HAILEYBURY
Education in parallel Haileybury offers the best of both worlds for families and students who want to make the most of single-gender classes in a co-educational environment.
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ntil the end of Year 4, children at Haileybury’s campuses in Keysborough, Brighton, Berwick and the city learn and explore together. From Years 5 to 12, while the school remains co-educational, they transition to single-gender classes as part of Haileybury’s Parallel Education model. The carefully planned model recognises that, while girls and boys both benefit from sharing their education early on, in the middle and senior years they can often achieve better academic results in single-gender classes. “Parallel Education takes the best academic outcomes that come from single-sex classes and the very strong social outcomes from the coeducation environment,” says Anna Sever, deputy principal (Teaching and Learning). “Essentially, it offers the best of both worlds. “Research suggests that students learn better in single-sex classes but the socialisation aspect is important,
too. So, during recess and lunchtime and during events like musical performances, school productions, sports events and social initiatives, like our soup kitchen, girls and boys share spaces in the school. “Students also enjoy favourite spaces in the school together, like the ovals, canteen and library, but we believe single-sex classes are the optimum learning environment.” Haileybury’s recent 2021 VCE results are testament to the effectiveness of the Parallel Education model. Eight highest-possible ATARs of 99.95 were achieved and 51 per cent of students placed in the top 10 per cent of students in Australia. Haileybury girls were first overall in Victoria’s study scores table, while the boys placed second in the state. The students achieved 36 perfect study scores in 15 different VCE subjects. “Research has shown that boys and girls develop at different stages and at a different pace and Parallel
Education provides academic support linked to those stages,” says Melissa Allen, head of Middle School (Teaching and Learning). “We get the same learning achievements for boys and girls, but the pathway is different. “I teach boys and girls, and in my boys’ classes they opt for group discussions and less oneon-one time,” she says. “They like to get feedback more regularly and lessons are broken into chunks. They enjoy having more activities to seek their teeth into.
“When I teach girls, they thrive on that one-to-one interaction with a peer or teacher, they enjoy working through things more by themselves and they want to know what is coming up next. “As a teacher, you know your class best and you can specialise your instruction to suit the needs of the students in front of you.” Sever says Year 5 is specifically chosen as a starting point for the Parallel Education model because research shows this is the point at which differences start to emerge between genders in how they best
łŅĸ ŇĻĴŁ Ĵ ŇĸŅŅļձĶ ŇŅňŀŃĸŇĸŅт We encourage our students to succeed in all aspects of school life — be it in their academic side, melodious music side, or striving for ÌÖ ÌÌʼn¡µʼnÌźÈÒĜʼnSº´ ʼn¬¡ Ìʼn®¡¬ ʼn á ®èµʼn ç ®ʼn¡µʼny®®ʼnÒ È Ĝʼni µʼnÌ ļÌʼnµºÒʼn ®ºâ¡µ ʼnºÖÈʼn̺ ¬Ìʼnº ʼnÅ®y衵 ʼnÒ ʼnÒÈÖ´Å ÒĝʼnèºÖʼn yµʼnõ ʼn á ®èµʼn commanding the team as our School’s soccer goalkeeper. Now that’s what we call kicking some serious goals.
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I N DEPE N DE N T SCHOOL S GU IDE 2022
