School to admit girls 700 years after opening
Move by Abingdon Senior near Oxford comes amid spiralling costs and fears of Labour VAT raid threat
AN INDEPENDENT school is to admit girls for the first time in more than 700 years.
Abingdon School in Oxfordshire has had only male pupils since it was founded in 1256, but will soon become co-educational along with Abingdon Preparatory School.
It said the change was “driven by the belief that the best preparation for young people is to educate them alongside one another”.
While it is a rare move, Abingdon, where the members of the rock band Radiohead met, will be the latest to join a growing trend towards the co-educational model in Britain’s private school sector. It comes amid spiralling costs, and the threat of Labour’s VAT raid, should the party win the general election. The school charges £24,000 for day pupils and almost £50,000 for full boarders.
Mike Windsor, the head of Abingdon School, told The Daily Telegraph that the school has been mulling over the decision for around a decade as “we recognise the traditions of the school”.
“The school has always been prepared to change as society has changed and I think we need to recognise that society today is one where women and men study and work side by side and ultimately we feel that our key task is to prepare students for that,” he said.
The Abingdon Foundation added: “Abingdon’s governors and leadership teams want the education they deliver to be reflective of modern society – one where equal opportunity for the sexes is promoted, and in which both girls and boys should be as ambitious as each other, as well as being in control of their own future success.
“They acknowledge that teamwork, emotional intelligence, mutual understanding and the ability to relate to others is better fostered in a co-educational environment which more accurately reflects the conditions of real life.
Abingdon Preparatory School will begin admitting girls to its pre-prep cohort from September this year, and to Years 3 to 6 from next September. Abingdon Senior School will admit girls to its first year (Year 7) and sixth form from September 2026.
While leaders did not mention it explicitly, the plan by Labour to add 20 per cent VAT on fees should they gain power is proving to be a financial headache for many of the country’s independent schools.
Many head teachers fear the policy will force smaller private schools to shut as families become unable to afford the higher fees, sparking an influx of children to state schools and widening inequalities in the independent sector with only the more established institutions being able to afford to survive.
A third of wealthy parents could quit private schools, unable to stomach the already-increasing cost of fees and school trips, a poll found last month.
Fewer than 100 fee-charging boys’ schools are now registered with the Independent Schools Council (ISC) in
Britain, half that of 30 years ago. The number of children enrolling at private schools has also fallen by the largest proportion in more than a decade, said the ISC last week.
Earlier this year, the £18,000-a-year Bickley Park prep school in Bromley, south London, also announced it was shifting from all boys to co-educational “in line with current market demands”.
And last year, Westminster School, the alma mater of six former British prime ministers, revealed that it planned to become fully co-educational by 2030, having been a boys’ school for centuries apart from its sixth form, where girls have been allowed to join for the last 50 years.
Other leading private schools have held firm on their single-sex status, however, including Eton and Harrow.
As well as the Radiohead frontman, Thom Yorke, and the other band members, Abingdon counts Sir Kim Darroch, the veteran British diplomat, Toby Jones, the actor, and David Mitchell, the comedian, among its alumni.
‘We need to recognise that society today is one where women and men study and work side by side’