October 2023 – single sex vs co-ed schools

Thursday October 26th, 2023

It’s officially autumn in the UK! Season of misty mornings, darker evenings and harvest festivals as we reach the midway point of the autumn term. In this issue, we’ll be looking again at the topic of single sex versus co-ed schools – with Westminster School having recently confirmed its plans to be fully co-educational by 2030.

Singles-sex vs co-ed schools

It’s two years since Charterhouse in Surrey welcomed its first intake of girls into Year 9, having taught girls in its sixth form since 1971. The latest formerly boys-only school to announce its co-ed plans is Westminster. With a co-ed sixth form dating from the 70s too, the school recently confirmed its plans to be fully co-educational by 2030.

A spokesperson for the school said,

“The diversity of our school community today reflects twenty-first century London, indeed the world — with the single exception that we currently only educate boys to the age of 16. This is the key driver for change.”

Some argue that joining a co-ed sixth form after a pre-16 education in a single-sex setting makes for a challenging change at a difficult age. Their reasoning is it’s hard for students to adjust at 16, and better for them to get used to studying alongside members of the opposite sex in their younger teens or even earlier.

As always with education though, the key is about having choices. Being able to make an informed decision about the best school for each unique child. As parents, we want to identify the ideal school that suits our children’s learning styles and aspirations. Unfortunately, the move towards what seems on the surface a more equitable approach is reducing choice for pupils and their parents where schools are concerned.

Over the last few decades, several boys-only independent schools have become co-ed, albeit embracing the change at varying rates. For example, Marlborough College went fully co-ed in 1989; the Shrewsbury School accepted girls from 2015, and Winchester College welcomed girls into its sixth form for the first time last year.

As with most contentious issues, research is inconclusive and opinions divided. One 20-year-old study (conducted in 2003) found that boys did better academically in an all-boys classroom. But another analysis of exam data and the impact of single-sex schooling on results suggested there was very little difference between single-sex and co-ed environments.

The point is it depends on the child. For some, being a teenager is challenge enough without the complications of the opposite sex in the same classroom. For others, maybe studying alongside the opposite sex has a calming or healthily competitive effect. One commentator makes the very valid point that “in the end, parents will know best – but that is pointless without the choice”.

And that’s where the problem lies. Around 3% of the circa 24,000 schools in England provide a single-sex education. But most of these 800 or so single-sex schools are for girls. At the turn of the decade there will be just four boys’ boarding schools in the UK: Eton, Harrow, Radley and Tonbridge. Only 157 or so state schools teach boys only, and the majority are selective state grammar schools. With an increasing number of independent boys-only schools going co-ed, the choices for boys are getting fewer. And that’s not what equality or diversity is about. Equality and diversity in education comes back to choice. I’d like parents and their children to have more options, not fewer.

To explore the range of options available for your child’s UK education, drop us a line and we’d be delighted to talk.

Until next time…