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 to 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 Key Stages 3 and 4 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 partially implement the structure, sometimes referring to it as the "diamond edge model" in which certain subjects, e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are taught to gender-segregated sets or classes, typically drawn from KS3 and KS4 (Years 7 to 11).
The degree of gender separation was brought into focus in 2017 by the Al Hijrah judicial decision that total gender segregation in coeducational schools is illegal in England and Wales. Following this, in June 2018 the Department for Education published Gender separation in mixed schools,[1] non-statutory guidance for all state and privately funded schools on separating classes by gender.