Daisy Turnbull, Director of Coeducation and Academy
If the Push Up Challenge has taught me anything this month, it is that there are two ways we learn – repetition or trauma – if you go into a push up challenge without any preparation you are going to be in a lot of pain for a few days.
Sometimes, trauma is effective, and really the only way to learn. We can be told that the stove is hot thousands of times, but it’s that one time we forget and burn a finger that we really remember. Multiplication tables on the other hand are not something that you can be shocked into remembering. I have a very repetitive ritual at the end of the day when I take my school lanyard off in the car and make sure I put it in my bag. The days I get out of that ritual, I will inevitably leave it somewhere else and be locked out of my office the next day.
What does this have to do with coeducation? Well, this term, we have been focusing on the small, repetitive conversations around our school values that help prepare students for coeducation; specifically around ‘celebrating the individual’.
A great example of this was in Year 9 SWP, when students spoke about gendered language. This wasn’t done specifically for coeducation, but was instead around the school value of celebrating the individual. Students spoke about the times they have heard or used gendered language, and the impact that can have on them, their friends, and yes, on what it might be like for when we are coeducational. Whether it be language like “man up” or doing something “like a girl”. Repeating these conversations brings the ideas to the fore, and helps students navigate subtle changes in behaviour that will prepare them not only for coeducation, but for life.
This term, a Student Coeducation Transition Committee was formed by SRC Secretary Matt Downes, and we met for the first time this week with students from Years 7 – 10. These are the students who will all be part of coeducation. Students identified key areas where they want to be leaders and upstanders in the school, and ways to improve the experience for all students.
It is so important to bring our students on this journey from a place of inclusion, rather than approaching it as there being some fault in them that needs to be fixed before the girls arrive. We are seeing this play out in the media around young men’s mental health and behaviour. And it is being repeated over and over that the best thing we can do for young men is speak WITH them, rather than speaking TO them, and engage them in the ways they want to be honest and vulnerable.
When we think about celebrating the individual, we have to think about celebrating individuality within our school, and doing so repetitively, so it becomes fundamental to who we are. A recent New York Times article quoted experts in education and psychology talking about the expectations on young men: “The Man Box is what society tells boys and men they can be and should be. Boys don’t cry. Boys don’t show their emotions. And anything that’s outside the Man Box, you’re penalised socially.” In Australia, this is sadly often referred to as ‘toxic masculinity’ a fundamentally unhelpful and conversation shutting down term.
Instead, we will continue to celebrate the individual in our current school community, so that when coeducation commences in 2026, we are already thinking about other people’s perspectives and experiences.
In some ways, coeducation seems far away still – but it isn’t, and while for students in Years 9 & 10, they may sometimes feel they have been having conversations about coeducation and language and respect for four years, and they have been, we’d far rather them to learn through repetition, than being embarrassed when girls arrive, or feel they are unprepared.
Daisy Turnbull
Director of Coeducation and Academy
