Why Do You Think Girls Do Better At Exams They Go To All-Girls' Schools?

[sp1814]

...but the same is not true of boys who go to all boys' schools?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35419284

I'd be especially interested to hear from anyone who went to a single sex school - do you think it improved your chances of getting good exam results?

[sp1814]

*insert 'when'

[woofgang]

I went to a single gender school but that was in the 60’s At that time most of the grammar schools were single gender

[Islay]

Less distractions for the girls however, boys will always find distractions its the nature of the beast!

[queenofmean]

I went to a single gender school (left 11 years ago) but I can't say it improved my chances of getting good results. I got good results because I had to work harder as my biology teacher noticed I am not Academically minded.

[pixie374]

I did too. I don't have anything to compare it to though, I lost interest anyway really. I agree with the link about them pushing the male-dominated subjects. There were a lot of complaints in the sixth form about lack of choices.

[DTCwordfan]

I went to a girl's school and ended up pregnant......

[naomi24]

I went to a mixed grammar school, but managed pretty well - despite the obvious distractions.

[sherrardk]

I went to all an girls' school which was v strict but that might have been a throw back to when it was a grammar school. 14 - 15 year old boys are easily distracted and a lot more childish than girls of the same age although a badly behaved 14 - 15 year old girl is harder to deal with than a boy. From experience, I seem to recall that there were a greater number of badly behaved boys. Some people think that girls do better on coursework because they are more conscientious.

[mikey4444]

I am in general against segregated schools.

I went to normal, ie co-ed schools from age 5 in 1958, to age 15 in 1968. But from there on I attended a boys-only school, here in Wales.

I am not sure about England, but in the 1960s, it appeared to quite normal to segregate all schools, even from age 5 upwards. That has mostly ended now, and not before time. All kids need to be brought up and educated together, not segregated.

[pixie374]

Ours did get better GCSE and A Level results each year than the equivalent boys' school. That was always the reason given, that girls do better in single-sex schools and boys do better with mixed. But it's hard to tell the real reasons.

[jim360]

The UK (and US) aren't the best places to compare because there's maybe some sense in which all-girls'/all-boys' schools are better off to start with, on average. Apparently South Korea has (or had) a policy which assigned students randomly to either a single-sex or mixed school, and then boys *do* perform better at single-sex schools (as well as girls).

There's also (perhaps) less pressure to stay away from subjects traditionally seen as boys' or girls' things. Girls at single-sex schools tend to take up maths and physics more often, and apparently boys at single-sex schools are more likely to take up music or arts subjects.

I don't think that single-sex schools are better in principle, because there's more to school than academic achievement, but there you are. Statistically, single-sex schools do appear to be better for (particularly girls') education, and I think that implies we need to look at what's going "wrong" for them at mixed schools.

[jim360]

Various studies and summaries of the results here, for example:

http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-singlesexvscoed.htm

[youngmafbog]

I went to a boys school from the age of 8, done ok for myself.
My wife went to a comp - didnt do well
My brother went to same school as me - done very well for himself
his wife went to a mixed, didnt do well
My eldest daughter went to a girls only - she is a doctor
My son went to a mixed - didnt do well
My next daughter went to a mixed, didnt do well (although she is profoundly deaf the problems came with the boys as she is stunning)
My youngest daughter went to girls only - in IT and paying 40% tax this year at aged 24 so seems pretty reasonable.

Draw your own conclusions.

[jim360]

I'm not planning on drawing many conclusions from a sample size of eight, to be honest.

[MickeyMcfinnegan]

We put my boy through a strict catholic upbringing and an all bouys school and at 15 he told his ma he was gay and at 18 he's now in gaol

[MickeyMcfinnegan]

"My next daughter went to a mixed, didnt do well (although she is profoundly deaf the problems came with the boys as she is stunning) "

I'm not here to teach anyone to be a parent but I couldn't describe my baby girls as stunning, beautiful yes but not stunning or maybe I'm just old fashioned.

[andy-hughes]

MM - //I'm not here to teach anyone to be a parent but I couldn't describe my baby girls as stunning, beautiful yes but not stunning or maybe I'm just old fashioned. //

I think it's just an adjective, I don't see any difference between your adjective and YMB's - but that's just a personal view, as is yours.

[jourdain2]

After a lot of agonising, I paid for my daughters to go to a good independent girls' grammar school, which impoverished us and gave me a hard life (they had to pass a tough entrance exam and I did not have them tutored, they got there because they were bright). This gave them the freedom to be good at what they turned out to be good at. As a teacher I knew how boys tended to hog attention in classes in a mixed environment (especially in Science). The elder ended up reading Chemistry at Durham, the younger was more Arts-based. Both were confident enough to 'fight their corners' at 6th form in my old school which had become a Comp..

Yes, single sex improved their chances academically and (as it has turned out) job and life-wise. They are confident and effective. The elder heads a team of - mainly - men. I'd do it again, broke though I am. :)

[atalanta]

However hard teachers try not to pay more attention to boys in a mixed class, they inevitably have to attend to the boys' noisier demands, and the girls do suffer. This has been researched scientifically by testers with videocameras, timing responses to boys against responses to girls. Teachers believe that the presence of girls helps to moderate the worst behaviours of boys, who don't tend to play their stupider male tricks in front of them. But that ends up sacrificing the girls' educational ambitions to the boys' aggressive demands. I have seen this in the local school, which went over from boys only to mixed, and I have researched the subject extensively.
Girls are prepared to compete against girls when the subjects are thought of as male subjects ( science, technology) but not nearly so much against boys.

[naomi24]

Atalanta, //Girls are prepared to compete against girls when the subjects are thought of as male subjects ( science, technology) but not nearly so much against boys. //

I was never competing against anyone. The thought never occurred to me. I just did what I did.