Twenty boys have applied for places this term at a girls' school, writes Mark Templeton.

Anne Peterson, head of Milham Ford Girls School, off Marston Road, Oxford, said she had been approached by parents of the youngsters asking if she could find them a place at her school.

Oxford's only single-sex state school received the requests from parents in Marston whose children were refused first and second places at Cheney and Cherwell schools. Those two schools are thought to have become oversubscribed after parents who would normally send their daughters to Milham earmarked for closure under plans to shake-up city schools instead applied to Cheney and Cherwell.

But Mrs Peterson said the requests for places for boys was a reflection of the high standards at the school.

She said: "It is unusual and unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen because parents send their daughters here because it is single sex. "But they have told me they are impressed by the standards at Milham and the recent Ofsted report which praised our calm and quiet classes."

Education Secretary David Blunkett is to introduce single-sex classes in mixed schools to prevent teenage boys falling behind in exam results.