Boy- heavy year group

[mummy1800]

I would love to have some opinions to help me make a decision about my daughter’s school. Her class has 5 girls and 11 boys, across the whole year group it’s 13 girls and 35 boys. My daughter says that the boys are often quite noisy in the classroom and she has said on a few occasions that the boys are unkind to her. I wonder if she would be better socially and academically in an all- girls’ school. There is a place available for her in another school where she would be one of 15 girls in the class (and the whole year group). Her main group of friends is one girl and three boys but I wonder how much longer the boys will be playing with the girls. She’ll be going into Y2 in September and I’m really torn between taking up the place in the girls’ school and staying with her current school and seeing how things go. Any opinions will be very welcome!

This isn’t something I’m entirely familiar with but interested to hear other parents views as a school I’m interested in for my DD is a co-ed but boy heavy. If girls are getting pulled out of the school because of the low number of girls in the classes then isn’t this just making this situation worse for parents who really like the school and want to send their DDs there but are being told that low numbers of girls is a bad thing? Would this behaviour in the long run just turn the school single sex boys only if they’re not getting numbers to keep it co-ed? Obviously our DCs comfort and happiness is paramount but just keen to know if a boy heavy co-ed school is really as bad as people have made out?

We chose co-ed because we wanted her to mix with both boys and girls, as well as it being easier logistically for both children. We just didn’t know that the ratio would be so uneven. This school was previously all boys and there are two girls’ schools nearby, so I think it will always struggle to have an even mix.

Just out of curiosity, are there no state schools near you? Classes will be much more mixed normally in them. And most 6 year old boys I've come across in the state system would never point blank refuse to go and play in a girl's room and boys and girls in state schools often still play together at that age.

I was in a class like this as a child - started off with 15 boys and 5 girls, lowest we got was 3 girls. The dynamics between us all were pretty awful - especially when we got down to three - and there just weren't enough girls to 'practise' friendships with. I got on well with a lot of the boys, but I do think same-gender friendships (or at least the possibility of them) is important, especially in late-primary.

At my school, it was just my class - all the other years had a regular-sized class (25-35 kids back then) and even gender splits.

The primary my kids went to had a couple of very uneven classes; it happens sometimes, but I don't think it's a good thing for the individuals in them.

It also worries me that girls play sports matches with the boys against boys’ schools, as they don’t have enough girls to make a team and so can’t play girls’ schools. It doesn’t seem very safe when it’s football and cricket.

Thank you so much your very helpful replies- it’s likely that we’ll be accepting her offer at the girls’ school. She’ll be very sad to leave her two good friends at her current school but hopefully she’ll settle into her new one quickly.