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The first and the largest number of prep schools, like the public schools they fed, were boys' schools. Gradually girls schools were also founded. Almost all of the early schools were single gender schools. This did not begin to chsange until well after World War II when many boys schools shifted to coeducastion. (For some reason few girls schools have made this shift.). It might be thought that the shift to coeducation was a carefully planned decesssion based on a study of research works which suggested that there were educational advantages to coeducation. As far as we can tell this was not the case. Rather it seems to have primarily been a business decession resulting from the need to attract more students. Whatever the reasons for girls coming go formerly all-boy institutions, the impact has been very significant. The most obvious is the dramatically improved amenities and living conditions. We also notice a few girls at all boys schools, but rarely the reverse.
We have completed our first year of 'co-education'. The girls created so few problems that we hardly notice them, apart from a certain civilising influence they seemed to exert on our formerly male-oriented domain! Now we want to increase their numbers.
AKAJ, The School Record (Beachborough School), September 1979.
What of the people in Queen's? We now have girl boarders in Yale and Falcon; everyone agrees how much they have enhanced the atmosphere in Junior."
P.N. Lee-Smith, Junior Wyvern (Queen's College Junior School), 1989-90.
It is not out of place, one feels, to mention the departure of our two girls, the one quiet and the other not so quiet. Male Chauvinist community that we are, we cannot help but notice their absence, for in July we said goodbye to Margaret and Jocelyn, who for four years have civilized us, we hope, just a little. Even from the depths of this male preserve we must admit to their contribution, whether it be in terms of clarinet, piano, oboe, or hockey not to mention a little football in the less excperienced echelons. We wish them good luvk as they move to pastures new, and we hope that we in turn may have given something to them in terms of real education, the ability to treat members of the opposite sex as people who are both normal and equal. [Note: Lambrook was a boys' school, but like many boys' schools there are often a few girls. These may be children of the dtaff or sisters of some of the boys. Schools in rural areas may also accept a few girls who are the daughters of local farmers. This varies from school to school.]
Lambrook Chronicle, 1980.
One factor which causes us constant headaches is the situation regarding entrance exams to girl's senior schools. Some previously boys only Public Schools now have a mixed entry at 13+, and they usually have the same arrangements for boys and girls. This is the ideal situation, and causes no special difficulties. But girls only schools tend to require an entry exam in February, or even earlier. Their syllabus is different, if we know it at all, and at 12+ C.E. it outlines certain topics which "should be covered after the exam". This is just not practicable when just a few girls in the class are sitting the 12+. Two further grumblesare the existence of a 75-minute paper at 12+ (something which has never been recuired at 13+ and which is much too long for this age group; 12+ in fact means over 12 the following September, so the girls may be only 11 1/2 when sitting the exam), and the fact that girls schools will often give little or no detailsof how candidates have performed in the exam, or indeed of what standard they should be aiming for. It is high time the girls' senior schools 'got their act together' and moved into the last part of the twentieth century.
JFB, Great Walstead Magazine 1987.
Since September 1977 some girls are also accepted both boarding and day. Giels will normally leave at the age of 11 or 12, the usual age for entry to their senior schools. Special arrangements have been made for girls' accomodations, and the games facilities already provided are excellent. The curriculum has been altered slightly so that it is more adapted to leaving at the age of 11. French is now started at the age of 9, and Latin (optional) at the age of 10. This enables more time to be given to Mathemtics and English. There are also lessons in needlework and craftwork.
Bishop's Court School Prospectus
In February The Governors held a special meeting to discuss Brancote's role in the Eighties. At the meeting they decided that Bramcote should open a Pre-Prep Department in September which would take in both boys and girls from the age of 4 1/2 upwards. At about 8 these children would move up into the main School. Much discussion took place before this decesion was reached, as of course it committed Bramcote to taking daygirls fir the first time in the School's history. The Governors felt that the demand throughout the country for boys and girls to be educated together was becoming stronger all the time, and that it would be logical for the girls who joined the Pre-Prep to move on into the main School when the time came. Very many boys' Prep Schools have decided to admit girls to satisfy a growing demand in recent years. Although it was originally envisaged that Nramcote would not be taking girls into the main School until those starting in the Pre-Prep was reached, it became clear that there were a number of parents with daughters of the right age to enter the Main School in September. The Governors as a result of this demand decided that the School would take these 8 or 9 daygirls in September. Over the next few years we plan to build the number of daygirls up to around 30, so that they may play a full part in the life of the SChool and receive as good as education as the boys in every way. I have no doubt that they will add something of real value to the life of the School.
Michael Flood, The Bramcote Magazine, Autumn 1978
Parents of the preparatory schoold childrenof today were prepared for a man's world with some women in it. In today's world-- tomorrow's world, there will be infinety more women working with men, with a different set of values and a different a capacity to live with those values than we can hope to understand today, but what we do understand is that this change is upon us and that our children are going to have to cope with it. Therefore, there is a most significant parental demand for both a variety and a free choice of school, very often with co-education at certain ages and stages. This has manifested itself in the increased number of girls entering I.A.P.S. schools and a very much larger number of boys public schools taking girls at 6th form level for their last two years before moving on th University.
Headmaster's Editorial, The Downs School Record, 1979.
