John Claughton, the headmaster responsible for turning one of the country's leading boys' schools co-educational, has quit - to join an all-boys' school

John Claughton has spent the last two years reversing Solihull School's 400-year singlesex policy.

Girls will be admitted into all year groups for the first time from September.

Four months later, in January, 48 - year- old Mr Claughton will start his new job as headmaster of Birmingham's King Edward's School - one of Britain's top performing boys' school.

Mr Claughton, who is himself an old boy of King Edward's and former house master at Eton, admitted the move was "ironic" but insisted it did not reflect his educational preference.

"For Solihull School this is the right decision," he said.

"King Edward's is different. It has its sister girls' school 30 yards away. They can get the benefit of integration which they increasingly do.

"For a school like Solihull, which has an opportunity to go fully co-educational without any of the reasons not to, it is the right thing to do."

Mr Claughton said taking over the headship of King Edward's was like a homecoming for him.

"King Edward's is one of the great schools of this country and put simply I was an old boy there.

"It gave me everything I had in terms of a love for my subject and sport. To go back as chief master of your school is an incredible honour. It will really feel like going home."

Solihull School has restricted girls to its sixth form for the last 30 years.

Only about 100 of the school's pupil population of just under 1,000 are girls.

About 50 girls will join the school in earlier year groups from this September, representing the first stage of the transition.

Mr Claughton claimed Solihull's switch to co-ed was part of a wider movement within independent education away from single- sex institutions.

"So many schools like ours in the last ten to 15 years have gone the same way," he said.

"It is a preparation for life. Most people say co-ed schools are more diverse and more interesting.

"If you teach Romeo and Juliet to a school of boys for example you get one kind of response.

"If you teach it to boys and girls they are bringing different things. That makes lessons more fun."

About 80 per cent of private schools are now mixed sex. Old Swinford Hospital in Stourbridge, which defines itself as a state boarding school, last year ended a 340-year tradition by allowing girls into its sixth form for the first time.

One of the big arguments in favour of single-sex education has been that it allows children to concentrate on their studies without the distraction of the opposite sex.

But Mr Claughton claimed there were more benefits than negatives to teaching boys and girls together.

"People say they don't want their child distracted. But in the majority of British schools boys and girls are educated together. If you look at the issue of discipline, not that much of it is to do with the relationships between boys and girls."

Mr Claughton said handled correctly, mixed-sex education was a more "civilised environment" for pupils to work together.

"Boys and girls are different in the ways they think and learn. Girls tend to be very good at the detail if not very good at taking risks."

The head teacher admitted some teachers, parents and even pupils were concerned about changing the direction of the school.

"It feels like a big issue, but what is odd about it is all the schools that have gone that way say when it happens they think 'what was all the fuss about?'. It is the way things have moved. There are very few left in the independent sector that are not co-ed."