Single sex experiment did not fail

5:46pm Sunday 28th October 2007

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The headteacher of Pembroke School has hit out at reports that a pilot project set up two years ago to teach boys and girls in separate classes was scrapped because it had failed.

Frank Ciccotti says he is irritated that reports about the demise of the project have emphasised its negative aspects and claimed it failed to deliver any real improvement.

Mr Ciccotti told the Western Telegraph: "In the project, half of 12-year-olds were taught in single sex groups and the other half in mixed groups."

"Their results were compared two years later. It showed that there were no real differences between the groups.

"Although our all-girl classes were better behaved, they didn't get significantly better marks in the end."

Boys at the school were found to be doing better than girls in subjects like English, history, maths and sciences, bucking the national trend.

Mr Ciccotti added: "All-boy classes needed different teaching techniques. One teacher said that the boys were a nightmare at first, but different materials and constant praise made them a pleasure to teach. Despite more interruptions in the classroom, boys in single sex classes did just as well overall as boys in mixed groups."

The project was evaluated by governors in 2006, who decided to continue one successful girls' group, but not to extend the trial for a further year.

Since the pilot project ended, girls' GCSE results have continued to improve and they are now doing better than the boys.

Mr Ciccotti says Pembroke School is now refocussing on bucking the trend for low results among boys.