Fifty Years of Girls – September 2024

This morning, our assembly’s focus is upon celebration.

September 2024 marked fifty years since the introduction of girls. We were the first independent school in the county to do so and indeed we made newspaper headlines for what was called a ‘petticoat revolution’.

Today we are joined by some very special guests who will later be having a tour of our school and be part of our commemorative chapel service taking place in the afternoon.

Our guests are former head girls, heads of CCF, senior prefects, sport captains and indeed some of the very first girls who joined us back in 1974 for the Senior School (and 1979 for the Prep), as well as some of the teaching staff who taught them. We welcome you back to your alma mater.

In 1974, times would have been very different. You would certainly not have had a female headteacher of a co-educational school for sure. A woman had to get a man’s permission to set up a bank account, borrow money or have a credit card. Jobs were advertised requesting a gender; out of 650 members of parliament only 19 were women. Certain professions were barred to women as were many universities and colleges and it was not unusual for men and women who did work together to be based in separate areas to minimize the contact.

But the 1970s was a decade where times were changing. The Beatles had broken up, the Rolling Stones were gathering momentum, Punk Music was starting to arrive and protests and challenges to the status quo was beginning.

And so we are grateful to our former governors who made the decision, to allow girls to join either year 7 or the sixth form and start to make Woodbridge co-educational.

One of the teachers, Mr Mitchells, who is here with us today said the following:

“From the very beginning the transition took place with hardly any alarms. All the fears and worst case scenarios just did not happen. The builders had produced all the necessary toilets and changing rooms and there were a number of new staff, although most of the classes were still taught by male staff.

Within days the impact of the girls was apparent. They calmed the place down and did not take to being ordered about. Overnight, we all adapted to them and it did change the teaching styles for many, if not all, subjects. Sarcasm and sharp criticism were no longer acceptable. What I remember most is that we suddenly had to call everyone by their Christian name: girls did not like the use of surnames.

You would expect lots of stories from the time of pupils (and staff!) in corners weeping at perceived slights and failures to communicate, but I don’t remember anything like that. Obviously the “Management” had thought a great deal about the Great Event and it is a tribute to their efforts that it all passed off so quietly.

There was great excitement when the girls asked to join the CCF. At first this met with a negative response from the Ministry of Defence who said “up until that time we have not given much thought to the idea.” And so Woodbridge became one of four pilot schools across the country to do so. Our first CCF cadets wore the light blue of the RAF. They went on camps and exercises and when they went shooting Woodbridge’s first girls produced an international competitor!”

All of you, with the exception of the new Year 7s, have had the delight of a Woodbridge Speech Day. You will all have seen our speakers over the last few years who are always Old Woodbridgians, indeed Dr Coco Newton from July is here with us today and will be speaking to our Years 10 and 11 students in the Theatre at 11.15am. Each of our guests have used the education that they have received at Woodbridge to make a difference: as artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, lawyers, teachers, medics, business owners…I could go on.

All of you here have the opportunity to make a difference. You are the change.

It is now four years ago since I was appointed Head of Woodbridge. And I still remember vividly the emails, cards, letters I received to congratulate me as the first female head.

And I also still remember well one particular letter sent to me which said the following: “I am staggered that the governors chose you, a woman, to lead a school that includes boys and girls as this is a position that should only be held by a man.”

I keep that letter to this day as it reinforces why we are teachers. And I reiterate what I have just said: you have the opportunity to make the difference. You are the change and the fairer, equal world that I want all of you to be part of.

We don’t often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are and that when they are free, things will change for women as a natural consequence.

All of you should feel free to be sensitive regardless of your gender. All of you should feel free to be strong. It is time for us to see gender on a spectrum not as two opposing ideals.

If we stop defining ourselves by what we are not and start by defining ourselves by what we are, we all can be freer.

And all of you today have the freedom to do that as a result of the experiences of those sitting with us today.

So, fifty years on from that first group of girls, many if not most of us take co ed for granted. But it is worth remembering that visionary leadership, the willingness to do something different and the few brave women here with us this morning, made it all possible and shaped Woodbridge into what it is today.