We’ve been an all-boys school since 1956, and it has worked very well, both for the school and its students. There’s long been an assumption that boys perform better, academically, in a co-educational environment but, actually, there’s no conclusive data to support this. At Forest Hill School, we believe it’s down to the environment and teaching provided, rather than the gender/s of students.
One of the advantages of being educated at an all-boys school like this is that we can focus on how boys learn. Research demonstrates that boys learn differently from girls, building different strengths at different paces and times. We ensure that everything at the school is geared towards this awareness; that the staff are trained, the lessons planned, and the learning environment designed accordingly.
For instance, girls tend to develop writing and reading skills earlier than boys, so in a co-educational environment, the expectation might be that boys have to keep up with the girls even though it’s developmentally inappropriate. Here, we’re able to really focus on those key skills and, for example, actively encourage our boys to enjoy reading. In Years 7&8, each student has one lesson per week where they simply read in the library with the librarians and their English teacher.
That library lesson really does promote and develop literacy very quickly – and, as mentioned, it’s helpful to allow the boys to develop in an environment where they’re not being compared – sometimes unfavourably - with girls. By focusing on how boys have been shown to learn more effectively – with healthy competition, with boundary setting, with clear expectations – we are able to develop their love of learning in a way in which they’re not seeing themselves as second best to girls.
Negative stereotypes
Another aspect of our approach is gender stereotyping. It’s important to point out that this is different from research-supported insights into how male and female brains are wired differently: this is more concerned with how boys and girls perceive themselves in the light of social expectation. Here at Forest Hill School, we do a lot of work around countering negative stereotypes that people have about young men, and that young men have about themselves.
One of the reasons why we’ve been so successful in our education of boys probably goes back to 2004, during the last Labour administration, when each secondary school had to take on a specialism. It would have been very easy for us, with our strong sporting culture and a good record in competitions, to earmark ourselves as a sporting school.
However, the head and senior leadership at the time decided to become a specialist school in the performing arts - and I think from this has flowed our emphasis on the fact that we want to make sure we are providing a really-well rounded education and helping to nurture well-rounded, engaged citizens.
In line with this history, we’ve long ensured that we have a really broad curriculum, even in an era when schools were narrowing their curriculums quite regularly. We never did that; we always made it as diverse as possible, with a huge emphasis on visual as well as performing arts.
Often, they are not areas in which boys, stereotypically or intuitively, get involved, or believe they will enjoy. Here, in an environment where it’s all boys, they’re often more willing to let themselves go; so boys are able to have a holistic experience, which may not be the case with girls around – with dance, for example. When the opposite gender isn’t present, many stereotypes – and the desire to live up to them – are removed.
