Single sex debate ... again

[MN164]

Gut feeling, single sex feels wrong and co-ed is "natural".

It's a topic of hot debate and strong feelings. It's also a choice that isn't available to many students anyway so is only relevant to about 10%-15% of parents/students.

All that said today, yet another piece in the press causes me to ask again - given the levels of misogyny in society but also amongst teenage boys wouldn't you choose single sex education for your daughter if you had such a choice available?

Here's today's piece in the Guardian

"Up to 60% of girls and young women aged 13 to 21 report sexual harassment at school or college, according to the Girls’ Attitudes survey."

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2014/dec/02/sexual-harassment-party-daily-life-british-girls-girlguiding-uk

There is also quite well established research that shows that not only do girls perform better academically in a single sex school environment, they are also more likely to choose maths and science more freely plus there appears to be no damage to their ability to form relationships with men later in life. On top of that they tend to earn more.

www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/page.aspx?sitesectionid=363&sitesectiontitle=Single-sex+schools

Then there is also the perhaps self-perpetuating dominance of single sex schools in the league table, but that's even more narrow a focus.

(leaves the door open and waits for various posters - TP? )

I think she will do biology as her required science where ds is thinking about chemistry and physics (our school system requires a science to grade 11).
I am not sure if nooka lives overseas, but in the UK dcs cannot just take Biology for GCSE. Most pupils either take separate Biology, Chemistry and Physics (or Triple Science) where you have to take all 3 subjects or Double Science which is a combination of all 3 but slightly lower content.

Talking you're wrong. There are single sex company in the Muslim city!

Talking you're wrong. There are single sex comps in the Muslim city!

I'm not in the UK :) We live in Canada now, and here children have to take a certain amount of courses at a certain level to graduate, with a grade point average instead of exams. They do all three sciences as a single course up to grade 10 (15/16) and then have to do a further year of one science (the same requirement is in pace for social sciences).

It's very different to the O levels and A levels I did!

We sent our DD to a coed primary school and an all girls secondary. I think that girls learn better on their own away from the pressures of boys. She does have activities outside of school where she mixes with boys.

ALL the single sex schools are selective by god, wallet or 11+

rubbish round my way too (SE London) - off the top of my head I can think of 3 girls, and 2 boys state secondaries that are neither faith, private nor grammar.

The more I dig into this topic the more I find two very different camps of strongly held views. However, the research seems to land pretty firmly in the single-sex education from 11 to 16 camp.

It's tough to argue against the facts that attainment is better, subject choices more neutral and self-confidence greater in an environment free of boys during early adolescence.

Here's the bullet points from consolidated research found - not fully referenced buy look at the NSPCC, DoE, Centre for Longitudinal Research and Girlguides funded research.......

Academic attainment

Single sex outperforms consistently across the board

• Top selective schools
• Church schools
• State schools

Single sex balanced subject choices

• More females pick Maths, Physics and sciences in single sex environment "The gender gaps in "self-concept" significantly smaller within the single-sex sector than within co-educational schools."

Outcomes

School life

• Single sex schooled females less likely to suffer both physical and mental bullying (e.g. DoE, Characteristics of bullying victims in schools, 2010, p73)

• Sexual harassment in school setting increasing, vast majority being against girls by boys (verbal abuse, shaming, online and physical etc)

• 1 in 3 girls, or more according to some agencies and research, suffer sexual harassment or abuse by age of 16 at coed school

Later life

• No difference between single sex and co-ed “marriage outcomes” i.e. relationship forming indicator

• Single sex educated females earn more in workplace - "girls who attended girls’ schools went on to gain higher wages than co-ed girls, conditioning on background controls."

• Women more likely to enter workplaces dominated by men "Women who had attended single-sex schools were more likely than co-ed women to gain qualifications in male-dominated subject disciplines."

Single sex schools have fewer distractions for teenagers. They allow students to take their studies more seriously. In my limited experience, girls do more STEMat girls' schools. However, not all girls' schools are necessarily better than coed schools. I attended a private girls school for K and grade 1, a boys' private school with few girls, a state coed primary, and then six years of private school at the same girls' school. Girls at a school which is more than 70% boys tend to be overlooked.