Is there an argument for some subjects to be taught in single sex classes?

[MillicentF]

Girls only maths, for example? Our school has a literacy scheme that is targetted at boys only which has been very successful. Good idea or too divisive?

If boys are aware that the girls are moderating their behaviour surely it tells them that they're expected to behave worse? I feel like this is yet another example of children being let down by low expectations.

Definitely in biology.

waddle

Yes i agrre funny though...

Ds1 had masses of teen books, dystopian fiction but loads of them had a female protagonist....well over 50%

Ds2 went through them the other day to see if there were any he wanted...he took a pile away

When i looked at th ones he had left they all had a female protagonist

Except for one series in which the sex of the main protagonist is kept a secret til the end of the first book

Two boys, same upbringing and education but one completely dismissing females in what i believe was an unconscious bias

Oh and completely agrre with maisys post at 17.46

I was recommending mumsnet staffroom to a young trainee teacher the other day

He told me that they have been advised to steer clear of mumsnet in case they ever 'see themselves ' on here

If boys are aware that the girls are moderating their behaviour surely it tells them that they're expected to behave worse? I feel like this is yet another example of children being let down by low expectations

Tbh I personally don't think it works. It's a small classroom not a country. They just yell across or throw shit instead. Least sat together they can just annoy eachother and destroy eachothers work...

Personally I hope dds school next yr does this. Im done trying to make up crap about learning to deal with distractions or being grateful she knows how to behave herself to try and explain why a method that's down fuck all good for the past six years will suddenly just work now

She's had nothing but grief off boys the past few weeks and the sooner she gets some space away from them even if it's just pe, the better.

Flame away..

You won't be surprised that I do not agree with this. If children need extra help with literacy or mathematics then that should be available. I don't support separate , additional literacy classes for boys- how are girls who are struggling catered for?

The only class I would support this for is PE and possibly to a very limited extent in relation to sex and relationship education.

There is no reason for boys not to learn all about periods and girls to learn about nocturnal emissions and unwanted erections. These are natural body functions and reactions and both sexes should know these are just things which happen to everyone of the relevant sex. There may be a justification for separate classes on dealing with the practicalities of these. So far as issues such as consent, respect I think these should be taught as mixed but with a separate session by way of discussion with teachers.

So far as biology unless the curriculum has changed hugely since I sat Higher Biology very little of the syllabus concerned human reproduction and even then I can't see any need to separate that out.

What pissed me off was teachers in primary school talking about my DS2 who really couldn't get into reading books "oh well it's a boy thing". EVERY time, I'd say, well, DS1 goes through series and series of novels at a rate of knots and had a reading age of 13+ when he was 9. Explain that?! And my friends of girls, who used to be repeatedly asked if they understood the maths ok because "we started a new topic and it's quite tricky". These are decent teachers on the whole, with good spelling (!) and exciting creative methods of teaching the curriculum. It just seems to be so embedded that girls find STEM hard and boys hate English. They are getting labelled so young that it's not surprising that some boys are bored by that Y3/4 testosterone surge time and then some girls are being turned off anything remotely "boyish" by the time they pick their options. (I know these are generalisations and not all children etc etc)

I suspect if there was more of a 50/50 split in M/F primary teachers that this would be less of an issue? I have found that my sons' male teachers have been much less unconsciously biased towards the different learning styles of girls and boys. I find it all totally fascinating from a psychological theoretical viewpoint and would be interested in more of your experiences. Good thread OP

Plan a challenging curriculum for all & staff need to teach like it's for everyone. What's in someone's pants doesn't make you better at one subject over another.

Studies consistently show that girls learn better in a single sex environment and boys learn better in a mixed sex environment.
Most of the time the schools prioritize the benefits for boys.

The scheme was introduced in our school because boys were starting year 7 significantly weaker in literacy than girls. The idea was to redress the balance.

Single sex biology? Why?