Diamond school

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 11-16, 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 KS3 and KS4 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 adopt a "partial" diamond model in which certain subjects, e.g., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are taught to gender-segregated sets or classes, typically drawn from Key Stages 3 and 4 (Years 7 to 11).

The degree of gender separation has recently been brought into focus by the Al Hijrah judicial decision that total gender segregation in coeducational schools is illegal in England and Wales.