Research on girls learning better with other girls..please help

[hattyyellow123]

My dd is now the only girl in her class at school, following a number of challenges at the school over recent years. She's October born and her class is filled with very young summer born boys. The school are struggling to cater to her needs as an older girl in this environment.

I'm looking around for other schools for her, as she is desperately lonely as well as frustrated academically. I'm trying to find research that looks into girls learning better with other girls - co-ed is fine and necessary as all the local primaries are mixed - but I really feel that having more girls will help her school life.

Can anyone point me to some good, solid research? I've been searching the MN archives but links are broken or research is just referred to -I'm sure there is evidence on girls learning better with other girls in the room but can't find it..

Why do you need this research?

It'll depend on the individual and the situation anyway.

From my experience dd1's year they decided to do single sex maths sets after seeing research that in maths girls did better as single sex. it was a total disaster from both the girls and the boys sets.
They haven't repeated the experiment with subsequent years.

Having suffered a single sex education i would not recommend it.

However as the only girl at primary age I can understand that she is probably lonely and would prefer to go to a school with other girls in her class. I would move her to a mixed environment on that basis.

I use research a lot in my work to give evidence so it's the way my head works..it's a big move for her to move schools and logistically it makes life a LOT more complicated for work/commuting etc - we are very rural. So I want to gather evidence to demonstrate to myself that yes, there is a real case based on her being the only girl..

She will still be in a mixed gender class whenever she moves to. I went to an all girls school and I do think she benefits from having boys at school too - just not quite such a dominance of boys!

You'll find some here OP.
Research
I think that most actual research is secondary level though, and generally comparing single sex v's co-ed, not proportions of either sex.
You might find something of use here.

I would just think it was obvious that being the only girl in the class would be lonely and sad. I wouldn't need research.

Inchyrablue thank you so much..

Bertrand - not necessarily - she's not a particularly "girlie" girl at all - there was only one other girl in the class last term and two other girls from reception..so we've never had huge proportions of girls..

Plus other factors sadly have to come into account - i.e. logistics of us getting her to another school..it's also a small village school (under 80 kids) and there are other girls in the school (although not masses) - they all mix up at playtime..it's just in the classroom that it's challenging..

What year is she in? Could they move her up a year if the logistics are challenging for her to move? I remember a KS1 stage teacher saying that she delivered differentiated learning to her year 1 class that had abilities which ranged from EYFS to the end of KS1 in one class. Is it possible that she could be reasonably be accomodated in the class above?

GDST will probably have some research.

my daughter was an only girl in a small class of 5 boys, the next year up had no girls and the only other girl was 2 years older. there were some younger who were not attending school yet.
it just wasn't a healthy mix. so we moved to a bigger center.

Thanks so much all. CruCru - good idea, I was a GDST girl!
Forgiveness - good plan, but sadly not possible - the years are twinned so she'd have to move up with children a lot older (as she's in younger year of a twinned class).

Out - that's really helpful thank you! Hoping it worked out well for you?

All the up to date research supports co-ed to 11, single sex 11-16 and co-ed 16-18, is the best way forward, coupled with good exposure to boys in extra curricular activities. The Girls School Association has hundreds of articles and research papers on it's website.

Lonecat , that is really interesting.
Do you know what it is for boys? I have always heard that it was better for girls to be in single sex schools (at secondary ) and better for boys to be in mixed.

Tell that to Eton, Harrow or Repton

I was at a mixed junior and single sex senior school. I loved my all girls school. I think it was much easier for me to relax and concentrate with no boys around as I was very much ruled by my hormones and would have been constantly distracted.

I think the research is that girls do better at an all girls senior school whereas boys do better at a mixed school. My boys are all at mixed schools for this reason.

www.theguardian.com/education/2009/mar/18/secondary-schools-girls-gcse-results

Barbarian, I suspect the resources Eton have outweigh any disadvantage due to gender.

For the rest of us lowly mortals using normal schools though....

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12173291/Boys-as-well-as-girls-perform-better-in-single-sex-schools.html

OK well maybe it's just the socialisation of boys that is better in a mixed school than a single sex school.

www.theguardian.com/education/2009/dec/02/co-eds-or-single-sex

Lots of opinions here :)

my teenage ds and dd are both at single sex schools. I went to an all girls secondary and loved it, and wanted dd not to have the whole boys in your face thing.
it really suits her and I am so glad I did it.
ds though, school is great and it is a good match for him, but I sometimes wonder if would be better if it was mixed. they are next door to dds school though, and the kids travel together on the buses/trains and socialise together so it has always felt like the best of bothe worlds.

Apologies and thanks so much for everyone's thoughts and experiences, have been away but will read these with great interest.

OP you say that your DD is very lonely. For me, loneliness would be reason enough to move her.

Totally, if we had more primaries nearer it would be no question. But we are VERY rural and so the next nearest primary is a long drive, tricky in snow, logistically v complicated with work. We also have another 2 older kids in early years of a very good secondary, particulary for dd1 who has additional support needs and is very settled. So moving towards other primary would then make it v tricky to get them there..

How old is your daughter? I ask because a friend ended up boarding for the later years of primary because his parents lived so rurally. I think seven is very young to board but perhaps weekly boarding at 10+ might be an option?

Interesting thought cru thank you

I think girls in a class bring their own characters and if these are missing from the chat it will be lonely. Playtime will not make up for it because classroom dynamics are important. Children spend the bulk of their time in the classroom. Also sport would bother me. I think you may have to make changes to your lives to help her and out her first. My DDs would have been devastated by this. One of mine went to a girls' prep and both went single sex for boarding. Old wives takes abound on here from dark days of years ago, but most single sex schools are very good. It just depends what you want. My eldest was fed up with silly boys mucking about at primary so was pleased to lose them! Each tontgrir own!