The Story of Co-education at Oakham School

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Co-Education at Oakham School

A Brief History

A school should be co-educational because education must prepare for life John Buchanan (JDB) writing in his memoir Operation Oakham in 1990

Written by Joe Roberts and Aurore Guillomot-Bonnefond

The Decision

The years 1970 and 1971 marked two major milestones in Oakham School’s history, the most significant since 1584, and brought about tremendous and irrevocable changes to the course and nature of the School – returning to full independence and accepting girls into the School.

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Below, from left to right: John Buchanan, Trevor Case, Col Tom Haywood

n the 1960s, the Labour Government sought to bring about the end of the Direct Grant and the grammar school system, which Oakham had been a part of since the time of Sargant’s headship. Buchanan decided to pre-empt the end of the Direct Grant, which accounted for a large proportion of Oakham’s day boys, and he worked toward moving the School back to full independence – a proposal met with outright hostility by the Local Education Authority. Despite the LEA’s staunch resistance, the Oakham School Trustees voted to return to independence on 1 September 1970.

A cynic might suggest that the subsequent move to co-education was a purely financial one, coming as it did so quickly after the decision to forego the Direct Grant and its

subsidies. They would be partially correct, although there were in fact many non-financial reasons, perhaps less pressing but no less important, that complemented the overwhelming financial necessity.

Buchanan had for some time been ruminating on the limitations of single-sex education, feeling as though it was particularly deficient when it came to preparing for life after Oakham. He felt, too, that girls would have a “civilising effect” on the School as a whole. This was in keeping with his general outlook on the School’s character, having made a concerted effort in his tenure to that point to phase out lingering Edwardian public school tendencies, such as corporal punishment and fagging. And, with a fee increase of 25% to offset the end of the Direct Grant, Oakham needed to stand out, and being fully co-educational offered a unique opportunity.

In all the wrangling with the LEA, which had included a rejected proposal by the Trustees to merge with the girls’ Rutland High School, the idea of co-education had been planted and had taken root in Buchanan’s mind.

The triumvirate of the Headmaster (JDB), Chairman (Tom Haywood) and Bursar (Trevor Case), began co-education consultations, and Buchanan approached the Housemasters with trepidation about the proposal. He found them surprisingly supportive, and buoyed by their backing, Buchanan prepared for the Trustees.

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The earliest recollection is of the ease in which co-education was introduced. As I recall, a special staff meeting was held when JDB, ever the master at marketing an idea, announced, “We shall be taking girls into the school next year.” This was accepted without much question. As we left the meeting there were some mutterings that such a step would widen the gap between ourselves and the Uppinghams of this world [and] weaken our chances at competitive sport. Most of us were full of eager anticipation.

Mike Stevens, Teacher at Oakham School 1957–1993

In 1971, the Editors of the Oakhamian sent out a questionnaire to the prospective female pupils. Below are some responses they received and published in the Summer 1971 Oakhamian.

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WHY DO YOU WISH TO COME HERE? “I had already decided that I wished to leave my present school, as it shares with many other girls’ boarding schools a certain narrowness of outlook, which despite many 6th form privileges becomes more confining as one progresses up the school…”

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HOW DO YOU THINK YOU’LL BENEFIT? “There are many ways in which I think I will benefit from this – the atmosphere for teaching A-Levels is probably better in a boys’ public school, and it will have more varied and interesting activities to offer. Although girls’ schools have drama and music, they sound much more inviting in the pleasant ambience of Oakham…”

Above: Michael Stevens.

Right: Photographs sent by Richard Hope With Alison Hattersley (1971-1972) and outside Old School in summer 1970

The idea had clearly also stuck in their minds from the earlier independence discussions, for it was with remarkable alacrity, only four months after the independence vote, that the Trustees resolved to accept girls in September 1971.

With the staff and Trustees now committed, the focus turned to the practicalities of such a momentous decision; primarily – where to put said girls? College House, at that time the home of the Oxbridge candidates, was deemed a suitable arrangement for a small cohort, until such a time as purpose-built accommodation was completed. Other considerations needed to be made, first and foremost the uniforms, ever a popular topic among school staff, and perhaps equally divisive - the use of Christian names instead of surnames in the classrooms.

