insideKENT Magazine Issue 101 - September 2020 | Page 109

EDUCATION
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
A MESSAGE FROM GUY SANDERSON,
HEADMASTER, ELTHAM COLLEGE
IF YOU WERE TO OPEN ANY SCHOOL PROSPECTUS YOU WILL UNDOUBTEDLY SEE THE
SAME VISION OUTLINED: THAT THE SCHOOL IN QUESTION AIMS TO PREPARE CHILDREN
FOR ADULT LIFE, BOTH ACADEMICALLY AND SOCIALLY. AND YET, SOME PEOPLE STILL
SEEM TO BELIEVE THIS CAN BE ACHIEVED IN THE HIGHLY ARTIFICIAL ENVIRONMENT
OF A SINGLE-SEX SCHOOL.
The number of single-sex private schools has halved
in the last 20 years amid a long-term “shift towards
co-education”, according to research. Girls’ schools
make up just 13% of the ISC’s membership, with
boys’ schools only representing 9%. Meanwhile, the
number of schools with approximately equal
proportions of boys and girls has more than doubled
over a similar period.
One of the mixed blessings of working in
education is that it is a topic on which everyone has
an opinion. Combine this with discussions about
gender identities, #metoo and the gender pay gap,
and opinions run riot.
The question is not whether we want to live in a
society which values men and women differently -
we are generally agreed that we do not - but what
we need to do to move towards realising that more
equitable society. This means challenging
assumptions and the status quo. Questions of
opportunity, of power and of access need to be asked
and answered if we are to make any progress. A
widespread emphasis on equality means that it
becomes harder and harder “to sustain the argument
that children have to be separate to be equal.”
Forty years ago, Eltham College, the school of which
I am the head, welcomed girls into its sixth form in
what was then a radical move, so radical that one
parent sued the school on the grounds that the
introduction of girls would disrupt his son’s schooling.
Since then, from county and regional netball
champions, to head prefects, and also articulate and
brilliant academic students, Eltham’s sixth form girls
have flourished, and, in turn, boys have benefitted
from their presence whether in the classroom, on
stage or in the concert hall.
What matters most for students is to find the school
best suited to prepare each young person, in and
out of the classroom, for life as an adult in an equitable
society; where men and women work together easily,
respectfully and collaboratively. There are single sex
schools which do this very well for their students
and co-educational ones which do not. What struck
us here at Eltham College was that we were operating
an increasingly outmoded half-way house which
welcomed girls and their contributions in only one
part of the school.
Knowing the power of an excellent education to
shape futures, we asked ourselves why were we
limiting access for girls to the wonderful opportunities
at Eltham and limiting access for boys to the
invaluable opportunities to work with girls as equals?
We asked ourselves why were we limiting
opportunities for our students of both sexes to learn
with and from each other until the final two years
of school? And, there was not a good answer to
those questions. And so we made the decision to
prepare our students better for the world in which
they are growing up by welcoming both girls and
boys not just in Year 12 but at all our key entry
points with a view to being fully co-educational
within six years.
From September 2020 the first cohort of girls will
join Eltham College in both Years 3 and 7,
with girls making up half of the new Year 3 intake
and a third in Year 7, showing that there were
many families who also felt there was demand for
this change.
www.elthamcollege.london
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