Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of whether diamond schools in which primary and sixth form provision is coeducational, with girls and boys taught separately between the ages of 11 and 16, are compatible with his Department's guidelines; and whether he has sought legal advice on the compatibility of those schools with the Equality Act 2010.

It is open to all mixed sex schools to demonstrate how they comply with and apply any relevant statutory exemptions under the Equality Act 2010, where they are separating based on sex. Schools using the ‘diamond school’ model may be complying with the Act, but the onus is on school leaders to demonstrate that they are meeting their duties under the Act.

The department has published guidance on gender separation in mixed sex schools here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-separation-in-mixed-schools. The guidance is clear that if there is separation by sex, this needs to be justified by school leaders in terms of it why it is allowed under the Act.

Where a mixed sex independent school chooses to separate based on sex and this is not permitted under the Act, then it is open to them to divide into two separate single sex schools to regularise their position.