixed.

Bit like the thing where women are supposedly mentally healthier when single but men are better off when married.

So, they need us more than we need them?

ScummyMummy · 07/09/2006 19:34

That's what the new research says is bunkum, Cam- see my link below!

Shocked at your p.e. teacher, blu!

IWorshipAtTheShrineOfCod · 07/09/2006 21:30

yes but fillyjonk that's the depressing thing I think.
it is easy, of course, for teenage girls to find boys for girlfriend/boyfriend stuff.
but it is sad that they should only see them in that light.
boyfriends come and go but good friends last forever and a bit of a loss, really, to restrict your social interactions to just one sex imo

Charleesunnysunsun · 07/09/2006 21:35

I went to both, i found single sex school very, very bitchy TBH, obviously you get that at a mixed school but not as bad.

I would go for a mixed school as i found the whole experience alot better. At the SSS the girls (including me) were focused on boys more because they wern;t around but hwen you share the day with them there not as interesting.

That was only 3yrs ago not sure about girls or boys views today!

Jain · 08/09/2006 10:46

I attended an all girls school and although we had an all boys school close by, I felt very seperated from them, to the point that I didn't have a clue about boys and how their minds worked (!) when I left at 16...... I feel that although segregation can help a child focus more on their studies, it doesn't prepare you for the big wide world... When the time comes for my daughter (soon to be born!) to attend secondary school, I will definitely be looking for a mixed sex school.

DominiConnor · 08/09/2006 15:49

Our school (Forest in Snaresbrook) works by being in effect a boy's school joined to a girls.
From 4-7 it's mixed, then 7-11 separate classes for most academic subjects, but together for a few things like drama. From 11-16 two schools sharing facilities but still some lessons in common and coed
16-18.