IT MAY seem like the clock is being put back at the East Lancashire high school that is harking back to the era when boys and girls were taught separately, but there are good reasons for the experiment.
For what lies behind the departure at Beardwood High in Blackburn is the poor performance of boys in mixed classes. They do only half as well as girls in the GCSE.
It is a national trend. But the evidence is that when the sexes are split, the boys improve and the girls' achievements become astronomic.
And those who see the three-year trial Beardwood has commenced as a reactionary step need only look at the league tables to see how well the remaining single-sex schools do.
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