Is the decline of single-sex education, as Nigel Molesworth might have said, “A Good Thing?”įar from being a gung-ho throwback to the days of St Custard’s, there are strong modern-day arguments for single-sex education and not just for Lord Snooty and the top-hatted elite. There will doubtless be fulminations by old boys in letters’ pages, parental chatter on WhatsApp groups, and praise from progressives, but the question of how we teach children has ramifications beyond Westminster’s hallowed halls. So the decision suggests a cultural choice unrelated to economic or academic considerations. Unlike many provincial private schools, forced to take in girls to combat falling rolls and boost academic standards, successful, sought-after Westminster surely has no immediate need to go mixed. In both the private and state sector, this has been part of a startling shift away from single-sex as the default. Now only 12 per cent of state schools remain single-sex and less than half of all independent ones. This reflects an overwhelming trend away from single-sex, and particularly all-male, education. It’s Hello, Mrs Chips! Westminster School is preparing to go fully co-ed – taking girls throughout the school by 2030.

I want download whatsapp