Equality and Human Rights Commission

All pupils must have the same access to the school curriculum and must be given the same subject options and access to the same amount of subject teaching.

This means that both male and female pupils are expected to participate in all aspects of the school curriculum, and courses or specific subjects cannot be only open to one sex. There are no longer any exceptions to this. However, co-educational schools are allowed to have single-sex teaching groups, as long as boys and girls have the same opportunities and access to the same resources.

Can schools treat pupils differently in sport or other physical activities?

Sex discrimination laws do allow sports, games or other activities of a competitive nature to have single-sex competitions if the physical strength, stamina or physique of the average woman puts her at a disadvantage to the average man. Case law has established that this applies to children as well as adults.

This means that schools can:

• have separate boys and girls sports teams for some sports, and
• separate girls and boys in sports lessons, but only if these could be said to be of a competitive nature.