FAQs: School Advice
Single sex or co-ed? What difference does it make?
There’s a joke currently doing the rounds amongst independent-school heads: ‘Parents want a single-sex education for their daughters, but a co-ed school for their sons.’ Clearly, not every customer is going to be satisfied, but the parents of sons will undoubtedly be happier. Boys and girls look increasingly likely to share a classroom at some point in their education.
In the past ten years, 130 single-sex independent school have either gone co-ed or closed their gates. And, on the whole, it’s the girls schools who have lost out. Former boys school have increased their numbers and improved their exam results by the addition of the fairer sex.
Girls schools certainly feel under threat. Some have joined forces to fight their cause. Last year St Mary’s Wantage and Heathfield Ascot united as Heathfield St Mary’s, while, in Worcestershire, Malvern Girl’s College linked up with fellow girls school St James’s to create Malvern St James. Others have not been so successful. Bedgebury in Kent, which had been educating girls for 100 years, failed to merge with nearby Bethany and its senior-school pupils had to look elsewhere.
Many parents today prefer co-education. They like it for its convenience - one school to fetch and carry from, one set of terms dates - as well as for its psychological and practical implications. Parents of sons feel that girls ’soften the edges’, while parents of daughters admire the lavish facilities and generous endowments of the former boys-only public schools.
The Girls’ Schools Association, naturally enough, are not overjoyed with this new status quo and have put forward a vigorous case for an all-girls education.
Their most telling argument, of course, is their exceptional exam results. In this year’s A-Levels, as in the recent past, girls-only schools have dominated the top of the league tables, with GSA candidates attaining 54 per cent A grades as opposed to 38 per cent in other independent schools.
But, exam results are not everything and the head teachers of all-girls schools believe that a single-sex education has far more to offer, in the classroom and beyond.
‘At an all-girls school every subject is a ‘girl’s’ subject,’ says Vicky Tuck, head of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, which pioneered women’s education in the19th century. ‘This year we had 31 girls taking economics A Level and 28 were awarded an A. We also had 51 girls doing Maths, 29 chemistry and 28 physics. No matter how far the world has come, you have a much more uncluttered approach in an all-girls school.’
Headmistresses of girls schools are, of course, themselves leaders in their field and the role model they present is there to inspire their charges. ‘In an all-girls school the women are leaders and managers,’ says Brenda Despontin, former President of the GSA. ‘It gives girls the message that they too can go out and lead.’
But, for many parents, it’s not just future prospects but the protected environment and the relative freedom from the burdens of contemporary adolescence that are an all-girls school’s greatest appeal.
‘I loved going to a single-sex school,’ says Sophie Malcolmson, who is still undecided whether to send her 10 year-old-daughter to the co-ed public school attended by her brother or to opt for all girls. ‘I wasn’t a particularly attractive teenager. I was overweight and insecure and being in a single sex-school gave me the freedom not to worry about boys and focus on my work.’
Head teachers too see this as one of their key attractions. ‘Particularly in a boarding schools, girls can be children for longer, ’ says Vicky Tuck. ‘You see them arm in arm, chasing each other around. They’re relatively carefree. It’s not that they’re not being prepared for the real world, it’s just that you can stagger things a bit more.’
But the girls’ schools’ heads argue that it’s inside the classroom that single-sex matters most, particularly between the ages of 11 and 16. ‘Girls mature earlier than boys, physically, mentally and emotionally, facts that pose a major challenge to teachers,’ says Brenda Despontin. ‘How can you guarantee that teaching and learning will be pitched appropriately in a co-ed classroom? The answer is you can’t.’
A number of school have confronted this dilemma by offering only partial co-education. Leeds Grammar School and Leeds Girls High School now operate as The Grammar School at Leeds. Classes here are fully mixed in the junior years and in the 6th form, but between 11 and 16 predominantly single sex.
This approach, known as the ‘diamond model’, has variants round the country, appearing in various formats at Berkhampsted Collegiate School in Hertfordshire, Brentwood School in Essex and Forest School in north-east London.
‘We have two parallel senior schools,’ says Andrew Boggis, Headmaster of Forest and chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference. ‘We have a mixed 6th form for teaching, but everything else is taught separately. All house competitions, for example, are single sex, as are art and music. This has benefits for both sexes. Boys singing here is wonderful, whereas, in a fully co-ed school, boys often feel singing isn’t cool once they’ve hit the age of 13.’
One indirect benefit of the increasing move to co-education is that parents of daughters can delay the decision about boarding.. ‘Many more girls-only boarding schools now have a large intake at 13,’ say Katharine Colquhoun, headmistress of Broomwood Hall, a girls’ prep school in south London. ‘It gives parents the freedom to keep their daughters at home to deal with issues about growing up. Then, at 12, it’s easier to see the adult in the child and choose the right school.’
Making that choice has never been more difficult. But, whether you’re contemplating girls’ only, boys’ only, the ‘diamond model’ or fully co-ed, the fundamental questions remain the same: ‘How good is the school?’ and ‘How well will it suit my child?’