Should we bring back more single sex schools

[Ddakji]

Slightly following on from some of the threads about Adolescence (which I haven’t seen), I started wondering - has the demise of boys’ schools negatively impacted boys?

I’d be really interested to hear from others, especially the parents of boys - I have one DD (15h who’s been in mixed sex schools most of the time but is now in a girls’ school.

So you’re wrong to say that you would shut down “the boys are idiots” observation. Because the girls might actually be right.

It’s really bad to allow girls to think that they can’t trust their own instructs. Mumsnet is littered with women in bad relationships because they’re persuading themselves that the grade-A idiot they’re living with must have something nice about him.

It’s gaslighting.

I don’t think education should be purely about performance at school. I dislike the notion that girls are there for boys to be socialized by their presence. I think boys schools can be great. Boy sport and male teachers really understanding boys underpins good social attitudes. A good boys school can do this. Girls equally can be their own people by not having boys present at school.

They all prepare for life by meeting socially. They just don’t get taught together for a few hours a day for 38 weeks of the year. I didn’t want my girls to be practiced on by boys to improve the attitudes of the boys (or not).

Berkhamsted school is split until 6th form. It’s private though.

I understand that argument but with a National Curriculum and school budgets being what they are, can schools really develop curriculums that are more tailored to boys or girls without pigeonholing subjects as for boys or girls ?

I assume that teacher training assumes mixed sex classes - do you think that teachers should learn more about child development in case that they teach single sex classes ?

"Boys are idiots" is no more helpful to society than "girls are bitches"

I went to an all girls school. I only had sisters at home. I had no male friends at all, and not even any cousins. One friend had an older brother, who was honestly like a foreign species/zoo animal to me.

It's not healthy or normal to grow up like that and leaves you vulnerable as a young adult.

Never in a million years would I have sent my children to a single-sex school, particularly the girls.

Me too, and for many years as a young woman I would have said the same.
I’m now very glad that DD is finally in a girls’s school and am kicking myself I didn’t insist on it for Year 7.

Exactly.

I think it’s good to have the opportunity to make friends with the opposite sex, so no.

To be fair though, @noblegiraffe ,the poster did clarify a bit, and wasn't just stereotyping all boys.

My secondary school taught boys and girls separately untill year 9 then some lessons were mixed as you chose your gcse options.

I really liked it overall. It felt a good balance. It felt a good balance of freedom to just be without the dynamics of boys being a distraction or disruption. Especially from the early years when I found school overwhelming and figuring out periods etc I knew if I leaked in lesson it was with girls who at the very least understood.

We still got to socialise with boys so they were never the forbidden fruit they seems to be for my friends who went to an all girls school. It avoided the us and them mentality. By year 9 I welcomed having boys in the class to add a different dynamic to counter out some of the bitchyness that could arise in all girls lessons. By that time it felt like some of the boys had matured and were less disruptive than perhaps in younger years.

Swings and roundabouts I guess.

Out of interest, @MightyGoldBear , what was this bitchiness that the boys had to counter?

Why do people think 11/13 year olds will be friends at school with the opposite sex to prepare for work and life? There are no good reasons why girls must meet boys to prepare for life and vice versa. My DDs never were taught with boys. It’s perfectly possible to meet them via other routes. It’s of no relevance to them now they are 30 ish that boys were not in school with them in terms of being fully integrated into society. The huge advantage has been they have chosen which boys they wish to spend time with and haven’t associated with the less pleasant ones. They didn’t have to put up with unsavoury behaviour. Neither were the girls bitches!

I have no doubt single sex schools won’t come back, although 8/13 grammars here are single sex. No shortage of applicants.

I went to a single sex high school, everyone was lovely and not bitchy at all. The only issue was many of had no opportunities to meet or know any boys, so it made some quite boy crazy and in the last year when we did start to interact with boys, many were very awkward around them. I think the ideal would be to go to a single sex and also have extra curricula activities that are mixed sex. Although I have heard that girls schools can be very bitchy, I assume bitchy people will be bitchy no matter where they go! I would also assume boys would make them more bitchy, not less and you'd also then have the added pressure of needing to have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Pros and Cons to both I'd say

We chose single sex for our DD’s and both have done well, socially and academically. DS went to mixed, because the local boys school is sporty/rugby focused and we didn’t think that was a good fit for him, but with hindsight, I actually think the discipline at the boys school would have been a better option, as his exam results, whilst OK were not stellar.

What I would also say is that all my DC had friends of both sexes outside school all the way through secondary and don’t see the opposite sex as a weird species.

