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Single Sex Education

“Sacred Heart is a purposeful blend of single sex and coeducational approaches, offering our students the ‘best of both worlds.’” 
-- Nat Wilburn, Principal

A growing body of research supports what Sacred Heart has known all along – that single sex education offers both girls and boys supportive environments attuned to their individuals needs, encouraging success in school.

It’s a fact.  Discussion flows more freely in a single sex classroom.  Students are more willing to take intellectual risks and gain from those experiences greater self-confidence. As importantly, children are not narrowly defined by gender stereotypes. Instead, boys and girls feel free to explore their full range of interests, from art and music to math and the hard sciences.  As the Head of our Primary School often says, “In the single sex classroom, girls have full access to the block corner and boys to the dramatic play area.”

“It was at the Academy  — in all female classes — where I found my voice and the strength of my convictions.”
-- Pam Mueller, Class of 1994, currently attending Harvard Law School

But boys and girls at Sacred Heart are hardly kept apart. They interact with each other regularly throughout the day -- in the halls, on the playground, in the lunchroom, and during extracurricular and community service activities – benefiting from the kind of positive socialization experiences only available in a coed setting. 

At Sacred Heart, we believe that self-confidence is built on a daily basis. Single sex classrooms, when coupled with opportunities for boys and girls to know one another and work together, allow students to grow secure in their abilities, comfortable in expressing themselves, and ready to tackle the challenges of high school in either a coeducational or single gender setting.

“Being a Hardey boy means we try our best in school.  We set a good example for younger students.  We are responsible for our actions and words.  Being a Hardey boy means being polite, kind and following the Five Goals.”
-- Vinod, fifth grade boy

Single Sex Articles

Sacred Heart Schools
Academy of the Sacred Heart for Girls
Hardey Preparatory for Boys
The best of both worlds

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