Single sex school for boys, is it better or worse?

[Jollyphonics]

DS1 is in year 4 so I'm starting to think about secondary.

Locally the is an outstanding state school that we are in catchment for so would almost certainly get a place.

There are a few co-ed private schools a short drive away, but they're out of my price range.

There is also a nearby grammar school, which requires a very good mark in the 11-plus exam. It's a boys' school, and is widely thought of as being the best school in the area.

However, I have instinctive reservations about boys schools. I went to a girls school and I feel that, whilst it gave me a good academic education, it was an artificial environment, and I found it harder to relate to boys than my contemporaries.

What thoughts or experiences can you share with me about boys' schools? Thank you

I went to a girls school and didn't have any problem with relating to boys. I have one daughter in a single sex school whose best friends are boys, and one daughter in a mixed school who has all sorts of social anxieties, so I think it's more down to personality than environment. I also have a son in a boys school - I found I wasn't so confident about him being only with boys as I was about my daughter being with only girls, but he has 3 sisters, so it's nice for him to have a hefty dose of testosterone at school, lol, and they have plenty of female teachers. I haven't seen any deleterious effects of his school anyway.

But in all of these cases, it was more about finding the right school for each child - if the schools had been exactly the same but mixed instead of single sex, or vice versa, then they would have still gone to them. We chose the schools, and the make up of the kids (inasmuch as you CAN separate that from the school itself) was secondary.

My ds (he's 17) went through a boys' school and has no problems relating to girls at all - he has as many friends who are girls as he does friends who are boys.
My 2 dds go to a girls' school and have no problem relating to boys.
We didn't specifically seek out single sex schools, it was just they were the best options overall when it was time for them to move to secondary, where we live.
I went to a girls' school and have never had a problem relating to boys.
The important thing is, that school isn't the only place they mix socially with others. My dc have always belonged to things where they mix with lots of people they don't go to school with. There is no mystery about being the opposite sex.