As published in the West Australian.
Single-sex schools once again dominate the 2019 ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank) scores with a list of the top 50 schools in Western Australia published today.
The top 25 ranked schools include all ten Alliance member schools in Western Australia, showcasing the academic prowess of all-girls schools.
Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia executive officer Loren Bridge said the ATAR results showed that single-sex schooling made a real difference to academic performance.
“While academic results alone are not the measure of successful schooling, they are a very relevant measure, and the evidence is building worldwide that girls do better academically, as well as socially and emotionally, in single-sex learning environments,” she said.
“The WA pattern is repeated across Australia and is consistent year after year. The reasons are lack of gender bias and gender stereotypes in a single-sex environment, strong role models and programs designed to suit the way girls learn — and the same for boys in boys’ schools.”
Ms Bridge said many co-educational schools ran single-sex classes, but there was still gender bias and socialisation outside the classroom that had an impact on girls’ confidence levels.
She said WA should give parents more educational choice by providing public single-sex schools.