On October 13, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Al-Hijrah School’s policy of segregating boys and girls was unlawful sex discrimination.
The decision gives the regulator considerably greater powers and could mark the beginning of the end of single sex education.
To understand the impact of the decision it helps to first look at the facts.
Al-Hijrah School was first placed into special measures and an interim executive board appointed by Birmingham City Council in 2013. In the following two years the school was visited a number of times with some improvements being noted and its grade raised to “requires improvement”. At that time it was noted, but no comment made, on the segregation of girls and boys from year 5 onwards.
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