A historic change is taking place at Abingdon School this September, as girls join the senior school for the first time.

From September 2026, girls will be welcomed into the First Year (Year 7) and Sixth Form (Year 12). The move has been planned as a gradual year by year transition. The school will become fully co-educational by 2030.  The Prep School has already begun its own move to co-education.

Abingdon is not alone in making this change. Single-sex education has been in decline over the past decade, falling from 25 per cent of independent schools in 2013 to 18 per cent in 2024. Most of this decline has been due to single-sex schools becoming coeducational. There are now more single-sex girls’ schools than boys’ schools (Ref 1). St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon remains a single-sex girls’ school.

Ref 1: Civitas, Commission on the Future for Independent Schools.

Thameside Primary School in South Abingdon has won a Bronze Award for using the myHappymind programme. This shows that the school cares a lot about helping children feel happy and confident.

In the picture, you can see some of Thameside’s Happiness Heroes, who help other children look after themselves.

Headteacher Laura Youngman said: ‘We are really proud to get the Bronze myHappymind Award. It helps children and families learn important skills for life.’

This award shows how Thameside lives by its motto: ‘Every Child, Every Chance, Every Day.’ by helping every child both academically and emotionally.

More on the myHappymind programme: myHappymind Schools Programme.

For the first time in over 160 years, there are no Our Lady’s Abingdon pupils to be seen. The school closed suddenly over the summer, leaving families to seek new places – some already starting in local state schools, others still searching.

The closure also leaves behind a large site close to the town centre, including Barton Field, the school playing fields. With so many new houses being built nearby, there may well be debate about whether part of the grounds could still serve an educational purpose.

Our Lady’s Convent history stretches back to January 1860, when Sister Mary Elizabeth Rigby and two nuns from the Sisters of Mercy in Bermondsey came to Abingdon at the invitation of parish priest Revd Dr John Paul O’Toole. They were supported by Reverend Mother Clare Moore, recently returned from work with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea. The Sisters began in a Northcourt cottage, Joymount, then moved into villas on the current site in 1862. The first pupil enrolled in 1865, and in 1867 Sir George Bowyer gave land to allow the school to expand. By 1877, classrooms, music rooms, a dining hall and dormitories were in place.

For many years the convent was run by the Sisters of Mercy, remembered today in the churchyard of Our Lady and St Edmund Church.

In 2007 Our Lady’s Convent became a charitable company limited by guarantee and changed its name to Our Lady’s Abingdon School. Two years later, boys were admitted to the Senior School.

Now, as the new term begins without OLA, its long story has reached an abrupt halt.

Our Lady’s Abingdon (OLA), a private school near Abingdon town centre that has served the community for more than 160 years, has closed with immediate effect after governors said they had “exhausted every possible option to secure the school’s future.”

Students were warned at the end of term that the school might not be there after the holidays and that they might need to start looking elsewhere, but many still hoped it would survive. Two sixth formers I spoke to believed closure might come within the next three to five years — not so suddenly.

Both said they had enjoyed a wonderful education at OLA and, thanks to scholarships and bursaries, had been able to attend a school that would otherwise have been beyond their reach. They were expecting their A Level results in three days and expressed sympathy for fellow students and staff whose futures are now uncertain.

They estimated that around 20% of the sixth form came from Abingdon, with an even higher proportion in the lower years, meaning the closure will likely put additional pressure on local state schools.

In a statement, the governors said:

“It is with our deepest regret that we inform our parents, students, staff, and local community that the Governors have taken the heartbreaking decision to close the school with immediate effect… The spirit of this community, and the values it upholds, will endure long after our doors close.”

The statement said falling pupil numbers and rising costs linked to VAT on school fees, higher National Insurance contributions, the end of business rates relief for independent schools, and general inflation as key factors in the decision.