Uniforms finally decided (a tartan skirt and dark blazer), first names permitted in the Red Book, and a suitable home found, they now needed some girls. At that time, Oakham was still establishing itself on a national level and its pulling power remained limited; thus, convincing families to send their daughters proved easier said than done. With three months to go, there were only two applicants. But with the assistance of an agency, those numbers swelled over the summer, and 17 boarders and 10 day girls entered College House on 5 September 1971.

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HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO LIFE HERE? “I hope I can contribute to the social life by making a mixed society which, after all, is the normal way of life.”

I remember meeting with JDB to make sure the transition was a success with no reasons to object from parents, public or mainly staff. We had an amazingly ambitious and open working student/headmaster relationship; he said he felt I had the trust of the school. He wanted to move fast and decisively. He encouraged me to abolish any unnecessary rules at the first School Council meetings regarding privileges of seniority that were based solely on tradition and obviously outdated.

Passageways that only year 5 and above could use went the first week.

We quietly had to win over staff who had concerns over ‘relationships’ being a distraction to learning [and] the school bar being a den of iniquity. Many seemed sure that it wouldn’t work beyond a senior school system. But what Oakham managed was a complete transformation within a few years as each new girl year intake worked its way up through the school system. JDB had a large family himself and was sure students could behave in an adult way given the opportunity.

Richard Hope, Head Boy and Chairman of the School Council, Winter 1971

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The First Cohort

Left: The 17 boarders in College House, 1971

On the afternoon of 5 September 1971, 17 girl boarders arrived at a School that hadn’t known their like in its nearly 400-year history.

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hey were a gallant lot,” wrote JDB, and they surely had to be, 27 girls amongst 714 boys. The younger ones were spread particularly thin, with 11 scattered across Forms 1 to 5, including a sole girl each in Form 3 and Form 5.

College House was beautifully furnished, more nicely than the boys’ more austere dormitories, although with the School exceeding its intended allocation of 15 places, the day girls were left to squeeze in amongst the boarders.

The Girls 1st tennis VI, 1972

Buchanan felt it essential to the success of the endeavour to introduce girls across the entirety of the School from the off to avoid it becoming only co-ed in the sixth form (à la Marlborough) and so his daughter, Josephine, joined in Form 4, as did Terence Treanor’s daughter, Elizabeth. Oakham has long been a family school, and that was as true then as now, with about a third of that first cohort either having siblings enrolled or parents on the faculty.

Those first few days were hectic, as the reality set in and old habits needed changing. The boys soon learned to adapt, their language softened, if only ever so slightly, and the more risqué jokes left behind. The first afternoon of sport drew a crowd of rugby boys to the girls’ tennis practice, but the novelty soon wore off. The sixth form boarders found their feet amongst the School House boys, mixing in the Club Room in the evenings. Naturally, some romantic liaisons formed, but the girls didn’t only flock to the 1st XV, as the boys had assumed, forcing a re-appraisal of their values.

There were, of course, a few teething problems, and there were some staff members who refused to bow to the new reality, insisting on treating the girls with the same severity they had treated the boys, but most were welcoming, and more nervous even than the new girls.

The uniform, as with any school, provoked an inordinate amount of debate, especially as the older girls were permitted to wear home clothes apart from Chapel and ‘formal

Mrs Buchanan (top) and Mary Stevens (bottom)

Below: The first contingent of girls in the CCF, 1973

In the course of that September afternoon, 17 girls arrived at College House, found their rooms, their beds, made first contact with each other.

Then: time for dinner in the Ashburton Hall. We took courage from each other and, cloudlike, drifted over from College House. In our Buchanan tartan skirts. The hubbub of hundreds of boys eating and talking spilled out of the Hall. The doors opened. Silence fell. We flattened ourselves against the wall wishing ourselves invisible and inched our way around two sides of the square.

Arrived at the self-service unit our hands could get busy as we clutched our trays, gathered our food and headed for the nearest free tables where we could all fit. The hubbub resumed, more muted than before, and not only innumerable boys’ necks craned to assess the newcomers, the masters at top table stared, too.

That was the most terrifying moment. But it passed.

Over the next few days we learnt to walk out in smaller ‘girl-clouds’, show confidence even if we didn’t feel it terribly, find our way around the sizeable campus.

