Girls On Top
The social and educational equalities fought for throughout the 20th Century have afforded young women this opportunity to achieve. The GSA (Girls’ School Association) affirms that “Women are expected to balance many roles during their lives, and their paths to future success will require leadership, confidence, independence and integrity and an instinct to achieve”, fostering these competences are what girls schools see as their strength.
They believe that girls will always thrive academically in single sex classes and that their socialization with boys can just as ‘naturally’ occur outside the classroom and later in life.
This theory appears to be panning out with private single sex girls' schools bucking the national trends by educating significantly more female mathematicians, engineers, scientists and linguists than schools catering for both sexes. It is believed that girls in single sex schools are less likely to be steered away by parents or teachers from what are still perceived to be boys' subjects.
Reforming Character
It is easy to see how advocates of same sex schools prove their point. At the chalk-face, as research indicates, all-boy sets can be difficult to manage. Teachers often feel that behavior is better in single-sex groups.
There is a recognition that boys' and girls' learning styles differ and that pupil interaction alters in single sex classes. It is strongly believed that girls are more compliant. It therefore follows that single sex classes could be considered of greater benefit to girls as disruptive behaviours evident in mixed classes are further exacerbated when boys are left among like-minds.
However, research throws up conflicting evidence. In recent government surveys schools in Great Yarmouth and Solihull both felt that low achieving boys gained most from single sex education, middle achieving boys gained little and that girls' results remained unaffected.
This contrasted with results from a school in Peterborough where teachers believed girls’ results had improved whilst boys’ results had remained the same as a result of introducing single sex teaching in maths.