All girls school

[toby99]

Did anyone go to an all girls school? If so, what did you think? The school I am thinking of for my daughter is mixed until the age of 11 then just girls from then on. What affect, good and bad, if any, has it had on you in later life?

[Lil O'lady]

Back to basics kiddies - the positive school experiences you describe arise from well run and well managed schools. Don't start too readily along the road of ascribing this to them being single sex / single faith / single colour.

Toby - look at the whole school life and how happy the kids are in their classes. Ask if you can drop in and have an informal wander. Does it feel like the kind of place you would put your child? Look at its standing, on the Ofsted website and in league tables - these give another, although contentious, measure of educational quality.

See if you can find some current or recent parents to talk to - were their kids happy and was their potential explored?

Going to a mixed school dos not reduce feminity and nor does attending a single-sex school preserve it.

Lastly, the child is another separate person. We can all do everything possible in terms of school and resources, and they still wind up like Bewlaybros. Even the best choices and most caring parents and experience their child turning out different to the one originally ordered.

[toby99]

Thank you Lil O'lady for your great advice. I will speak to a few parents and do some investigating.

I thought that the school she is in was everything I could ever want, and it probably is to many a parent, but I just can't see her precious childhood 'wasted' on so much homework, exams, daily tests, worry, and pressure to be the best and get 100% in everything, especially at such a young age. Yes, it would probably set her on the way to a better job etc in the future, but when I look back on my childhood I have such happy memories and I think she would just remember hardwork & pressure etc!!!

[saxy_jag]

I've seen both sides of the single sex school. I went to a girls' grammar school in the 1970s - very traditional and old fashioned, like a convent without the nuns. We were expected to behave like young ladies and I hated every minute of it. I was bullied, taunted, ostracised and generally made to understand how worthless I was, by staff and girls alike.

Interacting with boys was nigh on impossible. I didn't have brothers and was too scared to go to youth club (a. I'd be laughed at, and b. I was told by the adults in my life that youth clubs were veritable hotbeds of teenage debauchery), so by the time I was 16, boys were foreign territory to me.

Gradually, thanks to the bloke I married and also to having a couple of sons, I learned to be comfortable around men and boys, and actually have better male friends than female these days - maybe because I don't feel I have to compete with them.

I vowed at 16 that no child of mine would ever attend a single-sex school, yet ended up sending both of my lads to an all boys school, simply because it was a good school that cared for them and nurtured their talents. They did, however, join out-of-school clubs and activities where socialising with girls was a regular thing, and I like to think they have both developed healthy attitudes towards women.

Lil Ol' Lady has it about right - the right school is more important than whether it's single or mixed sex. I guess my school was the wrong one for me - it was very traditional and I'd been to a somewhat progressive primary. I was never going to fit in there. I would just advise any parent thinking of a single sex education for their child to make sure they get lots of boy/girl social interaction outside of school.

[meltoadhall]

my daughter attends a single sex grammar school, her next sister starts in September age 11 and hopefully the last daughter will go in 2 years time.

my daughter loves it, they work and play hard, footie, rugby as wel as netball and dance, there doesnt seem to be the boy troubles that I remember from my days at mixed school.
my mum attended a girls school and also recommends it - I have no worries about being isolated as the boys grammar is nearby.

[cupboardie]

i went to a mixed junior school and an all girls secondary. I don't have any experience of a mixed secondary so I cant compare but it's probably better for her education to go to a single sex school.