Abingdon School to admit girls 700 years after opening
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 will be the latest to join a growing trend towards the co-educational model in Britain’s private school sector amid spiralling costs, with Labour’s VAT plan looming large.
The school, which charges £24,000 for day pupils and almost £50,000 for full boarders and is where the members of the rock band Radiohead met, said it was “delighted to announce that both its schools are to become co-educational”.
Mike Windsor, the head of Abingdon School, told The 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.
“We talk a lot about making our school available to as many people from different backgrounds as possible and we thought, well, at the moment we’re only able to offer our education to 50 per cent of the population,” he added.
Abingdon is the largest it has ever been and has seen its pupil numbers grow by a quarter over the past 15 years, meaning the proposed Labour VAT policy did not factor in the coeducational decision.
In a position to weather the VAT storm
However, Mr Windsor has more general concerns about Sir Keir’s plan. “We’re very much preparing for what we have to face as the likelihood of the VAT on fees and we’re in a good position to weather that storm,” he told The Telegraph.
“My concerns about the policy are the impact on the diversity of the independent sector which I think offers parents great choice at the moment and not all schools are large and perhaps able to cope with this; I worry about the impact on some of the specialist provision available in the independent sector and the impact that will have on parents.”
He added: “If they’re going to put this policy in place, I would like [Labour] to think carefully through the impact it’s going to have on parents and not to take the decision lightly.”
The Abingdon Foundation, which represents both the senior and prep schools, 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.
“In short, the decision to move to co-education has been driven by the belief that the best preparation for young people is to educate them alongside one another.”
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.
Financial headache
While leaders did not mention it explicitly, the plan by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to add 20 per cent VAT on fees should they win the general election is proving to be a financial headache for many of the country’s independent schools.
Many head teachers fear the policy would cause smaller private schools to shut as families become unable to afford the higher fees, sparking an influx to state schools and widening inequalities within the independent sector with the larger, more established institutions that can afford to survive.
A poll in April found that a third of wealthy parents could quit private schools, unable to stomach the already-increasing cost of fees and school trips.
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, according to a report by the ISC published last week.
‘In line with current market demands’
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, Harrow, the City of London School, the City of London School for Girls, Wycombe Abbey, King’s College School and King Edward VI High School for Girls.
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.
Prof Mike Stevens, its chair of governors, said: “I am very excited by what this development will mean for the Abingdonians of the future.
“The Abingdon I have known has always been open to the opportunities that change can bring and our decision has been driven by what we think is best for education today.”
Mike Windsor, the head of Abingdon School, told The 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.
“We talk a lot about making our school available to as many people from different backgrounds as possible and we thought, well, at the moment we’re only able to offer our education to 50 per cent of the population,” he added.
Abingdon is the largest it has ever been and has seen its pupil numbers grow by a quarter over the past 15 years, meaning the proposed Labour VAT policy did not factor in the coeducational decision.
However, Mr Windsor has more general concerns about Sir Keir’s plan. “We’re very much preparing for what we have to face as the likelihood of the VAT on fees and we’re in a good position to weather that storm,” he told The Telegraph.
“My concerns about the policy are the impact on the diversity of the independent sector which I think offers parents great choice at the moment and not all schools are large and perhaps able to cope with this; I worry about the impact on some of the specialist provision available in the independent sector and the impact that will have on parents.”
He added: “If they’re going to put this policy in place, I would like [Labour] to think carefully through the impact it’s going to have on parents and not to take the decision lightly.”
