St Albans School in Hertfordshire is to become co-educational from September next year.

The school currently educates boys, but teaches girls in the sixth form. Next year it will also admit girls into the first form (Year 7).

Headmaster Joe Silvester said: “We are a school that is more popular than ever, and in the current climate we are proud to be flourishing and oversubscribed. Now, then, is the time to widen our offer, to move from strength to strength with confidence and ambition. I firmly believe, as do the governors of the school, that the educational offer we make should be open to both boys and girls. As a school, we strive to educate our students about the wider world and their place in it. We give a great deal of thought to what it means to be a purposeful and ambitious individual who can make a contribution to society. I am absolutely committed to making this available to all. It is precisely because of our vision and values as a school that now is the right time to complete the co-educational journey which was begun more than thirty years ago when the first girls joined the sixth form.”