2001: T H E I M P L E M E N TAT I O N BY HAZEL JONES-LEE (84-09)
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ducated happily and variously at a large state primary school, a co-ed direct grammar school and then university, I had never been into a single-sex school until my first school teaching job at a quite famous girls’ boarding school. Its pedagogy, its support for staff and dedication to nurturing whatever were the real strengths of its pupils were magnificent, but there was a tension amongst the staff and pupils, both there and at my subsequent girls’ school, which I had never encountered before and which I can only attribute to its single-sex constitution. For several years during the later 1990s, there was co-ed discussion amongst the Governors at RGS, but gradually, some staff were drawn into what were still very tentative and confidential soundings. Some time during 1998, Liz Radice, then Director of Studies, organised a small group of staff to explore ‘the feasibility of introducing girls into the Sixth Form at RGS’. Its recommendations ranged widely and became the basis for future discussions. In March 1999, after Liz Radice left to become Headmistress of Channing School, I was invited to join a working party of three governors, James Miller and John Armstrong to explore the pros and cons of the status quo, a co-ed Sixth Form and a co-ed school and soon after, to present my paper supporting the introduction of coeducation to RGS, beginning with the Sixth Form.
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