SE CHRONICLE 684

13 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

tournament is great fun and very popular. In elite sport, it was great to see OSE hockey players Rupert Shipperley and Millie Holme representing Wales at the recent Commonwealth Games. Miles Hammond OSE has been playing for Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred and with the rise of cricket at Teddies for girls (with Aimee Diab scoring the first century), hopefully it won’t be long until we have a female OSE joining Miles in The Hundred. Cricket as a co-educational sport was very much in evidence during Gaudy Week with the inaugural MCC women’s fixture the day before the MCC men’s fixture. Upper 1 is now a place for sporting excellence for both girls and boys – including a very successful season for the girls’ 1st XI football team in the Spring Term. What’s your own experience of co educational or single-sex education or workplace environments? How have these experiences shaped your current thinking about co-education? My main memories of my co-educational primary school involve playing cricket and football for the boys’ teams. I then went to a girls’ secondary school from age 11-16 followed by a co-educational sixth form college. At the time, attending a girls’ school ironically seemed to give me more opportunities both academically and in sport than my female friends who went to co-ed schools. There was no sense that certain subjects or sports were only for boys; I suspect this was thanks to great teachers who did not conform to gender stereotypes! Returning to a co-educational sixth form college was very good preparation for university and it also led to me playing cricket for the boys’ team again!

When I first started work at a co educational boarding school in the late 1990s, sadly I had to fight against a number of constraints particularly on the sports field. As a PE teacher, I was only supposed to teach the girls and I was not allowed to add football to the girls’ PE curriculum as this was a boys’ sport… My request to coach cricket was also met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm! Fortunately, the experiences I had as a pupil at school shaped my thinking that an inclusive education, whether it is in a single-sex or co-educational environment, is worth fighting for and I was soon teaching boys and girls, football was on the curriculum and I was coaching a cricket team. Nearly 25 years later, it is great to reflect on the progress that has been made so that it is now normal, certainly at Teddies, for men to coach netball, women to coach rugby and for female and male HMs to be running co-educational, girls’ and boys’ Houses.

MELISSA CHARLES I believe that without co-education, we would grow up unprepared for the world we will inhabit and limited in ways we could not predict. The best part of a co educational community is that is that it is a normal reflection of society – anything else would simply be strange.

Fem Soc celebrating International Women’s Day in March by adopting the ‘break the bias’ pose

JOSEPH OSEI What I value about being part of a co educational community is how it keeps you in touch with the real world. At school, you can sometimes lose touch with the real world and settle into some pretty strange norms but having all types of people in your community really helps to combat that. Going to a co-ed school really forces you to learn how to communicate and interact with people of the opposite sex more than you would have to at a single-sex school, and that’s such a vital part of growing into a well-rounded person.

ALEXANDRE BERTRAND Being part of a co-educational community has allowed me to develop a more open minded and progressive worldview, which will be of great personal benefit in my professional career and in all aspects of my life. Co-education is an approach which encourages important values such as kindness, respect and, foremost, equality. These attributes are essential to success in our ever-evolving society.