An Update on Progress: One Year into Our Co-education Journey

An Update on Progress: One Year into Our Co-education Journey
By Graeme May, Senior Deputy Head, Abingdon School

Since our co-ed announcement this time last year, we’ve had a hugely engaging 12 months planning the developments that will enhance the Abingdon experience for all pupils. There’s more still to do but we felt this anniversary warranted a fuller update on progress.

Over the year, we’ve enjoyed undertaking extensive research, including comparing ourselves with numerous other schools and having direct conversations with some key institutions regarding their co-educational transitions. This groundwork has been crucial for our planning. I will return to this ‘research’ theme later, but for now let’s get on with the updates.

Physical Site Developments

Adaptations to our physical site are progressing well with three key projects underway:

• Sports Centre: Over the next two summers, we will expand the gym and reorganise changing facilities to accommodate all pupils.
• New Multi-Use Sports Area (MUSA): A preferred location for a new MUSA – with netball courts particularly in mind – has been identified, and planning will advance shortly.
• Lower School Expansion: Plans are in place, with initial work already completed, to expand the Lower School area to accommodate a revised House structure as pupil numbers grow.

Pastoral Structure

We’ve fixed on a new, co-educational House system for our Year 7 and 8 pupils, ensuring that we maintain our current strength by having small and supportive pastoral units. Upon entering the Third Year (Year 9), pupils will still transfer to our nine senior houses, which will all be co-educational by 2028. A system of ‘paired’ houses will be implemented for the first cohorts of Sixth Form girls to ensure they have a strong peer support network.

Curriculum Review

Our comprehensive curriculum review, deliberately timed to happen alongside the co-education planning, has examined our subjects and timetable structure. This review aims to address current timetable challenges and refresh our academic curriculum, including the balance of compulsory and optional subjects and lesson time allocation. Importantly, Abingdon’s renowned ‘Other Half’ co-curricular programme will remain a defining and enriching element of our educational offering.

Culture and Ethos

Preparing for co-education has prompted a thorough review of our underlying culture and ethos. While Abingdon has always embraced diversity in many forms, we acknowledge where we are coming from in terms of our history and have been taking deliberate steps to view every aspect of school life through a co-educational lens. This includes re-evaluating everything from visual displays and campus atmosphere to our core values and the behaviours we promote and reward.

Staff have participated in training days focused on this transition, with targeted sessions for Heads of Department and Heads of House. These have clearly shown us that continuing to reflect on our practice is to the benefit of all our pupils: preparation for co-ed is preparation for all-round improvement. For example, exploring methods of classroom engagement and the use of ‘wait time’ encourages teachers to ensure all students have sufficient time to formulate answers.

Finalising Decisions and Moving Forward

Several other key decisions are nearing completion. A revised uniform policy is almost finalised – and, yes, there will be a uniform for all year groups including a professional business attire in Sixth Form. We are also preparing to advertise new positions within the restructured school, particularly in sport and pastoral care.

A Footnote on the Co-ed vs Single-Sex Debate

During the past year we have encountered confident assertions that “the research shows” conclusively that there is a clear ‘winner’ in this debate. The truth is that the studies that have any real authority (those with robust control processes, large data sets etc.) all reach the conclusion that the single-sex or co-ed nature of a school has no measurable effect on outcomes: it’s the overall quality of a school that matters and its ‘fit’ for the particular child.

However, to try to get to a ‘final’ word on the debate, we recently set the AI engine Gemini a ‘deep research’ task to see if a definitive answer can be gleaned from a survey of all of the evidence it could find, including studies strongly pro one side or the other. At least, we thought, we’d be avoiding the trap of confirmation bias that comes from leaning only on the research that agrees with one’s already established view, regardless of its unreliable nature.

For those interested, we are making Gemini’s findings available in a 28-page report or an 8-minute audio overview. The report is exactly as it came to us from Gemini (so no sneaky edits by us to cut out ‘unhelpful’ findings). We encourage you to conduct your own similarly objective research if you remain unconvinced.