Transforming schools one pupil at a time

[Falcon]

Catherine Myers’s formula for educating teenagers successfully:


1. Educate girls and boys separately. It’s not just girls that do better in single-sex schools. “That’s an assumption that is generally made, but if boys have teaching geared towards them, they will achieve.”

2. Let them do it their own way, as long as they do it. Encourage pupils to analyse and develop their own style of learning (eg, last-minute, in groups). “Children should learn what they like and like what they learn,” says Myers.

3. Don’t see vocational subjects as second best — they are not. Think beyond the British school tradition, to the more vocational Scandinavian model. “As a mother I know that if you spend half your life making them do what they don’t want to do, you only make your life difficult. Everyone should leave school qualified for something.”

4. Set targets. Try not to compare your child to others — but set individual targets that will stretch his or her particular abilities. Respond quickly and collaboratively if the targets are not being met.

5. Get respect by giving it. “You have to like children and believe that they can achieve”.


From the Times: here (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article7027999.ece)

I have always been a supporter of single sex schools.

[SilverEagle]

1. Educate girls and boys separately. It’s not just girls that do better in single-sex schools. “That’s an assumption that is generally made, but if boys have teaching geared towards them, they will achieve.”

Interesting, But academics isn't all there is to it. Generally I've found that those who went to Co-Ed schools have developed better social skills than those that attended single sex schools.



2. Let them do it their own way, as long as they do it. Encourage pupils to analyse and develop their own style of learning (eg, last-minute, in groups). “Children should learn what they like and like what they learn,” says Myers.

Yeah.



3. Don’t see vocational subjects as second best — they are not. Think beyond the British school tradition, to the more vocational Scandinavian model. “As a mother I know that if you spend half your life making them do what they don’t want to do, you only make your life difficult. Everyone should leave school qualified for something.”

Yes, it makes for a well rounded individual, by developing motor skills and fostering creativity.



4. Set targets. Try not to compare your child to others — but set individual targets that will stretch his or her particular abilities. Respond quickly and collaboratively if the targets are not being met.

My opinion is that setting any sort of "target" inherently carries with it some element of competition. I'd eliminate the use of that terminology completely.



5. Get respect by giving it. “You have to like children and believe that they can achieve”.

No argument here.

[kayt]

It is possible to have single sex classes in a co-ed school. This however requires more management, decent funding, enough space and the will to make this happen.

[snowbird]

I too have always been a supporter of single sex schools.

Trust me, as a mother of two boys and two girls, I can tell you that I learned very early that boys are most definitely 'wired' different to girls.
You add different learning styles to that mix (not necessarily because of gender), in a system that uses the 'one size fits all'....you have a recipe for disaster.

In that type of system, you have some children who may never really realize their full potential.

[aprillove20]

The only safe conclusion though to draw, based on the evidence currently available, is that they are excellent for reasons other than that they separate, or bring together, the sexes for their education.