why so many boys only preps around oxford but only 1 girls prep?

[screamingsiblings]

How does this work demographically? My DC are grown up now, so I'm out of the loop schools wise.
I can think of 7 boys only preps, but only 1 girls prep - when Headington goes co-ed.
Are there so many more boys in Oxfordshire? Do the co-ed preps actually have any boys in them??

IDK but I've noticed that, too, and it's bizarre. I wonder if people are just sending their boys? Or sending their girls elsewhere to board at a stupidly young age? That can't be right, surely?

trying to think how many co-ed preps there are now, including Head.
6?

Aren't there a few all girls with junior schools- eg Oxford High?

we know girls who are siblings of boys at boys preps around oxford who are at
headington
rye (obv being subsumed into the above)
high school
manor
dragon
Chandlings
Cokethorpe

Most of these are coed…one assumes the parents wanted their son in a different school for some specific reason eg choristers (new, cc, mcs) or big name public school prep (summerfields, cothill, maybe moulsford)

I think there is something about the juniors finishing at age 11 (girls and many coeds) vs 13 (boys, very occasionally coeds) in the mix as well

@swiftimania I can only think of Oxford High as the only one left now.
@RedPanda2022 Are there many boys at the co-ed preps?

I'm just thinking that theoretically, unless there is a huge difference in the younger population, with so many boys in the boys only preps, and pretty much all the girls (except OHS prep of course) in co-eds, the balance in the co-ed preps must be skewed towards the girls. Which would make me not want to send my boy there! Which just escalates the issue!
Unless there are girls preps around I don't know about??

To make sense of it I suspect you have to figure out what the "catchments" of these schools actually are - so not looking at just Oxford schools but around the county. Also, consider the sizes of the schools - years back (when Headington was just completing its transition from co-ed juniors to girls only), they probably took the same number of girls as Christchurch and NCS combined took boys.

I think the co Ed’s are somewhat girl heavy but the op above is correct re size of school. Eg Dragon has ~800, manor about 400, Headington/ohs bit smaller I think whereas the choir schools are one form entry.

Don't underestimate the number of Oxford/shire parents who only send their girls to private secondary - they buy into the catchments of good primaries.

@Zimbolino I think that number is getting to be less and less. We are about to move our DD out of one of the best ones and into private.

Could be that the boys-only preps are a) small and b) more likely to be boarding. My DS went to one of these and there were very few boys from the Oxfordshire area. Where these boys had sisters they were more likely to be at schools like Hanford and Godstowe, rather than the Oxfordshire co-ed or girls' preps. PP is right that the boys' boarding preps import boys from other areas and are more focused on preparing for schools also outside the area (I'd include Radley in this group because whilst it's located near Oxford, it draws its boys from everywhere). Once you take out the big name boys' boarding preps the gender provision picture is probably less skewed.

I remember reading somewhere that in general parents are more willing to pay for boys education than girls. Perhaps that's at play here?

@Pickles78 it might be. I can think of a couple of families where the boys were educated privately but not the girls- and not sure I've got any counter examples. It might also be that since girls' senior schools tend to start at Y7 parents are seeing state-til-11 as a pragmatic approach. And it could be that the wash out of girls from preps at 11 means they don't dominate co-ed preps in the way suggested up-thread, at least in the senior prep years, so co-ed preps would feel like there are enough boys.

It doesn't. Some of the boys' preps are really struggling for numbers.

Without having a single figure to hand my assumption has been that the numerous boys’ preps exist because there are so many (and large) public schools for boys to move on to. So they feed the demand.

But I don’t actually know if that’s the case.

(The youngest in our family was at one of the boys’ boarding preps mentioned by a pp - before proceeding to public school.)

I can’t answer the OPs question but is Cothill a public school?

No, it’s a prep school. Previously all boarding but now offering day places as well. And, I gather, about to allow entry to girls.

Another notable change is that they seem to now be offering bursaries (since 2022) to new entrants. I recall we looked at it years ago but felt the absence of bursaries for new pupils was a fault which must speak to the ethos of the school. So we went elsewhere.

@InTheBleakMidsummer thanks.

I was under the impression there is only a handful of Public schools, like Eton, Harrow etc.

Yes - you can google for a list of those recognised as such. Though it’s not a term that’s in widespread use these days. (And of course gets confused with the US ‘public school’ which is something entirely different.

Was there something specific you wanted to ask about prep or public school, @Tulipvase?

No, just nosey as I live locally (the algorithms seem to show up local school threads) and was surprised to think that Cothill was a Public school. As stated by the post I replied to.

Cothill is a prep school, gearing boys to the major public schools- as are Summerfields and Moulsford. They aren't themselves public schools.
I read @RedPanda2022 's post as grouping local schools by specialism- getting boys into Eton, Radley, Harrow etc is what these preps specialise in.

Oh maybe.

Historically girls started secondary at 11 and most just had maths and English entrance exams, so you could do that from a state primary. Boys often needed Common Entrance at 13 and a wide range of subjects (so I started Latin and French at my coed prep at 7) and you can’t really do that from a state primary because you’d be so far behind in the specialist subjects. So boys need to go to prep to access those secondary schools but girls don’t. Maybe?

I don't think it's solely an Oxfordshire phenomenon- looking at Hampshire there are boys- only options like Pilgrims, mixed such as Twyford and Farleigh but I can't think of a girls-only prep. There are more boys' preps than girls'. Most are co-ed. Perhaps girls' schools are more likely to go all through from 8-18.

I’m willing to bet it’s just the historical / chronological dominance of boys’ public schools driving the market. Quite half of them probably came into existence because Eton exists. Certainly all those within about a couple of hours’ distance.

Girls schools are more likely to go from 4 (or younger) to 18 or have a primary / secondary split.