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

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

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
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