St Andrew's Cathedral School

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Coeducation

We believe that coeducation is normative for life and prepares students for the world in which they will live, study and work after they leave school.

At St Andrew’s Cathedral School our commitment to coeducation reflects a commitment to an inclusive and diverse community.

We believe that coeducation is normative for life and prepares students for the world in which they will live, study and work after they leave school. A coeducational learning environment also reinforces equal opportunity, diversity, harmony and inclusiveness.

St Andrew’s Cathedral School celebrated 20 years of being a coeducational school in 2019.

The idea that human beings are relational beings, made in the image of God, underpins the priority we give to building a diverse community that enables belonging for all.

Within this community both boys and girls are a positive influence on each other, learning mutual respect and the social skills of healthy interactions that will set them up well for life after school. 

The research

Renowned educational researcher, Professor John Hattie examined the effect of gender separation on student outcomes in his well-known meta-analysis of influences on learning (examining 500,000 studies of the effects of influences on student achievement). He found that there was little to suggest that gender-based segregation offered any academic advantage. Hattie ranked single sex schooling as 179th (out of 195) as an influence on student achievement, with an effect size of 0.08, regarded as ‘trivial’.

Hattie stated, “I therefore suggest that we should focus on the greatest source of variance that can make the difference – the teacher. We need to ensure that this greatest influence is optimised to have powerful and sensationally positive effects on the learner.”

Well-known Australian researcher and expert on gender issues in education, Dr Judith Gill wrote that “once the factors of ability and socio-economic background are taken into account, there is no empirical evidence to support the belief that in single-sex schools, girls do better than their counterparts in coeducational schools in terms of personal confidence or academic success, including the key subjects of maths, science and technology.” (1)

In 2015, she added: “Schools with excellent teachers, a concerned and involved parent community, inspired leadership and a good spread of relevant resources are to be found in both single sex and coeducational institutions. These features are much more important than the issue of gender context.” (2)

(1) Gill, Judith (2004). “Beyond the great divide: single sex schooling or coeducation?”
(2) Gill, Judith (2015). “Changing from single sex to co-ed can be good if based on educational (not economic) reasons” in EduResearch Matters. Read more

Further reading:

Guest, Murray (2014). The Single Sex v Coeducation Debate and the experience of Schools that Change Status.

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