School segregation

SIR – Last Friday, the Court of Appeal ruled that schools should never treat pupils less favourably because of their sex, or for any other reason (report, October 17).

For the avoidance of any doubt I would like to reassure your readers that there is nothing in this judgment to suggest that boys and girls will be obliged to play rugby, or indeed any other sport, together.

This judgment was about one particular state-funded school: Al-hijrah in Birmingham, where boys and girls are kept apart at all times, including during all lessons, at lunchtimes and in the school corridors. This is simply discrimination, recognised by the court as such, and the school is failing to prepare its children for life in modern Britain.

I would specifically like to reassure Neil Roskilly, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Association, that the ruling does not affect schools where children are separated for good reasons, such as during PE lessons.

I should stress, too, that this ruling does not apply to single-sex schools, which generally provide opportunities for boys and girls to work and socialise with each other, usually through extra-curricular programmes.

Sean Harford

National Director for Education Ofsted, London WC2