SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION - FOR GIRL'S ONLY!

Maureen Bosch, Head of Communications at the Girls’ Day School Trust, puts forward some compelling evidence for what a difference a girls’ school makes

For parents faced with a bewildering choice of independent schools, there seem to be a multitude of options, and probably the most important consideration is whether the school is for girls or boys only, or coeducational. Each of these has their proponents and their detractors, and writing on behalf of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), you can readily imagine which side of the fence I’m on! Nevertheless, the evidence in favour of girls’ schools is hard to ignore, and falls into roughly four categories: choices, achievement, confidence and success.

Firstly, it’s clear that girls at single sex schools choose from a broader range of subjects, with far less gender bias - and this leads to a wider choice of careers. A 2002 National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) study indicated that in girls’ schools pupils were less likely to follow stereotypical subject choices, tending to opt for science at GCSE instead of traditionally female options such as food technology and languages. It also noted that girls in single sex schools stood a much better chance of being entered for higher-tier papers in maths and science (up to 40% better chance in the case of science).

A more recent study by the Institute of Education (IOE) using data from two large cohorts of children, born in 1958 and 1970, showed that those who went to single sex schools were more likely to study subjects not traditionally associated with their gender and to have more confidence in their ability to do well in these subjects. It also found that at university women who went to girls’ schools were more likely than co-educated women to gain qualifications in subjects typically dominated by men, and that both men and women from single-sex schools had a less sex-segregated experience of the labour market.

We know from our own experience that maths, biology and chemistry are in the top five most popular A level subjects for GDST girls, whilst the proportion of girls at GDST schools who take physics is two and a half times the national average. At A level, 40% of GDST girls who sit a science subject get an A in that subject. This also means that the take up of medicine and dentistry at university by GDST girls is particularly strong; and the percentage of GDST girls taking physical sciences remains well above the national figure.

The second key point to remember is that girls at girls’ schools achieve better results. A study by the Department for Education and Skills (as was) shows the proportion of A grades achieved at A level in all-girl independent schools was, on average, ten per cent higher than that of girls in coeducational independent schools in a number of subjects. The NFER study mentioned above shows that girls in single sex schools achieved much better results than their peers in coeducational schools, after controlling for prior achievement and other background factors. At GCSE, science scores for single sex pupils were over a third better than their coeducational peers.

Why is this? A growing movement in the United States and the UK argues that boys’ and girls’ brains develop differently and at different rates, so they benefit from separate teaching styles, which are easier to deliver in a single sex classroom. In terms of confidence, you only have to visit a girls’ school to see the genuine self-assurance of pupils of all ages, and this is also supported by academic research.

The Institute of Education found that girls’ confidence was improved at a single sex school, while a large scale American study showed that single sex schools improve adolescents’ overall academic development, by enabling them to separate social and peer group pressures from academic concerns and providing a range of female role models.

Another study found that, in schools which had recently changed from single-sex to coeducational, teachers reported that on the whole pupils enjoyed the coeducational environment more, but that the girls seemed less concerned to do well and to assert themselves, while in an Australian research project girls in coeducational schools were much more likely to rank themselves in the bottom half of the class whereas girls in single sex schools were as likely as boys to rate themselves highly.

When we surveyed members of our Minerva Network (the organisation for former students of GDST schools, which has over 45,000 members), respondents cited “more confidence” and “being grounded in a broad range of subjects” as the main benefits they had received from being educated in a single sex environment.

Finally of course, is the evidence that girls educated at girls’ schools go on to greater success in whichever walk of life they choose. The IOE cohort study found that girls who went to mixed grammar schools were earning an average of £10.18 an hour in their early forties, compared with £11.18 for those who went to girls-only grammars.

Our survey of Minerva members also shows that high rates of success in life (as defined by respondents) are achieved by those who had a single sex education. 74% of respondents said that they had reached or surpassed the ambitions they had when they left school, while 78% of those answering the question “How successful do you consider yourself to be?” consider themselves to be successful, quite successful or very successful; 23% of respondents consider themselves very successful.

Every parent wants to do the best for their child, and a school that’s best for one boy or girl may not be the right choice for another. In an increasingly diverse educational world, girls’ schools continue to offer a real alternative that has been adapted time and again to suit the needs of new generations of young women. Young women who use all their talents to the full, who achieve their best, who are confident without being arrogant and are successful in their chosen paths - isn’t that what every parent wants for their daughter?