The Fifty-fourth Republic - Easter holidays anyone?

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

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Sometimes it all feels so bleak. One of the reasons why DD (9) hadn’t got a phone despite her friends having one and her ‘missing’ out on the whatsapp chat. I do not want my children to develop a warped impression of what a body should look like.

What are your feelings about single sex secondary schools? We have the option where we live, and partner has gone from no way, or maybe over the last month or so.

I teach in an all girl’s school. Absolutely love it and will be the first choice my own DD.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

What are your feelings about single sex secondary schools? We have the option where we live, and partner has gone from no way, or maybe over the last month or so.

I think I agree with a previous poster (maybe piggie?)

The problem with all girl schools is they create all boy schools.

The girls do really well from a single sex environment, the boys less so. I would love to send my daughter to an all girls school. I’m pretty sure my son would hate an all boys school.

I loved my girls secondary school when I was growing up. It saved me from all the sexist stuff I see now, although it was a long time ago so it may have been different then. Plus the head was a fabulously eccentric ex-nun (the scandal was that she'd left the convent just before her final vows because she met a man!!).

I don't think my brother enjoyed his boys school though. He's not a typical laddish type, and I suspect he's possibly got undiagnosed autism, so he was bullied quite badly. He had, however, also been bullied at the mixed sex first and middle schools, and it wasn't just the boys who bullied him. I do worry about the culture in some boys schools where the boys see girls as something "other" as well as not respecting them. Although, the boys from by brother's school were always lovely to me (I only really meet the ones on our bus though, who also went to our church so their parents knew my parents)

I went to a girls' school. Sixth form went mixed when I was in the upper sixth. There was just one boy, and he thought he would be God's gift to us all. He was deluded, poor lad.
I learned everything I know about dealing with bitchy girls from that school.

Yes, it was me that said that about boys' schools.

It's a very not Scottish notion all this. There are some single sex private schools in Scotland (most have merged now) and not a single single sex state school that I can think of.

As a teen, I dated a boy who went to an all boys academically-selective school (but not private). He was lovely but some of his friends were awful: the message that they were the best and only by being at that school would they have any real future was pushed heavily. I can imagine that many of the boys there end up with these horrific attitudes towards women.

mother, neither of mine had phones until they were 13. No devices in bedrooms at night in my household, adults included. Proper old school!

I went to a girls' private school. Lots and lots of parties with one of the boys' school that has been mentioned lots recently. I went out with one of the boys who was a nice lad (now a consultant in the NHS) but as I was at a 'lesser' school (in their eyes) compared to the girls' school next door to them my friends and I were treated pretty shabbily by them in all of the parties. I do have some pretty bad recollections of things relating to that and also another boys' private school I had the misfortune of going on a language exchange with.

Interesting. I had a bad time at secondary due to bullying girls. Partner had an awful time at school in general due to dyslexia and being a smart alec

The secondary option s for us are 2 different mixed schools, one huge, one quite small, and a girls only. The girls only would involve a train journey, but it's straightforward. Others are bus or bike (or walk, but it's 3 miles).

I think I'd have loved an all girls school. I imagine the bullying bit he's not to have the boys to play up to.

@Piggywaspushed Tbh, DD has never requested a phone. She’s always knows she can have one at 11 when she goes to secondary and then it’ll be out in a box when she gets home. (Although DH likes to joke she won’t get one til she’s 18!) Sometimes she comes home and says ‘so and so said we were talking about this on WhatsApp’. I don’t think she feels too left out though. Her BFF is a boy, a boy who doesn’t fit the boisterous role and as DD doesn’t fit the feminine role either I think the misfits found each other 😆

*put in a box

😁 just watched Cambridge Women’s crew win on Cambridgeshire waters 🍾 💪🏾 👩

I went to an all girls' private school. I thought it was fantastic. I never felt uncomfortable speaking up in class like I had in a mixed school before that.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Easter.

I went to a girl's school. Didn't really enjoy it, but I can't fault the education I had. I didn't grow up with brothers or any men apart from my lovely dad though, so I did go through a bit of a crazy stage regarding boys in my mid-late teens. Embarrassed to think about it! Did a very male-oriented degree and job though, so eventually learned how to interact with men. Thought hard about sending dd to all-girl's secondary (my preference actually), but let her make the final choice.

I'm sorry you weren't properly supported, Herc. Hate to think this is the culture our children are growing up in.

Gosh, loads of you went to all girls schools!

Sorry to hear that herc

I went to a mixed comp - we had three tier system here and most of my friends at middle school were boys so we all went there! It’s weird because DD is going to an all girls school in sept.

Depends on the culture of the boys school, Rule. Our nearest one is fantastic (mentioned it upthread, very traditional, big on sport, doing well / your best academically and respect).
Others, further away, don’t have a good reputation. Some fee paying, some state.
I didn’t like the dynamics of interaction between boys and girls at mixed schools near us. There are a couple of exceptions but not accessible to us for faith or distance reasons. I did visit a couple but they seemed more ‘holding pen’ than ‘aspirational’ and behaviour to and from school appalling. My car had stones thrown at it while I was parked up in it, for instance. School sympathetic when I contacted them but nothing seemed to change from what I could see. And I do realise how difficult it is for secondary staff to affect behaviour out of school, so I’m not teacher bashing in any way! Bottom line is they wouldn’t get any meaningful sanction for throwing stones at cars at that school. At DS’s school they would.

I went to a bear pit of a comp btw. I looked longingly at the local private school. Mine was just shit and the sexual bullying was endemic. All kinds of bullying were rife. I hated every second unless I was safe in the top set subject lessons. I would have done anything to make sure DS didn’t have to go somewhere like that, either to be bullied or to learn how to bully as protective coloration.

I went to an all girls school-I liked it. Quite bitchy, though!!

And the Men’s .....

@JanFebAnyMonth

😁 just watched Cambridge Women’s crew win on Cambridgeshire waters 🍾 💪🏾 👩

👍.

Another one here for an all-girls (grammar) school.
Didn't stop me mixing with boys outside the gates, but it did mean that girls got a proper look-in at STEM subjects.