Consider Single Sex
During your search for a suitable school for your son or daughter, do consider the region’s single sex schools, the majority of which are for girls.
As Dr Helen Wright, president of the Girls’ Schools Association points out, there’s good reason for doing so. She says:
“ Academically, single sex schools top the league tables despite the fact that co-ed schools are in the majority in the UK. This does not mean that children in co-ed schools cannot match the examination performance of those in single sex schools – of course they can, and do. But what it does mean is that single sex schools punch well above their weight when it comes to public examination results, and this pedigree matters to parents – and young people.”
In fact, evidence indicates that boys and girls often benefit from being taught separately. A greater percentage of pupils from Girls’ Schools Association schools continue to higher education than is the case in other independent schools.1 Research conducted amongst teachers of English in comprehensive schools2, for example, found that most teachers acknowledged greater levels of participation in lessons, and increased confidence amongst both sexes, when they were taught separately. This is no surprise – the pressures, fears and anxieties about how to appear in front of members of the opposite sex simply do not exist in a single sex school.
Ofsted has also revealed that girls at single-sex schools are more likely to avoid preparing for “stereotypically female” careers than their contemporaries in co-educational schools. In a report published earlier this year, they find that girls in single-sex schools, especially those in selective schools, had “more positive attitudes to non-stereotypical careers”. In these schools, girls did not view any career as being closed to them and felt that women should be encouraged into roles traditionally held by men.
Dr Wright continues:
“To my mind, the real argument in favour of single sex education covers the ‘intangibles’ about growing up and becoming a confident young adult. This includes all the things it is difficult to measure and quantify, but which, at the end of the day, form the essence of who we are as individuals. Unsurprisingly, parents care most about these elements of their children’s education because it is these aspects which contribute most significantly to their children’s happiness and confidence, as well as to their ability to make their way in the world with a strong, secure sense of self.”
Research from The Institute of Education3 looked at self-esteem in both boys and girls in different gender environments and concluded that the single sex environment that enables children to grow up at their own pace and to learn about themselves as much as about their school work. Single-sex schools create a strong space where girls and boys can learn to feel comfortable with who they are, free of the pressure to conform to stereotypical notions of how girls and boys should or should not be, look or act. Being apart from each other during the school day seems to give both boys and girls greater self esteem – which is, of course, at the root of successful long-term relationships with others, of both genders.
Single-sex schools provide an extra element of choice for parents and their children. Dr Wright concludes:
“The best we can do for our children is to give them and their parents confidence and choice in their education, and single-sex schools provide exactly this. A healthy, vibrant society which values choice in education will always promote the existence of single-sex schools.”
1 Independent Schools Council 2010 Census
2 Raising Boys’ Achievement, Dept for Education & Skills, 2002
3 Research by Dr Sanchita Chowdhury, Institute of Education, University of London, 2011 (British Psychological Society, Division of Educational and Child Psychology Conference, January 2011)