Senior schools: single-sex or co-education?

Art in all its forms engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to experiment, invent and create. Art should be enjoyed as a visually and intellectually stimulating activity that encourages the observation and appreciation of human life through its range of historical and cultural references. ‘When children are cut off from the arts, education is...

First, excellent pastoral care is provided by experienced boarding house staff and medical teams specifically trained in working with children and young people. The routine and structure of a well-run boarding house gives a genuine sense of security and allows pupils to feel safe and protected. This does not mean that life is strictly regimented like a military camp, but...

On exactly the same grounds, however, I am also irritated when people presume that somehow single-sex might be invalid as a form of education in the ‘modern world’ or that boarding is outdated. And heaven forbid that one might think single-sex and boarding might be the right option. Surely not? Won’t the boys – in my school’s case – turn...

Interestingly, while hardly anyone has anything like the full set of mostly male features or the full set of mostly female features, by no means everyone with a significant collection of ‘female end’ features is female, and vice versa. What’s more, many of these characteristics aren’t fixed. Environment and experience also play their part in shaping the brain, increasing its...

Traditionally in education the three Rs were Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. In boarding they stand for the fundamental values of Respect, Relationships and Resilience. In a boarding community you are in an environment where trying new things is encouraged. When I was at school there were comparatively few extra-curricular activities but nowadays after-school clubs range from aerobics to zumba alongside...

Nevertheless, there is still reluctance to talk about mental health issues (or special efforts would not be needed) and it would be surprising if school leaders – especially leaders of girls’ schools – weren’t also reluctant. National statistics show that girls are somewhat more likely to have mental health problems than boys. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that these must be worse when children are away...

And what about women in this picture? In the UK females make up 15.1 per cent of engineering graduates and only 11 per cent of the engineering workforce, the lowest in Europe.  To put that in context, Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus lead with almost 30 per cent of engineering professionals being women. In 2015–16, women in the UK accounted for...

Progression into smart technology has provided many new opportunities for the boarding sector with improved teaching access, and efficiency of communication and pastoral care. On large school campuses, where pupils cover a huge area during the day, it is especially vital for staff to be vigilant and to be able to track the whereabouts of pupils. Paperless registration on SchoolBase...

At Godolphin, through our ‘Policy for Progress’ we consider progress in a number of broad areas. Academic is of course included but we also focus on personal and pastoral progress, extra-curricular progress and staff development (by setting a culture of everyone progressing and learning, we find this rubs off on the pupils too). In its most basic sense, progress is...