Frequently asked questions - Co-education and expansion

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Q1. What characterises a Perse education?

The Perse aims to provide a first class education that produces academically successful and very well rounded students.

We hope that our academic results speak for themselves. This summer, 62 students achieved 3 A grades or better at A level, 24 secured places at Oxford or Cambridge, and 19 have been admitted to medical schools. No other independent school in the region has so many students achieving at such a high level; and the Perse enjoys a national reputation for academic excellence.

The Perse was a boarding school until 1993, and has retained a boarding school’s commitment to developing its students in the round. We educate for life, as well as for A level, and provide our students with a very wide range of extra-curricular opportunities. Last year, the Sixth Form performed Grease, the U18s were crowned National Indoor Hockey Champions, the Perse Players put on Under Milkwood in the Corpus Christi Playroom, the Choir sung Evensong at Ely Cathedral, and over 100 Perse pupils took part in the annual West Road Music Concert. During the three week Easter holiday, Perse students of all ages took part in cultural exchanges with schools in Hong Kong and Japan, a sports tour to St Lucia, a football competition in Barcelona, a Classics study visit to the Bay of Naples, a ski trip to Austria, and a sailing holiday on the Norfolk Broads. This summer 120 Perse Scouts camped on the Isle of Wight, whilst the Perse Expedition Society ran two overseas expeditions, one to the tundra of Northern Sweden, and the second to Ladakh in the Himalayas. Meanwhile our RAF unit spent the summer learning to fly, glide and parachute. This is just a taste of what we offer!

Q2. Why have you decided to go co-ed?

We are very proud of the high quality all round education the Perse provides, and wanted to open it up to both boys and girls.

We have run a successful co-ed sixth form for 15 years, and have seen the advantages of co-education first hand. Boys and girls working together benefit from seeing different approaches to problems, and they develop skills such as team working, emotional intelligence and empathy which are not readily acquired in single sex environments.

Q3. What is your co-ed philosophy?

Put simply, that anybody can do anything. We do not subscribe to twentieth century gender stereotypes, or that any activity should be dominated by a particular gender. We encourage all pupils to try the activities on offer, and decide what their specialism will be on the basis of individual interests and abilities. As a consequence, our knitting club is predominately male, whilst some of our shooting aces are female. We value all our pupils as individuals and there are no ‘glass ceilings’ on pupil achievement. We strive to be a genuine meritocracy where pupils are valued for what they do and not who they are.

Q4. What experience do your staff have of teaching co-ed classes?

As co-education is not new to the Perse, (we have had a mixed sixth form since 1995), all staff have experience of teaching boys and girls together. We have been planning for a move to full co-education since 2005, and with such a long lead time we have been able to recruit new teachers with experience of teaching and providing pastoral support to mixed classes.

Q5. How will you select pupils; how many places are available?

External applicants are selected entirely on merit in accordance with our admissions policy. There are no gender quotas.

External applicants sit tests in Maths, English and Reasoning, and are interviewed by senior staff. We also attach great importance to the reference from the applicant’s current school.

Sample entrance test papers and further details can be found here.

In Year 7, there are 96 places in total, and on average there will be 2 applicants per place. There is a similar applicant to places ratio in Year 9 where either 48 or 72 places will be available.

In the Sixth Form, we have up to 60 places available. Sixth form offers are conditional on GCSE performance, and applicants are required to obtain 66 points or more, counting A* as 10, an A as 8, a B as 6, and a C as 4.

Q6. What will be the ratio of boys to girls?

We expect to achieve an eventual steady state of 60% boys and 40% girls, but given that admission is purely by merit the figures are bound to vary from year to year.

We are close to the 60:40 split in the sixth form, and it is interesting that we had a 50:50 gender divide at our co-education information evenings.

We were keen not to reduce opportunities for boys in our move to full co-education, and thus decided to expand the school by 40%; the 40% expansion being largely taken up by girls.

Q7. Will all classes and teaching groups be mixed?

In the medium term yes, although to begin with as girl numbers build a few all male teaching groups may remain. We recognise the need for there to be a critical mass of both girls and boys in any teaching group, and would usually* set this figure at 4 for both genders. (* This may not be possible for all minority subject options.)

Q8. Will any subjects be taught in single sex groups?

