Due to work commitments I’m relocating with my family to Dublin soon. With four school-going children who have been happily educated to date in mixed schools, I am shocked at the concentration of all-boys or all-girls schools in the capital. Why on earth is this? And is there any hope for wider choice in the short-term?
I taught my entire life in an all-boys school. In the 1970s most schools conformed to this model, but to facilitate a broader curriculum when new schools were planned outside our major population centres, amalgamating existing single sex schools was the obvious decision.
It is almost inconceivable that anyone would propose the establishment of a new single sex school today. Due to population density, the existing cohort of single sex schools in Dublin have persevered – and look set to do so for many years to come.
It is unfortunate, as I believe it is unnatural for children to be educated without interacting with half the population.
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You don’t have to have read Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus to accept that males and females see the world differently. So, to spend your formative years isolated from daily interactions with peers of the opposite sex is not normal.
Having said that, the single sex school of my early teaching career has changed. There is a greater mix of gender among staff and there are far more inter-school activities in which children of both sexes are regular visitors to each other’s schools.
The transition year musical is usually a joint effort between two neighbouring single sex schools which brings both year groups into daily contact with each other. At senior cycle, many minority subjects are offered jointly between two single sex schools.
A question many parents may ask is how the education of teenagers apart affects their exam performance? Experts say most recent research shows very little consensus on whether single-sex education leads to better outcomes for girls or boys.
Single-sex schools, on average, are more middle-class in intake and tend to draw students of higher initial ability. When school performance is adjusted for social class and prior ability, recent ESRI research shows no significant difference in the academic outcomes of students from single-sex and co-ed schools in Ireland.
As to your choices, getting places for children in Dublin schools in the present circumstances is no easy task. Seeking to place them all in mixed schools may not be an option. If I was to look at one factor in assessing the suitability of a school for any child, it would be that of culture. How accepting does the school seem for children of different temperaments and aptitudes?
Do you have a query? Email askbrian@irishtimes.com