Emilie Salvesen (née Ingenhousz) recalling that first day in September 1971

occasions’; a privilege not yet conferred onto the School House boys, who remained suited and booted, and were a tad jealous.

There remained elements of the School which did not integrate immediately; the DofE and Choir remained the preserve of the boys for some years, but overall, the girls integrated fully and quickly. The Oakhamian of Winter 1971 contains high praise for the girls from R.B. Jones, Housemaster of College House, and later The Round House, who commends them for the “shining example to all sixth formers and to the School: The Sorcerer, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Musical Evening, Concerts – even shooting – all owe a debt to them. We are proud of them.”

Perhaps the greatest testament to the immediate success of the girls at Oakham is that by September 1972, the number of girls had swelled to 116 – still only about 14% of the population, but more evenly spread across the School.

With nearly 100 more girls, including an additional 60 boarders, came the need for much more accommodation than College House could possibly offer. The Round House opened that September, the first purpose-built girls’ House, with 30 bedsits housing 60 girls, as well as 18 remaining in College House with Mr Jones, now HM of Round House.

Rev. Terence Treanor took charge of 38 day girls in Talbot House, the first of its kind.

A letter by Elizabeth Treanor, reflecting on her first term at Oakham, published in the Winter 1971 Oakhamian: Below: Rev Terence Treanor and his daughter Elizabeth (above)

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aving kept in close contact with the school for the past five years I had some idea about life at Oakham before I came here. I therefore did not enter the School as a stranger, and settled in quickly.

This term, as I expected, has been a very active one and I have found plenty of time for music. As well as practising, I have participated in The Sorcerer, orchestra, chamber music, and, of course, chapel singing – all very valuable to my musical education. I have also been fortunate in doing one or two other activities, all broadening one’s cultural outlook. I think it is very good for musicians to mix with people from other fields as it eliminates their tendency to be shy and of narrow outlook. In a society such as this, there is no hot-house atmosphere which is, so frequently, present at pioneer music schools. Consequently, musicians can mature as people and this is vital as music reflects the personality of the performer.

Naturally, I’m biased, but I feel that the introduction of females into a male haven has been very successful. As we live our lives in a mixed society, I can see no good alternative.

I feel that it is very necessary for young men and women to grow up together. I feel also that on various topics, both masculine and feminine views are called for. I am sure that co-education will become very popular and that the number of girls in the school will rapidly increase.”

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Fully Co-Educational With the success of “this co-education lark” as one Tutor rather ungracefully put it, came change, and lots of it. The School was, in Buchanan’s own estimation, ‘chasing its own tail’, in this case, victim of its own success in integrating and enticing girls to the School.

The newly built Sports Hall (1972)

The Changing Campus

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Above left: C.J. Palmer playing squash Above right: The first five girls boarding in Orchard Close (1975) Right: John Jerwood

new Sports Hall was opened in 1972, replacing the old gym, which since 1970 had also been serving as the Pavilion. This thoroughly modernised the sporting facilities that Oakham had to offer, with a gymnasium, squash courts, and an indoor swimming pool that replaced the outdoor pool at the bottom of the campus, which had naturally been at the constant mercy of the English weather.

As the numbers of girls shot up, and the total number of pupils in the School with it, housing them all became the decade’s constant battle. Despite the success of the First & Second Development Campaigns, the finances did not allow for the level of expansion that the campus required.

In stepped The Visitor, John Jerwood (’35), whose own faith in the co-education project at Oakham led to the opening, and re-opening, of his own sizeable pockets. The Lower School Campus, which came to be known as ‘Jerwoods’, was expanded with two new buildings next to Peterborough House, to accommodate Peterborough and Lincoln Houses for the boarders, and Sargants and Ancaster for the day pupils.

Many of the Seventh Form girls were at that time billeted around town with Oakham School families, and while many of the girls enjoyed their time in lodgings, a sustainable model it was not.

Orchard Close, once the retirement residence of W.L. Sargant, was purchased in 1975, to be converted into a girls’ House, in theory to replicate the boys’ model of School House as a Seventh Form House. However, in its first year, it played host to the Stevens family, 5 plucky girls and an army of builders, and even after its full opening, there was plenty of internal wrangling about which girls ought to be housed there.

It wasn’t only the girls’ Houses that needed work, and the boys’ accommodation was falling rather behind in its comfort compared to that offered to the girls. Much of the campus was renovated throughout this period, including all the boys’ Houses.

