"whisky-dave" wrote in message
...
But boys from boys schools and girls from girls schools were always kept
apart when close to the schools, nothing new about that.

What was odd about my mum's experience was that it was being seen together
*in school uniform* that was the cardinal sin; being seen together out of
recognisable uniform was a more venial sin, and no sin at all if it was
brothers and sisters. I'm not sure what the protocol was about travelling
home on the same buses, trams or trains - whether there was "a boys'
section" and "a girls' section".

Where I went, the boys' grammar school and the girls' high school were on
opposite sides of a fairly quiet road. The pavements and road between one
boundary fence and the other were "neutral ground" where it was commonly
accepted that boys and girls would meet.

The high school didn't have a swimming pool and they used ours. The girls
were closely shepherded as they made their way though our grounds, and a
sign was posted on the outside door of the swimming pool so no boys had any
excuse for straying in "by accident". It's surprising how many invented
excuses along the lines of "I think I've left something in there - can I
look for it". ;-) But there was no thought of "the girls may pollute the
boys' water" or "we're not swimming in there because the boys may have
polluted it".

A few 6th form general-studies lessons were shared between the two schools,
and school plays had a shared cast, though the stage hands were exclusively
made up of grammar school boys (when the plays were staged there) or high
school girls (when the plays were staged there). The plays were usually
Gilbert and Sullivan operas or plays such as "Brothers in Law" - I helped
with lighting on those. I'm not sure what the changing room arrangements
were, but I imagine there were attempts by both sides to sneak someone in
;-)