segregating girls and boys in mixed school

silent gav

We recently moved house and put our daughter into a new school. She is a absolute tomboy and hates wearing dress playing girly games etc and has always got.on better with boys so it was a big part of choosing a location that there was a mixed school for her. When she started in the school she came home very upset and said that the girls and boys were not allowed to play together at break time. Upon further investigation we found out that the school was divided into 4 playground as follows junior and senior infants mixed. Boys 1st to 4th class. Girls 1st to 4th class and mixed 5th and 6th. I thought this was crazy and went to talk to the principal. He said it was done because the boys were too boisterous at that age and it was for child safety. He said if any parent of either a boy or girl wished for their child to play in the other playground that could he accommodated. I asked if he felt it was fair for that child to be singled out and he said if they wanted to play with the other sex that's how it had to be.
We had a number if exchanges with him.over the issue and eventual ended up moving our daughter to another school
Has anyone ever heard of anything like this because to me and anyone I have talked to it seems absolutely crazy.

maccydoodies

Crazy. Never heard of that in my life and I've put two kids through primary. Very odd.

echo beach

silent gav wrote: »

He said it was done because the boys were too boisterous at that age and it was for child safety.

That is stereotyping of the worst kind. There are boisterous boys and quiet boys and there are boisterous girls and quiet girls. A school shouldn't put a label on children.
Often playgrounds are divided by age because bigger children can easily intimidate the smaller ones without meaning to and that makes sense. The last time I heard of ones being divided by gender was around the 1950s. Then schools had a boys' yard and a girls' yard with a high wall inbetween. Today boys and girls play safely together in hundreds of schools around the country so safety isn't a reason.

Kathnora

The part that amuses me is the idea that boys aren't boisterous in 5th and 6th so they are allowed to play with the girls!!!

Moonbeam

I would not be at all happy and don't think that I could send my kids to a school that was stereotyping kids in that way at such a young age.

D4RK ONION

This is truly bizarre, and it's something I'd be 100% against (although, currently teaching in a single sex school :P)

I'm not sure what actions you can take going forward, but please do keep us updated!

silent gav

Kathnora wrote: »

The part that amuses me is the idea that boys aren't boisterous in 5th and 6th so they are allowed to play with the girls!!!

Yeah this is what totally amazed me. and also that they are not segregated for the junior classes. so a boy and girl could be become good friends in the junior classes and then be separated for four years.

one of his arguments was that in fifth and sixth they still play separate and this shows that they don't mind.when i pointed out that this is because its what they had been taught by his segregation he didn't have much of an answer.

like i said we ended up changing her school. i had contacted the parents association and they said they had had a number of people challenge it and they had got nowhere and asked me to speak at a meeting but in the mean time we found that there was an educate together not to far away and thought it was a much better option. my daughter is well settled now and loves her new school but i just couldn't believe that in this day and age there are still such outdated attitudes.