New laboratories were built to cater for the growing number of scientists.

Top: Lincoln House (1986) Above: Buchanans House informal photograph (1978)

A CCF camp

The 1976 Shooting team

A Rounded Education

Kwamé Ryan in Dido & Aeaneas (1989)

The musical Joseph (1975-1976)

Girls going on a D of E expedition (1992)

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he arrival of the girls accelerated the broadening of the School’s offerings which Buchanan had been working toward since his arrival, both in the classroom and outside it, and the School began to take the shape he envisioned for it.

The CCF deserves a special mention for its endeavours to accommodate both boys and girls. Buchanan had written to the Ministry of Defence to inquire about the possibility of the girls joining the Corps; the joint Cadet Executive were surprised by the request, “up until that time we had not given much thought to the matter”. The request was granted and Oakham, along with four other schools, was selected for a pilot programme.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme soon followed the CCF in integrating, and in 1977, the first girls received their awards, with 4 Silver and 14 Bronze awards; the first 3 Gold awards would soon follow in 1979. The success of the DofE programme also led to the creation of the Oakham School Exploration Society, which went on its first expedition to Spitzbergen in 1979.

Music and theatre, already in a vastly improved state by 1971, were only enhanced by the arrival of talented female musicians and thespians. On the stage, the girls who had arrived from single-sex schools were just as eager to play female parts as the boys were excited by no longer being required to do so. Between the Shakespeare Centre and the Barraclough Hall, productions of all shapes and sizes were a regular fixture of the School calendar. In music, one orchestra had become three, the CCF band became two concert bands, and the School’s musicians became “excellent ambassadors”, playing dozens of concerts in the School and the local community.

Societies became a central part of the timetable, rather than an evening afterthought, meaning that day pupils could join, and the Red Books of the era testify to a very active social life, with well over a dozen societies meeting regularly, and welcoming public speakers to the School or going off on trips to the theatre or to a concert.

Left: The orchestra (1990s) Right: Society membership cards (1970s)

Iceland expedition (1979)

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Buchanans new extension

Academic success

Photographs of sporting events in the 1970s

Academically, the School reaped the full fruits of co-education. Given the demand for girls’ places, the Registrar was able to demand 6 O-levels, far exceeding the requirement for boys to re-enroll into the Sixth Form. There was, for a few years, a disparity between the boys’ and the girls’ marks, although by 1976, the boys had an A-level success rate of 86%, only 2% shy of the girls’ 88%, which Buchanan described as “the culmination of so much for which [he] had striven at Oakham ever since 1958”.

Sporting success

Despite the grumblings of some staff members and Old Oakhamians, who had suggested that going co-educational would condemn the various sporting endeavours, the opposite proved to be true. In 1971, the 1st XV Rugby team beat Uppingham and Oundle for the first time. The decade of success for the XV culminated in 1980, winning 14 of 14 matches, beating Uppingham to cap off the perfect season. Cricket, after an abject 1960s, was rejuvenated in the 70s, including an unbeaten season in 1972.

The integration of the CCF also brought the assimilation of the Shooting team. Helen Brooks was the first girl cadet to shoot at Bisley, and later Ginny Measures was one of four Oakham representatives to shoot for England in BSSRA home internationals. The much-improved facilities of the Sports Hall also brought about great successes for swimming and squash, and in 1980, the girls’ squash team won the Sereena Cup, the national schoolgirls’ title.

The post-Buchanan era

In 1977, John Buchanan retired and made way for his successor, Richard Bull. The School which Buchanan passed on to Bull was practically unrecognisable from the small provincial grammar school he inherited in 1958. It was only fitting that the newly converted Orchard Close was renamed Buchanans House in his honour.

Co-education was cemented at Oakham School under Bull’s leadership, and the School’s rapid expansion continued apace. Rushebrookes House, named after the School’s first Headmaster, was opened in 1980, and brought the number of girls’ Houses equal to the boys for the first time. An extension to Buchanans House followed shortly thereafter. Upon its completion, the decision was taken to match Round House with School House, and Chapel Close became the Seventh Form Campus.

By the time Bull left for Rugby School at the end of 1984, during which time the School celebrated its Quatercentenary, girls accounted for 45% of the populace.

