As co-education has grown from strength to strength at Rugby over the last 40 years there have been many changes to the school. This article will look at how going fully co-educational has influenced changes in staff, houses, sport, and extra-curricular activities. It will also detail some firsts for girls at the school.

Throughout the 1980s Rugby School made plans to make all year groups co-educational. In preparation to increase the number of girls the school also looked to appoint female teaching staff. Mrs Chantal Williams, a French and Spanish teacher, was appointed in 1987 and was the first female member of staff to be appointed since Alice Dukes in 1916. In 1990 Micheal Mavor was appointed Headmaster of the school with the task of introducing girls to F Block. First Michael Mavor appointed five House Mistresses to run the girl's boarding houses. Crescent House had closed in 1991; Southfield, Rupert Brooke, and Dean, already Sixth Form houses, welcomed F Block Girls and Bradley was converted from boys' houses into girls' houses.

Forty borders and 10 day girls joined the school's F Block in 1993. By 1998 the demand for places for girls at the school exceeded the number of places in boarding houses so Tudor was converted into a girl's house. By the early 2000s numbers and demand had increased again and there was a need for another girl's house.

In 1995 Stanley was converted into a boarding house for Sixth Form girls (the members of the LXX and XX). Every year since then girls have joined the house for the Sixth Form experience and all are new to Rugby School.

In the 1990s Southfield became a day house and moved from its original location at 8 Horton Crescent to its current location at 10 Horton Crescent. With the need for a new girls boarding house in 2003 the first girls joined Griffin at 5-7 Horton Crescent. The original Southfield House was then refurbished into a boarding house in 2005 and the new Griffin House was completed. Today it is the smallest boarding house with the largest garden, and 41 girls call it home. Griffin House gets its name from the three Griffin heads that appear on the Rugby School coat of arms.

As well as changes to the houses there were changes in sport, and although a variety of new sports had been introduced in the 1980s, girls sporting teams did not really get much of a mention in The Meteor. The introduction of girls to the F Block saw girls excel in sports. The 1st Hockey XI was established in the 1970s and now over 400 girls have played for the team. In 2022/2023 the Hockey XI was awarded its first caps with house crests on them.

In 1994 the 1st Girls Netball team was established and entered competitions - since then over 200 girls have played for the first team. While girls' cricket is mentioned in the 1990s the 1st Girls XI appeared in 2016 and has been successful over the last eight years. Although there was a gap during COVID over 50 girls have played for the 1st XI since 2016 (current England international Maia Bouchier was also the first girl to play for the boy's 1st XI). In football girls have been playing rugby at the school since 2021 and the latest team to be established was the girl's 1st XV in the bicentenary year of rugby 2023 and the first female captain of the XV appointed . Girls' rugby had a successful first year beating the U18 Barbarian's team in December 2023.

Girls at Rugby School also continued to take part in extracurricular activities including Societies, Rugby 360 and CCF. Rugby School was one of the first schools to send girls to Marine Corps Competitions. The first female member of the CCF to receive the School's Sword of Honour was Rachel Coyle in 2003-2004 other firsts for girls in the school have included the first female Head of School Louise Harrison (nee Woolcock) (Bradley 1994-1996), who is now Honorary Treasurer of the Rugbeian Society; and the increasing numbers of girls on the Levee. Of course, we must not forget that Cindy Holmes (Dean 1978-1980) was a member of the Board of Governors from 2006 to 2020 and the first female Chair of Governors from 2014 to 2020. Her portrait hangs in the TSR.

While the school started off with three sixth form girls in 1975 there are now almost 400 girls at Rugby School spread out through all year groups in seven houses. During this time there has been an increase in female staff and we will look at the influence of women at Rugby School in future blogs. In the meantime, we look forward to celebrating 50 years of co-education over the next couple of years and to the future of co-education at Rugby School.

If would like to share some of your memories, please do email us at archives@rugbyschool.net.

For previous articles on co-education:

Rugby and Co-education - Part 1 | News | The Rugbeian Community

My sister and I as some of the first girls at Rugby by Gill Parker | News | The Rugbeian Community