Girls’ schools are for girls only
Being a girl is not just an identity – it is a biological fact.
Sometimes it takes stating the blindingly obvious to drive home just how detached from reality political debate has become. This week the Girls’ Day School Trust clarified its admissions guidance: the 23 private schools the group represents are exclusively for female pupils. Male children need to look elsewhere for an education. In other words, as any four-year-old could have explained, girls’ schools are for girls, and boys’ schools are for boys. But in 2022, it seems the obvious needs to be said aloud.
Single-sex schools have long been controversial. For well over a century experts have debated the advantages and disadvantages of segregating children by sex; all the while, significant numbers of parents quietly opted to send their sons and daughters to boys’ or girls’ schools. It would no doubt surprise those early critics to discover that the biggest threat to single-sex establishments today is not arguments about children’s educational or social development, but disputes about what a boy or a girl actually is.