It was his successor, Graham Smallbone, who oversaw the concluding milestones in making Oakham School fully co-educational. 1989 brought about one final momentous shift – Deanscroft was converted into Stevens House, a girls’ Boarding House, while its erstwhile male residents moved across Doncaster Close to the newly built Haywoods House.

That same year saw girls account for 50% of the pupils at Oakham for the first time ever. There has been a bit of fluctuation, including in 1991 when girls outnumbered boys, but it has remained a roughly equal split ever since.

There is no way a piece of this length could do justice to the last 30 years, but it’s fair to say that they have built on the foundations of those early co-education years, with sporting, artistic and academic successes too numerous to mention.

50 years on from that first group of 27 girls, many, if not most, Oakham pupils take the presence of the opposite sex for granted. But it’s worth remembering that some visionary leadership and a few brave young women made it all possible, and shaped Oakham School into what it is today.

Rushebrookes (1980)

One of the memories, amongst others, that stood out for me, was wearing a cape! This was part of the uniform over our blazer and as I rode my bike to school, it was a bit like being a superhero, as it flung out in the breeze behind me!

I have some lovely memories of Speech Days in the Sports Hall, looking down from the balcony, the little individual desks with inkwells in a classroom in the Deanscroft area, the muddy hockey pitch, the “Fred” machine that would fire balls out to practise tennis and one day, we were allowed to give lacrosse a go! I remember having an English lesson over in Kilburn Road with Rod Smith and Biology with Richard Davies, also French with John Barber.

As regards the introduction of girls to the school, it never stood out to me at all that there were more boys than girls at that time. It just seemed so normal and I remember looking up to the older pupils in awe in the queue in the dining hall!

I really do have such happy memories of my time at Oakham and feel so glad to have had the opportunity to go to a wonderful school.

Delia Moutrey (’79)

Extracts from ‘Co-Education Seven Years On’, published in The Oakhamian Spring & Summer Terms, 1978

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ld Oakhamians of the pre-co-educational era, and I trust I shall still number them among my friends after they have read this article, say to me with a gleam in their eyes, “Don’t the girls give you a lot of problems?”

“Of course they do,” I reply, “but really no more than you did in the 50s and 60s, only different ones!”

“Are they not lowering the standards of school games? They ask. “Four defeats of Uppingham in six matches on the rugger field, and thirteen Duke of Edinburgh Gold Awards this current year do not suggest to me an effete society”, I answer.

One of the greatest attributes of many Old Oakhamians, which I have always admired, is their intense loyalty to the school. It is too early yet to judge whether the girls will share the same degree of loyalty, but the increasing numbers that we are beginning to see at Old Oakhamian reunions suggest that in time they will.”

Ronnie Henton, Second Master & Director of Studies

Significant Co-Education Milestones 1970 1971

Oakham School returns to full independence

1972

The Round House opens

1973

1974

Jerwoods Campus opens

Girls are admitted into the CCF

1975

Orchard Close purchased and converted into a girls’ House

1977

JDB Retires; Orchard Close becomes Buchanans House

1980

Rushebrookes House opens

1982

Oakham Update, Winter 1991, issue no. 12

Buchanans extended

Co-Education Vox Pop – our new 1st formers tell all

a challenge” • “It’s “With boys present you will never be bottom of the class because it •means there are some unclever people present” “Boys always get the blame when things go wrong” • “It’s dullnearly without the other sex” • “There are always girls present who have finished their prep and you •can copy it” are so vain” • “Boys “Boys cheeky and rude and make classes more fun” • “If you are are worried about doing something wrong, don’t be, a boy will do it • first” • “If you are upset about something, don’t worry, a boy will make a joke of it and cheer you up” you have been to the School Shop the girls stop you and •ask“When for sweets” funny to see girls fuss all the time” • “It’s tend not to think of the opposite sex as being totally different” • “You “As girls are cleverer when young it encourages the boys to catch •them up and pass them” “Can • be embarrassing”

The first cohort of girls arrives

1983

1984

Oakham School celebrates its Quatercentenary

Round House becomes a Seventh Form House

1989

Haywoods & Stevens Houses open, the population is 50/50 boys and girls for the first time

1996

Schanschieffs site opens, creating four Houses for day girls and boys