About Us

Single sex education for girls 

At Chilton Saint James School, the value of an all girls’ education is enhanced by our learning continuum from Preschool to Year 13.

At Chilton, with its single sex setting for girls from Year 1 upwards,

• girls are always centre stage – they lead, participate and get involved
• teachers are tuned in to know the advantages for girls in a single gender school
• students are encouraged to become confident learners, risk-takers, critical thinkers and self-starters
• students are acknowledged as able learners and contributing team players which gives them the opportunity to be enthusiastic participants in all subject areas
• there are fewer social pressures and distractions which helps to make learning the top priority.

Research strongly suggests that an all-girls environment during the important formative years leads to stronger educational outcomes and develops articulate young women who are more likely to have the confidence to interact positively with both men and women in the adult world. 

Research also shows that girls:

• have different learning styles from boys
• can become invisible in the co-educational classroom because boys demand greater time and attention from the class teacher
• are able to produce better academic results than boys especially in Science and Maths. In fact, they regularly outperform girls and boys with comparable ability in co-educational classes.  [Crombie et al (2002)]
• educated in a single sex girls' school setting seem to have “a certain comfort level that helps them develop greater self-confidence and broader interests, especially as they approach adolescence”.  [Salomone, R.C. (2003)]

Because boys and girls learn differently and make different social demands on their fellow students, co-educational settings must allow for the range of types of learning provision the whole class requires.  This can reduce the quality of learning opportunities the girls can receive.

There is also evidence suggesting that co-educational settings are limited in their ability to accommodate the large differences in cognitive, social and developmental growth rates of girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 16. [Rowe, 2000 (ACER media release, 17/04/2000)]. 

For more information please refer to our FAQs where current students, teachers and parents have contributed to the questions and answers they thought would help those looking into an education at Chilton.