Opening up opportunities to all Guy Sanderson, Headmaster at Eltham College, explains the ethos behind a move to co-educational status If you were to open any school prospectus you will undoubtedly see the same vision outlined: that the school in question aims to prepare children for adult life, both academically and socially. And yet, some people still seem to believe this can be achieved in the highly artificial environment of a single-sex school. The number of single-sex private schools has halved in the last 20 years amid a long-term “shift towards coeducation”, according to research. Girls’ schools make up just 13% of the ISC’s membership, with boys’ schools only representing 9%. Meanwhile, the number of schools with approximately equal proportions of boys and girls has more than doubled over a similar period. One of the mixed blessings of working in education is that it is a topic on which everyone has an opinion. Combine this with discussions about gender identities, #metoo and the gender pay gap and opinions run riot. The question is not whether we want to live in a society which values men and women differently – we are
generally agreed that we do not – but what we need to do to move towards realising that more equitable society. This means challenging assumptions and the status quo. Questions of opportunity, of power and of access need to be asked and answered if we are to make any progress. A widespread emphasis on equality means that it becomes harder and harder “to sustain the argument that children have to be separate to be equal.” The question of whether a single sex or coeducational model works best has been rehashed time and time again and any amount of research, in addition to mention emotional energy and anecdote, can be wheeled out to support the argument on both sides. Articles on this topic are often so keen to make the case for one model over the other that they lose all sense of perspective and nuance. It is surely possible to acknowledge that girls and boys are different and develop differently over adolescence without falling back on unhelpful and monolithic gender stereotypes
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