Co-ed 'better prepares students for the real world'

Thursday 09 January 2020

Elizabeth College's principal said parents were represented during discussions on whether the school should go completely co-educational, but a wide, public survey of the idea wasn't needed.

Jenny Palmer was speaking following the news announced this week, when she said the board decided to make the decision in the way it did "for a host of very right reasons".

While the announcement was met positively by many, some criticised the way in which the decision had been made because parents were not been spoken to first. Blanchelande, for example, did a full consultation when it decided to move away from being a girls-only school. 

Pictured: Jenny Palmer, the College's Principal. 

But Mrs Palmer said the Elizabeth College board decided a wide consultation would have been quite challenging, and so kept things focused instead.

"It was a strategic decision that the board has made, and they made it for a host of very right reasons. A wide consultation on this would have been, we felt, quite challenging, but there was consultation, it wasn't out to the whole parent body, it was to the senior leadership team and other members of the board, and there is parent representation in both of those groups.

"We have got a transition period now, and so we will be talking to people, and working with people, and hopefully engaging with them so they can see that this is a real positive. Of course, the entry points we are talking about will be years seven and 12, so for many of the year groups going through it will be business as usual, and we will see the girls as they arrive in 2021 in year seven and in to the sixth form."

Pictured: Elizabeth College is also looking to expand to Canada Court. 

Elizabeth College has been an all boys school since 1563, when it was established during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Now, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, it has decided to move to co-education. The decision has been in the making for some time though, according to Mrs Palmer, who said board notes showed it was even being discussed when she was studying at the school under the Ladies College/Elizabeth College sixth form partnership. 

"There have been discussions at board level for a very long time, from having looked back at the board notes, even as far back as John Dalton when he was here," she said.

"A new principal coming in was an opportunity to look at things with fresh eyes and consider where we are; take stock and get to know the school. Obviously we have got girls in the junior school, and have them coming through all the way up until year six, and then having to look for somewhere else, so they have then been going off to one of the other schools.

"Taking that in to account, and considering the benefits of co-education in the junior school as well as the benefits of the partnership with the Ladies College, we found it was time to reopen the conversation and really consider whether or not we had an opportunity to welcome girls through from the junior school, and to consider the fact that actually in modern society, the world is co-ed. Men and women work in partnership and they work together, and if we are wanting to give our students the very best preparation for life after school, both going on to university and for the working world, is a co-ed environment maybe the right one." 

Pictured top: Elizabeth College has announced it will be accepting girls in to year seven and 12 in 2021.