Single sex schools are very much the norm here in Dublin and I went single sex the whole way up. It made me unable to Converse normally with men by the time I left school. It took me years to get on with men normally. One of my brothers became quite misogynist as school he was in had very much a 'lad" culture and didn't have a realistic view of women at all
My own teenagers attend Co Ed and I think it's so much better. Their friends are still generally kids of same gender as themselves but being in a coed environment much more natural and they don't seem to have the hang ups we did growing up.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/10/boys-widen-gap-over-girls-in-maths-and-science-in-england-study-reveals

When we get stories like this I do ThinkPad have to consider single sex seriously for STEM as I do think there is still a legacy of STEM being 'boys stuff' unless it is leading to a career in medicine say. Possibly to completely eradicate this attitude having all girls lessons will allow girls maybe a more comfortable environment to show a true passion for science without immature gender stereotyping with girls afraid of being looked on as geeks or boyish?

We obviously split girls and boys for PE and sports for good reason and maybe it makes sense to split sexes when there is danger of boys dominating in a lesson environment.

Son went to an all boys school. He's now misogynistic. I regret sending him there

My personal view is that free mixing shouldn't be as accepted as it is today but boys should still know how to interact with women. Why would you send your son to a school with only other males. Yes maybe there's more male teachers but a balance is needed for them to also respect women. They're likely watching the same content with no one to challenge them. They'll think the opposite sex are some mythical creatures and will base their views on girls of their age from their toxic influencers. Yes you can restrict your own child's Internet but again.. you can't restrict all of his peers' internet and they'll undoubtedly pass some views along

@atmywitsend1989 .
II take your point about boy's schools may be encouraging misogyny and an impediment to interacting with women but could you say that fields should be used as a social 'tool' to ameliorate boys behaviour of absorb boy's misogyny so that it eventually leaves their system as they nature and form better relationships with girls?

My daughter's do not interact a great deal with boys at school but do delay to us the day to day minor misogynist acts and comments within a mixed comp. Boys putting their heads up girls skirts, comments about breasts, cat calling girls sports etc. are all part for the course. I do feel this is something girls needn't put up with and single sex schools maybe are part of the solution.

So some men misbehave so much we should separate them from girls in school so they have even less idea how to act around women? The single sex schools (particularly the private ones for some reason) seem to churn out very borish, laddish men from my experience .
I do think women loose out to in single sex environment too as my own experience was they become less able to interact 'normally' with men.

I went to single sex schools and chose coed for my dds. 7 years in a coed primary convinced me that if they wanted a chance to do well at ‘boy things’ (football, maths, coding) without being jeered at or excluded, a calm environment and their fair share of the teacher’s attention, then single sex would be better at secondary.

They have plenty of contact with boys at activities outside school and via the nearby boys school. Though they feel they’re being used to socialise the boys at the nearby school, and grumble at going to the compulsory shared events.

I never had an issue with being boy mad or unable to talk to boys. I did, and do, have a low tolerance for mansplaining and a tendency to ask pointed questions when I think someone is bullshitting - which some men really don’t like. But I see that as an advantage.

If there are subjects where the converse applies then the boys might benefit from separate teaching too, of course.

I’m not sure the curricula would need changing. It’s perhaps mostly more simply about boys dominating the room.

DD participated in a few inter-school STEM competitions, she noticed that it really was the case that in the mixed teams the girls tended to be relegated to assisting the boys.(she took particular delight in beating such boys!)

@taxguru your anecdotal evidence of successful single sex schools is just that, anecdotal. The trend across the country is for single-sex schools to go co-ed and this is occurring across both private and state sector. If single-sex schools were financially viable this would not be happening.

We had the choice of co-ed or single sex. We chose co-ed based on the school making concerted efforts to push girls in STEM eg all female science department and 3 of the 8 science teachers have PhDs so are role models for girls have high aspirations in science. A Head with 3 x daughters, Housemistress system etc.
My DD learned how to challenge boys, sexism etc in her co-ed Primary school and has no qualms about doing the same now. She will not tolerate misogyny/sexism in the language or behaviour of the men around her BUT the fact she has to handle that really frustrates me. Would it have been better for her to not face this by being in a single sex environment?

Our NDN has sent their daughter to single sex from YrR-Yr 13. I am not sure how she will handle being thrown into co-ed at university, she may be fine or she may struggle.

I am a strong advocate of single sex schools and parental choice in the matter

I do governor walk around in a single sex girls school and co-ed school.

The boys dominate the room.and the space at the co-ed. It's a good school, girls get better results than boys there, bit they do that around the boys.

I'm not actually sure the boys are trying to dominate the girls, but more competing with other boys.