Mr. David Tickner, Headmaster at Newcastle School for Boys reflects on the benefits of a single-sex education and his first-hand experience of teaching boys.
I didn’t set out to specialise in boys’ education. Having spent the first eight years of my teaching career happily in a co-educational school, the type of post I sought to progress my career arose in a boys’ school.
For the next five years, as a Head of Middle School in Cambridge, I supported and taught boys only. By this stage of my career, it had already been suggested a number of times that boys were pretty straightforward. With boys, what you see is what you get.
My experience increasingly suggested otherwise. Overseeing boys’ preparation for GCSE’s in Cambridge led to my next appointment as Deputy Head establishing the new GCSE programme at Newcastle School for Boys.
The education of boys shouldn't seek to make them more like girls or, worse still, ignore their boyishness. That will only lead to disenchantment and disengagement.
Mr. David Tickner, HeadmasterThe School had been formed in 2005 out of the merger of two prep schools Ascham House and Newlands – and planned to extend its age range up to 18. In 2010, the School reached maturity as a fully-fledged 3 to 18 school and in 2012, I became Headmaster. Thus, I find myself having accrued over sixteen years’ experience in single sex boys’ schools.
Over the last 25 years, there has been a steady shift towards co-education at independent schools and a reduction in the number of single sex schools. The drivers have been as much economic as educational or social.
However, the success and appeal of single sex education is built on observable gender differences. To engage boys successfully in learning, their characteristics need to be recognised and some of them even celebrated! Boys’ strengths and challenges are different to girls’. The education of boys shouldn’t seek to make them more like girls or, worse still, ignore their boyishness. That will only lead to disenchantment and disengagement.
Experience suggests boys have a set of preferences and dispositions when it comes to learning. In our single sex boys’ school, these inform our practice. They resonate with our teachers and parents.
Most importantly, they engage and motivate our boys to learn, achieve and develop.
The School is currently taking applications for September 2018. To register your interest or for any queries, please contact 0191 255 9303 or admissions@newcastleschool.co.uk or for more information, please visit www.newcastleschool.co.uk .