In addition, basing my findings on facts, I can see that girls that have attended single sex schools do actually have higher GCSE grades. I interviewed three female GCSE students from either school, and as a whole, the girls from the single sex school had higher predicted GCSE grades as well as the actual real GCSE’s. One of my interviewee’s stated that, if she had the chance to go back and attend a different school, she would have liked to attend a single sex school like Plashet, Sarah Bonnel, or St. Angela’s. Because there would be less disruption, more concentration and most single sex schools do actually come out with better grades. This also supports my hypothesis.
This is a review of two different students from two different sex schools.
Sebba Iqbal & Ayesha Mirza
Sebba attending Plashet School & Aysha attending Little Ilford School.
Previously looking at their KS2 results, they were quite similar, two 4’s and a five. The students I picked from the three are around or above average. However, in KS3 you can see who jumped further and higher in ability. Ayesha improved by 1 grade in English and Maths. Yet, Sebba improved by 2 grades in each of those subjects. One of the reasons why Sebba improved more may have been because of the school she was attending. Education in both schools was taught the same way same subjects yet, one seems to do better than the other.
Clearly you can see there is a contrast between these two girls. Their Predicted and Actual Grades were very different, not so much of an immense difference, like ones getting straight A’s and the other’s failing and getting D’s E’s and F’s. Here is a clearer way of showing what I mean.
Sebba: - A* (2) Ayesha: - A* (0)
A (3) A (2)
B (3) B (2)
C (2) C (3)
D (0) D (1)
E (0) E (1)
F (0) F (0)
It shows that Sebba’s Grades are higher than Ayesha’s is. Sebba has 10 A*-C Passes whereas Ayesha has a total of 7 A*-C passes. Ayesha is more of an average student whereas Sebba is above average in her work. Ayesha had two average grades in her SAT’s and one above, whereas Sebba had two above average and another higher than the above of an average score.
Furthermore, by observing what College’s they are applying for gives a bit of insight of how they think about their studies and future career. If you look at a league table you will be able to see that Sebba’s choice of Colleges are much higher in Rank than the one’s Ayesha chose.
In addition this proves that my hypothesis is correct, single sex schools are achieving higher grades than mixed school. The reason why is not definite, there are various solutions to why this maybe. For eg: Home Life, Teachers, Boys, Ability of work etc.
The points I got from students also came across when I interviewed a teacher that had taught at a single sex as well as a mixed school. She mentioned the standard of work was poor at a mixed school. Academic achievements were higher at single sex schools. Also that students at a single sex school had a better attitude towards learning, and the behaviour was great and were more manageable to control than students at a mixed school.
Teachers do stereotyping a lot without noticing it. Gender segregation and their expectations affect the level of achievement of students, girls, and boys. Girls attending a mixed school may not do their full potential in the ‘boyish subjects’ such as maths, science, woodwork, and PE and it works the same the other way round. Boys may feel undermined in the ‘girlish subjects’ such as art, sewing, cooking. So girls won’t do as well as they could also they won’t be pushed that little bit further. However, a single sex school would benefit a female student in her achievement level, single sex schools are particularly thought to help improve girls’ performance in traditionally ‘male’ subjects such as the ones noted previously.
If a teacher expects a student to do well, they believe they can do it, that they are capable of reaching that target therefore they achieve well. However, this is unfortunate for the less able and late developers, these sort of students are put to a side, and not paid as much attention to in lesson. This relates to my hypothesis because girls at a mixed school may fall into that group in certain subjects, even though they are just as good probably even better than the boys are. Hence, why girls seem to be achieving better at a single sex school because, they don’t get this labelling.
When girls attend a mixed school, they sometimes do not want to show the boys that they are better at the work, because they think guys don’t find it so attractive so they prefer not to out do the boys. This interferes with their learning and motivates them to not do well in their exams, and so they do not reach their full potential. Girls do have more potential than boys do at this stage to do well, and to achieve good grades, but due to the school they attended this is all bought down, in result of not achieving the grades they can.
In a single sex school girls would socialise differently in and outside of lessons, concentration would specify on work, whereas a girls concentration would be distracted when attending a mixed school, the would worry more about their image, or flirting within lessons. Education is the primary key to socialisation, girls and boys play different roles, a girl’s attitude, and behaviour would differ when attending a mixed school, to how she would act or behave in a single sex school. Girls attending a single sex school would have a different influence from their peers, than attending a mixed school.
Girls play different roles within a culture and a sub-culture. They may have a low status in a mixed school, yet higher amongst their peer groups in a mixed school. Girls status are higher in a single sex school because their potential is pushed to extent, and they can excel in the supposedly “boyish subjects” such as woodwork, science, football, there is less competition from their peers.
Another teacher had mentioned that in a “mixed school flirting and dating was disruptive within lessons, students attending a single sex school would concentrate more on their education rather than trying to impress or get the attention of the opposite sex.” “When these sort of things go on, you cannot gain the students full attention, they loose concentration easily, therefore staff cannot give the student the full education that they should receive, is students don’t co-operate well within lessons than teachers feel why should they bother so much?” This is also another factor to why girls do better at a single sex rather then a mixed school; there are no boys! All in all the primary research, I found supported my hypothesis.