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It may not be trendy, but I'd still send my kids to single-sex schools

It may not be trendy, but I'd still send my kids to single-sex schools

The Age25-04-2025

Look, I fancy myself as being as modern as anyone who remembers chanting 'Peace, Charger, Fosters Lager' in the 1970s or drinking Tang while watching Lost in Space can be.
If you ignore all the mid-century furniture, contemporary is my vibe. I know burrata is over, that statement belts and solo travel to secondary cities are hot. I've seen Amyl and the Sniffers live and am into hyperrealistic drama series.
And yet, I can't drag myself into the current day and admit single-sex schools should not still be a thing.
The subject came up for me and my husband this week on a dog walk, sparked by news that enrolments at Melbourne's all-boys Xavier College have dropped 19.5 per cent in the past five years.
That doesn't mean single-sex schools are out of favour – Brighton Grammar's numbers jumped 12.3 per cent in the same period – but maybe parents who once went for Xavier's old-school tie are apparently looking elsewhere.
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Like, to co-ed classrooms.
Funny that education is still something Chris and I discuss, given we've got no more school decisions to make ever. But single-sex vs co-ed? It's an evergreen debate. Literally everyone has a take, often impassioned.
Mine? That single-sex schools are weird. A relic. A social experiment that makes no sense in a world where boys and girls are supposed to work side by side on equal footing.

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