All girls schools - pros and cons

[curlew]

I would never have considered a single sex secondary school for my dd - until we went to visit one that seems to be a perfect "fit" for her. What do people think? Is a school of a 1000 adolescent girls a good place to spend your formative years?

I went to a girls school and absolutely loathed it! I have two DDs and they are both at mixed schools. I think it is important particularly if you only have girls and no brothers.
For my part, loads of school friends (myself included!) were just desperate to meet and mix with boys and quite a few of us went off the rails (me included!) I just think its healthier to mix with boys (its normal in life after all!) because you get such a slanted view otherwise... this is just my opinion of course...!

I did and it was fine and my daughters did and have no trouble mixing with boys at university. One daughter's school, Habs, had a boys school on the next site and anyway in their normal life lots of boys, brothers etc around. It was very advantageous, girls get better exam results in single sex schools and they aren't under pressure to wear special clothes, avoid science etc and I think it's great to keep them away from sex whilst they're too young for it and should be concentrating on getting good A levels.

Have taught in all gorls school and am currently teaching single sex classes. In my current year 10 GCSE classes I teach my topset single sex and my second set in a tradtional mixed sex group. THe second mixed set group is doing better both in terms of results and behvaiour as the presence of boys seems to lighten the atmosphere in a room. I do have quite a collection of strong charactars inmy girls set but at times there is a bitch fest atmosphere in the room. Some girls love it but they are fewer in number and I have had quite a few girls come to me begging me to return back to mixed groups as they find the atmosphere and in bitching between the girls too much.

Xenia I used to teach at habs and I think they have it right there. The girls certainly did shine at the girls school, perhaps it is the combination of personalities in my group. Also when I was at Habs there was very strong parental support wheras our school has very little parental support and much much lower levels of acheivement. There is so much more to a school than whether it is single or mixed sex.

But as eidsvold said even at Habs I think the girls got the better end of the deal than boys.

The only girls I know who went to our local 'ladies college' were certainly not ladies. They gave it up for nowt they did

Sure the education is fab though.......

Hula, I was curious after your post so went and had a look at their website. The uniform has completely changed! In my day (how OLD does that make me feel?) and judging from old photos since WW2 it was chocolate brown with a hideous brown, yellow and orange tartan kilt. And orange aertex shirts for games. Looks much nicer now. Lucky dd!

Hated my all girls school it was a really bitchy enviroment, would never send DD to one, but others thereloved it.

Yes, definitely changed then edam! The other sounds delightful lol There were some girls from the High School at DD's open day today, helping out.

Yes, definitely changed then edam! The other sounds delightful lol There were some girls from the High School at DD's open day today, helping out.

If the school 'feels' right then it's the one for her.
Dd1 is in yr 10 at a girls comprehensive and dd2 has just started at a mixed one. They each loved the one they had chosen and loathed the other.
Luckily they are both good schools and I was happy to go with their decisions.
Having 3 girls and no boys I did have reservations about dd1's choice but I think it's been good for building her confidence.
There are groups of bitchy girls but I think you probably get that in all schools.