Column

Eithne Shortall: Segregating children by gender is just weird – and schools are starting to agree

Single-sex schools instil stereotypes, isolation, artificiality and awkwardness that can last a lifetime; thankfully, they seem to be on the way out

'It’s ridiculous that we create this artificial society in which girls exist with girls, boys exist with boys, and never the twain shall meet. Until they go home to their brothers and sisters’

And just like that, the season is upon us. I’m not doing a Brown Thomas and cracking out the Christmas decorations before Halloween has even got under way. No, no. I am talking about school application season.

You will know it by the large colourful banners hanging from the railings of schools the country over and by the data mining taking place in playgrounds and Montessori queues. “Oh, your older daughter is at that school? ...