Tonbridge School goes co-ed - when tradition meets financial reality

[Runningupthathill1980]

Tonbridge School announced this week it is introducing a co-educational Sixth Form from September 2028, with boarding girls following from 2030. Quite a bombshell for a school with that history and tradition. Keen to hear what people think.

What strikes me is the pattern when you look at which schools have gone co-educational and which haven't. The ones holding the single-sex line, Eton, Radley and Harrow, all have substantial endowments and investments, in some cases owning significant land holdings outside the main school campus. Tonbridge by contrast is much more dependent on fee income with modest investment reserves by comparison. The co-educational move brings roughly 100 additional pupils, though it is worth remembering that the additional net income from that alone, once you factor in the infrastructure, staffing and facility costs of accommodating girls, is unlikely to be transformative.

The irreversibility of it is what strikes me most. The announcement frames it in the language of vision, evolution and exciting opportunities. But is this a genuine long term shift in educational philosophy or a financial decision dressed up in aspirational language?

Worth noting too that Tonbridge has always had a significant day boy contingent and is largely weekly boarding, so perhaps this was coming.

Particularly given that the VAT imposition on school fees may not be permanent - its possible that a future government could remove it. If that happens Tonbridge will have made a permanent generational change in response to what, perhaps turned out to be a relatively short term financial pressure.

Once girls are introduced into the Sixth Form is that really where it ends? The logic of full co-education from Year 9 inevitably follows, perhaps within a generation. The school announcing co-ed Sixth Form today is almost certainly announcing full co-education tomorrow.

Ironically every school that makes this move only strengthens the position of Eton, Radley and Harrow as the last great all-boys institutions, making places there even more sought after and oversubscribed than they already are.

Spare a thought too for the families already affected. Boys currently at the school, or with accepted places, chose Tonbridge partly on the basis of an all-boys education. In some cases families may withdraw as a result, which rather undermines the financial logic of the decision in the first place.

Keen to hear all views, including from those who think co-education is genuinely the right direction for the school.

Having overheard some horribly misogynistic “banter” from uniform wearing Tonbridge boys on the train, I can only hope having female students around actually teaches those ones some manners and the ability to function normally around women.

Why are you framing this as a negative? I am opposed to private education generally as it entrenches inequality but I think it is particularly harmful that the very best private schools in the country should be the preserve of males. Apart from anything it means that the generation of men most likely to end up running the country won’t have grown up with any female friends, which is weird.

Spare a thought for those affected? It’s turning into a mixed sex school fgs nothing else. They don’t need thoughts and prayers.

Separate to the VAT/private schooling system, it’s well known girls do better in same sex schooling and boys in mixed.

They probably did some market research which shows a coed boarding school within very close proximity of London by train with weekly boarding, would be popular and ensure long term viability.
Plenty of boys want coed at Sixth Form too.
For current parents this kind of stuff is always annoying because of changes. Nobody wants to pay lots of money and go through upheaval.
But the Skinners generally are a great livery company with lots of schools in the group and these decisions will be research based.

I just looked it up and 16k per term for day pupils in a grammar area with some of the best boy grammar schools in the country (Judd, Skinners, St Olave’s, Dartford Grammar) is a challenge.
That day fee is far too high compared to the alternative on offer, for free.

Agreed. And almost £65k p.a for a weekly boarding school is a poor commercial decision in itself, when one compares to the the true (all boys) full boarding schools. They would have been far better to offer a more flexible boarding model, which reflects their reality, and adjust fees accordingly.

Nobody said it was a negative, simply raising questions worth debating. And the preserve of males point rather ignores the fact that there are far more elite all-girls independent schools than all-boys ones. Wycombe Abbey, Cheltenham Ladies' College, Roedean, Benenden, St Mary's Ascot to name just a few, all producing the generation of women most likely to end up running the country. Nobody seems particularly concerned about that. The single-sex argument cuts both ways or it cuts neither way.

All the local single sex (state) grammar schools in Tonbridge, Maidstone etc are mixed sex in six form.

I think it's a shame too OP and it's happened at my son's (over 1000-year-old) boys school too. They admitted girls in the sixth form before he joined, so I don't know when that was, but they announced last year (presumably in response to VAT on school fees) that they will be going full co-ed from this Sept. Schools are doing what they have to in order to survive. The other all boys school in our city went fully co-ed two years ago, having been all boys from 4-18 until 2021, so a very rapid adoption of girls throughout the school. In both cases it was dressed up as positive, but parents aren't stupid - we all know the real reason.

It's well known that girls do better in single sex but boys don't. Hopefully it happens everywhere eventually. Highgate was on the verge of going bust and has gone from strength to strength by going co ed.

