All-girls schools are better

We all get with each other and are comfortable seeing each other on the toilet


My old school was like Dante’s inferno. The uniform was blue and “gold” (in fact, an eye-watering sunshine yellow), the theatre was a bit shit, and it didn’t have a swimming pool like City of London School for Girls. I only got on the waiting list for that one, so off to South Hampstead High School I went.

At first it was hard, what with the distinct lack of men. I was one of those “boy’s girls” – I couldn’t possibly function in such an unnatural atmosphere.

But I soon realised that going to an all-girls school was a blessing.

Casual n carefree.

There’s nothing quite as liberating as walking into school with sudocrem smeared all over your face. The “gilet crew” would gasp, but mostly, nothing. No reaction whatsoever.

Gal on gal means you’re comfortable looking like shit every day of the week, and no-one cares. Skinny jeans over holey leggings? Not me.

This wouldn’t happen in a mixed school. Sure. it’s not all about dressing to impress boys but the truth is that when you’re an insecure teenager, self-consciousness and discomfort are inevitable.

There’s also no guarantee that going to an all-girls school will “turn you lesbian” or make you socially-inept. Yes, we all get with each other and are comfortable seeing each other on the toilet but that is a joyful experience and I think Germaine would be proud.

And yes, the moment a supremely average-looking male teacher is hired everyone immediately gets giggly (I fawned over our hairy IT technician for a number of years) but that doesn’t mean you lose all ability to interact with the opposite sex, or have not interacted with them at all during your seven years at school.

Oh the irony

But by far the best thing about going to an all-girls school is the fact that you are entirely exempt from sexism during the formative years of your life, and that to me is invaluable. Statistics show that in a mixed environment, girls are less likely to contribute to discussion and allow the men to dominate the conversion. My teaching, however, was based on the foundation that I am intelligent and capable because I am a girl, rather than the idea that my achievement is always battling against the limitations of my supposedly weaker gender.

The way in which our entire year shouted down a pro-life speaker as well as that UKIP MP was not a commonplace occurrence, but rather the result of being encouraged to be confident every single day. Every time I come out of a shit tute, the self-worth I was taught at school helps make things a little better.