Diamond school

Diamond school, diamond model, diamond shape and diamond structure are similar terms that apply to a type of independent school in the UK that combines both single-sex and coeducational teaching in the same organisation. Typically, the establishment will be all-through, often with a nursery setting, and boys and girls are taught together until the age of 11 and separately from 11-16, before returning to coeducation in a joint sixth form.

Diamond schools are often the product of the merger of a boys' and a girls' school, thus it is possible that at KS3 and KS4 girls and boys can be taught separately on different sites. It is a common feature that boys and girls combine outside the classroom in activities for academic trips and visits and in some co-curricular activities, such as choirs, orchestras and the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. Other coeducational schools adopt a "partial" diamond model in which certain subjects, e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are taught to gender-segregated sets or classes, typically drawn from Key Stages 3 and 4 (Years 7 to 11).

The degree of gender separation has recently been brought into focus by the Al Hijrah judicial decision that total gender segregation in coeducational schools is illegal in England and Wales.

Relevant UK schools

Diamond model adopted

• Berkhamsted School[1]
• Brentwood School[2]
• Bury Grammar School[3]
• Claires Court, Maidenhead[4]
• Clifton High School, Bristol[5]
• Dame Allan's School, Newcastle upon Tyne[6]
• Erskine Stewart's Melville Schools (The Mary Erskine School & Stewart's Melville College), Edinburgh[7]
• Forest School, Walthamstow, London[8]
• King's School, Macclesfield[9]
• New Hall School, Boreham, Chelmsford, Essex[10]
• Oldham Hulme Grammar School[11]
• Stamford Endowed Schools (Stamford School, Stamford High School), Stamford, Lincolnshire[12]
• The Grammar School at Leeds[13]
• The Stephen Perse Foundation, Cambridge[14]
• The Royal School, Haslemere[15]
• Westholme School, Blackburn[16]

Moving towards diamond model

• Ipswich High School[17], formerly a member of the Girls' Day School Trust, announced[18] in September 2017 that from September 2018 it would adopt a diamond model and admit boys for the first time in its 140-year history.
• Leweston School[19], previously a single-sex girls' school, announced during 2017 that it would move towards a diamond structure[20] for the delivery of STEM subjects in Year 9 to 11 whilst moving to become coeducational during a four-year transitional period from 2018 to 2021.
• Cranmore School, and St. Teresa’s School, are moving towards a merger partnership and a diamond model in which children are first educated from Nursery to Year 4 Co-Ed at Cranmore, and then split, with girls at St Teresa’s and boys at Cranmore until year 11. There will then be a co-educational Sixth Form at St Teresa’s.

Progressing from diamond model

• Teesside High School[21] adopted the diamond model in 2005 but became fully coeducational in 2015.

References

1. Berkhamsted School
2. Brentwood School
3. Bury Grammar School
4. Claires Court
5. Clifton High School
6. Dame Allan's School
7. ESMS
8. Forest School
9. King's School
10. New Hall School
11. Oldham Hulme Grammar School
12. Stamford Endowed Schools
13. The Grammar School at Leeds
14. The Stephen Perse Foundation
15. The Royal School
16. Westholme School
17. Ipswich High School
18. Interview with Oona Carlin, IHS head
19. Leweston School
20. A diamond model school
21. Teesside High School