In single sex independent boys schools, the boys do very well as entry is so competitive! Just like boys grammars, of which there are 4 in Bucks. They certainly are not back numbers academically. I also think there’s a huge merit in staff understanding boys and guiding them. Certainly in co Ed schools the boys are not more refined (totally ludicrous and banter really doesn’t disappear!) and why is it the job of girls to make them behave? Women have to do everything!

I think it’s a shame. Just makes an even smaller pool from which to choose from if you’re looking for single sex.

@Runningupthathill1980: Particularly given that the VAT imposition on school fees may not be permanent - its possible that a future government could remove it.

This really is never going to happen. I think introducing VAT on school fees was a spiteful move to buy votes, but any government that abolishes VAT on school fees will be seen by many as elitist and favouring the rich while others are struggling to put food on the table.

Why would any political party give away so many votes, even if they would never themselves have introduced the VAT in the first place?

Not really a political debate I want to get into and its going a little off topic. However, as you've mentioned it, it's worth making the point that any future reversal wouldn't be about elitism, it would be because the policy has demonstrably failed on its own terms. The OBR revised revenue estimates downward by 35% within months of implementation. The government predicted around 3,000 pupils would move into the state sector as a result of VAT. The actual figure is already over 13,000 and rising, more than four times the forecast, placing real pressure on state schools already dealing with record teacher vacancies. Fees have also risen by an average of 14%, well above the Treasury's own 10% forecast, meaning it's hitting middle income families and bursary recipients hardest rather than the genuinely wealthy. There's also a broader point that Britain is virtually unique in taxing education at all. No other developed country does it. Three parties, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Reform, between them representing the majority of votes cast at the last election, have all committed to reversing it, which suggests the political calculus may be considerably less clear cut than you think.

Give away so many votes? About three quarter of the electorate now seem to actively hate Left wing ideology and Labour. Withdrawing such a policy which does not work economically and failed in other countries miserably like Greece would far more likely be seen as a triumph over Left wing bullshit and sticking it to Labour. So not sure about losing “votes” at all. It would be sold as good British patriotism and English schools and best of Britain returns - which Labour tried to destroy, Just look at what Farage has to say.

Brilliantly put!

@Runningupthathill1980 The policy has caused many issues in my part of the country. The best schools are filling up from their catchments and other people, in the less affluent areas, cannot now get into the very good schools they would have done a few years ago. There’s a big pressure on places! Of course the well off are still using private schools but the ones who aren’t happy are the parents who are having to take the local town schools, which are a mixed bag, and cannot get into the nicer village schools they used to access. The better schools have parents in catchment who would have paid for school but now cannot afford it.

Note also the news today re Harrow …

Yes I saw this. It did strike me as a little odd. It was historically (and currently) Radley and Downe House that had a close partnership (albeit not structurally official). In addition to being geographically much closer than Harrow, they share many social gatherings, events, co curricular, so it seems that if any school should be strategically aligned to Downe House it would be Radley. It seems a far more natural match up. That said, Harrow is hugely internationally focused and Downe House does have international outposts and perhaps also wants to jump futher onto that band wagon, as Harrow increasingly does, so perhaps it makes sense for them. Radley adopts a stronger domestic focus, as does Eton, both so far eschewing the temptation to open international franchises - correctly IMO.

The international franchise system that supports lots of schools is showing signs of a bubble about to burst.
i can see it might be unsettling but ‘spare a thought’ seems a bit strong - stats suggest it will do the boys good. I’m a big fan of single sex schooling, particularly for girls, but coed sixth form especially for boys is good imo. I want young men that know how to work with girls released into society!

Independent schools, like any other businesses, must adapt to survive. I think it's a very positive thing for all involved, especially having seen the type of man many of the top single sex institutions seem to create and release upon the world. Life isn't single sex generally, I've no idea why school should be.

I think the fees are now so high, all of the schools are struggling to attract pupils of the quality they want.

It makes sense if you spend money marketing yourself to appeal to X parent, it’s more efficient to enrol any children they have of either sex.

I was quite surprised to hear this because afaik the school is full, but ultimately all boarding schools are finding it harder to fill boarding places because it’s becoming less popular with uk parents before you then layer on the fact that the birth rate is collapsing and VAT has made it much more expensive. Also more parents want to keep siblings together for logistical reasons ( especially now that nearly all boarding is effectively weekly) and 2/3 of parents with 2 children who have a boy will also have a girl ( BB/ BG/ GB- think my maths is right- doesn’t stretch to 3 DC scenarios). All these things chip away at the pool of potential applicants so it makes sense for the school to broaden it out.

I too have heard what Tonbridge boys think of women and girls in general on my morning commute.
It may be no better or worse than other boys ( although never heard similar from the numerous other schools on said train). It would certainly stop me sending a daughter there.