THE new headteacher at Headington School has praised single-sex education and pledged the school will remain girls only.

And Caroline Jordan, 49, said she hoped to work on widening participation to gifted local girls and investigate the possibility of setting up new bursaries.

Mrs Jordan said: “I believe strongly in single-sex education. I would not want to move in a direction that would lead to girls feeling not as comfortable when they are making big academic leaps because there were boys around.”

Mrs Jordan has just started at the school in Headington Road and is looking forward to meeting her pupils when term begins.

Born in Appleford and educated at St Helen and St Katharine School, Abingdon, and Oxford University’s St Edmund Hall, this will be Mrs Jordan’s first teaching role in her home county.

Her 17-year-old son, Jake, goes to single-sex school Reading Blue Coat, Sonning, although it has a mixed sixth form, and her previous roles, at St George’s School, Aston, and Wycombe Abbey, High Wycombe, were both in girls schools.

She said: “Single-sex education is the way I was educated and it gives the opportunity to go through school without being gender stereotyped.

“It’s a pity that with the changes (Education Secretary) Michael Gove is bringing in, you don’t hear much about new single-sex schools being created.

“There are not as many state single-sex schools but the advantages are just the same as in the independent sector.”

The school will soon be looking at plans for its centenary in 2015, and Mrs Jordan said the possibility of new bursaries was being investigated as a way to mark that.

Last year, 86 children were awarded £300 scholarships to the school for academic, sporting, musical, artistic or dramatic excellence.

And a further 41 girls were given means-tested awards of up to 100 per cent of the school fees.

The total value of bursaries currently available is equivalent to 25-day places.

Fees vary according to the age of the children and whether they are boarders, but start at £4,360 per term.

Mrs Jordan said: “I think it’s important to widen access for the local community, and not simply for those who excel in academic areas.

“It would be fantastic to offer that to some of the local girls who couldn’t come otherwise.”

Mrs Jordan said she felt privileged to take on the role, and said Oxford was an exciting place educationally to work, with large numbers of high-performing schools competing for pupils.

She said: “It’s wonderful to come back to Oxford.

“At every corner I meet someone who has a link with me in some kind of way.”