I was appalled to read in Antony Dore’s otherwise interesting article the statement that “Cheltenham College announced co-ed plans early this month” (“Heard the one about the Essex girls?”, TES, March 31). This is untrue. Cheltenham remains a boys’ school, but with a mixed sixth-form, a pattern which has been in place for many years, and there are no plans to change it.
It is a particular irony that Cheltenham’s policy actually reflects the thrust of Antony Dore’s article. We believe that through the years of puberty the sexes are better taught separately. Thus, while our junior school is becoming fully co-ed to the age of 11, and our sixth form has grown with an expansion in the number of both girls and boys, I am convinced that the real strength of our education for boys is that from 11 to 16 we can educate them separately.
PETER WILKES
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