Very few. We will teach a few units of Personal, Social and Health Education in single sex groups (e.g. some aspects of sex education), and some games options will be single sex. Elsewhere, we anticipate teaching in fully co-ed groups so that pupils gain the benefits of co-education such as a better understanding of different viewpoints, experience of varying learning and problem solving styles, and high quality team work.

Q9. What is the sports provision?

The Perse believes in sporting excellence and sport for all. Our first teams play at a very high standard and enjoy national and international success. However, of equal importance is the need to encourage all students to find a sporting interest that will sustain fitness and provide enjoyment in adult life.

The main boys’ sports are rugby, hockey, cricket, athletics and tennis.

The main girls’ sports are hockey, netball, athletics and tennis.

Some sports such as korfball and hockey are mixed, and in others such as cricket, girls can be selected on merit to play in predominately male teams.

There are equal numbers of fixtures for girls’ and boys’ teams, and both genders have equal access to our professional coaches, such as Glenn Kirkham, the England hockey captain.

Q10. What pastoral support is available?

Happy children are successful children, and the school is committed to high quality pastoral care. Every pupil will be allocated a personal tutor, who usually looks after a maximum of 12 other pupils. Tutors oversee the academic, social and extra-curricular progress of their tutees, and are the first point of contact with parents. Tutors are assisted by 'form prefects' - Sixth Formers who work with younger pupils. We promote the role of the form prefect which we feel encourages a family atmosphere and allows older students to become good role models for younger pupils. Each pupil will also belong to a year group and section of the school which are overseen by senior pastoral staff. The whole pastoral system is led by Louise Playfair, Deputy Head whose responsibility is pupil welfare. She works with the Senior Tutor (who is also a trained counsellor) and our school nurses.

Q11. Do single sex schools produce better academic results than co-ed institutions?

Much has been written on this topic, and there is no clear answer. Different vested interests will quote different research findings, and one of the problems is that it is difficult to separate out any ‘gender effect’ from other controls on school performance such as teaching quality, leadership and management, resourcing and class sizes.

At the Perse, we regularly monitor the academic performance of boys and girls, and find that they do equally well. We also believe that schools should not be judged on academic performance alone, and that co-education helps develop a range of important interpersonal skills that are essential for a happy and successful life.

Q12. What new facilities are you building in preparation for co-education and expansion?

A new astroturf was built on the sports field to the west of the Art Block last November.

There are two major projects taking place at the moment. The first is to extend our sports hall by building a second gymnasium and new changing facilities for both boys and girls. This new gym will be used for netball, gymnastics, aerobics, dance, martial arts and fencing.

The second project involves the construction of a substantial new teaching and learning block, designed by the same architects as New School at the Prep. This will house a state of the art library and learning resources centre, 3 IT rooms, and 21 teaching rooms to be shared between Modern Foreign Languages, Maths and English. Many classes will have their form rooms in this impressive new block. As departments move in to the new facilities in the summer of 2010, existing rooms will be refurbished and reorganised. The new block will be finished before the first girls arrive in 2010.

Q13. How will you ensure that a larger Perse doesn’t become impersonal?

We recognise the importance of high quality pastoral care in ensuring that children have a happy and successful education. Whilst overall numbers in the school will grow, we will not be increasing the size of tutor groups, forms or teaching sets.

As with co-education, we have a long track record of successfully managing growth and increasing the numbers of clubs, societies and sports teams on offer so that proportionally opportunities increase rather than fall with expansion. We are actively looking at re-introducing a house system as a vehicle for providing pupils with further opportunities to participate in music, drama and sport beneath the school production/team level.

We will continue to hold regular whole school assemblies at which all pupils will be encouraged to engage with philosophical, moral, spiritual and intellectual issues. These assemblies help to define clear Perse school culture and encourage a sense of pupil belonging.

Q14. What are the benefits of expansion?

A larger school will generate economies of scale and greater surpluses which can be used to improve facilities, extend the curriculum and create a downward pressure on fee increases. In recent years we have built a new Sports Hall, Music Centre and Science Labs on the back of rising numbers, whilst the curriculum has been extended by the introduction of Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin and Archaeology. Our increased financial muscle can also be used to recruit and retain high quality teaching staff.

Our current programme of growth will end just before our 400th anniversary in 2015 at which point there will be about 950 pupils at the Upper. There are no plans to grow the school further, and we are conscious of the educational disadvantages that can occur in very large schools.