Malvern College became co-educational over three decades ago, and our focus has always been on striking a balance between our valued traditions and educational development, in order to provide our pupils with what we believe to be the best of both worlds.
Co-education has a myriad of benefits, not least the opportunity to create a diverse, balanced school community, aided by the fact that our pupils join us from a range of cultures, backgrounds and experiences – and, importantly, from across the globe. The co-educational model places pupils in an environment that stimulates their intellectual curiosity, where they have the opportunity to learn as much from one another and their own unique life experiences as they do within the classroom, preparing them for the real world outside of the school gates.
We want pupils to leave us with the ability to communicate, collaborate with and be mutually respectful of people of all genders, cultures and backgrounds, and to do that with kindness, open-mindedness and humility – all skills enshrined in our Malvern Qualities. The co-ed model is integral to that. Mixed-sex lessons and tutor groups break down the barriers that can be created by the notion of traditionally female and male subjects, allowing our pupils to pursue their own interests in a setting where gender has no bearing on academic ability. Similarly, we give our pupils, 80 per cent of whom board with us full time, plenty of supervised opportunities to mix outside of the classroom.
That said, our boarding houses remain single-sex, with each pupil belonging to one of our six boys’ houses and five girls’ houses. We feel that this allows our pupils to develop incredibly strong bonds within their house communities, who become their chosen family. The age at which our pupils join us – entering their teenage years and on the precipice between childhood and adulthood – can be fraught with challenges. It is a time of great adjustment, and being able to create safe spaces in single-sex houses not only offers pupils the mutual support and understanding of their peers who are or have been in the same situation, but also allows our in-house teams to better support our pupils through what, for some, can be difficult years.
Sport is integral to life at Malvern and provides a great environment for single-sex sports teams as well as opportunities for mixed teams, where boys and girls learn to collaborate and value different approaches to games. Testament to that is the fact that an impressive number of our pupils, both boys and girls, compete at a national and international level. While we have had an equal split between winning boys’ and girls’ teams over the last four years, the approach that they take is fascinating, with the boys often prioritising speed and physicality and the girls ingenuity in making connections with people. The co-ed format really does help to spur on that sense of competition between the teams and encourages resourcefulness – something that you wouldn’t necessarily see as strongly, were the competition single-sex.
Ultimately, our aim at Malvern is to develop outstanding young people with the skills, resilience and initiative to flourish in a rapidly changing global landscape. To do this means developing the emotional and cultural intelligence that comes from working with other people, from different sexes and cultural backgrounds.
Read the full Talk Education article: Single-sex vs co-educational schools: which is best?