‘In every walk of life there are boys and girls mixed’: South Dublin school marks first day as co-ed

Rathdown School has seen a “record intake” of new first year students, according to its principal, as the secondary school opens its door to boys for the first time this academic year.

Formerly catering to girls only, the Glenageary private school first moved to coeducation at primary level in 2022, with the second level section following suit one year later. Monday was the first time male day pupils attended the secondary school in its 50-year history as first, third and sixth year students returned from their summer holidays. Boarding will remain girls-only pending the construction of a new wing for boys.

According to Brian Moore, principal of Rathdown School, exactly one third of new first year pupils are boys, a figure that was “far greater than expected”.

Dan Hickey is one of the first intake of boys starting first year at Rathdown. His older sister, Juliet, is heading into transition year.

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Their mother, Marisa, said the return of her son to Rathdown is a “full circle” moment, after he attended preschool there but was forced go elsewhere for primary school due to the single-sex ethos.

She said there were “no nerves whatsoever” about sending her son to a formerly all-girls school and that he was more concerned with the normal challenges of beginning secondary school.

“In every walk of life, there are boys and girls mixed. My kids do a lot of equestrian and the boys and girls do that. When you go to college, there’s boys and girls together. When you go to work, there are men and women together. It just makes sense to me to have that balance,” Ms Hickey said.

Mr Moore said Rathdown has been contemplating making the move to coeducation since 2011. After a series of parent surveys discussed the transition, the decision followed a “critical mass” of parents looking for the move.

According to Rathdown’s principal, there was “minimal” pushback from parents against the idea, with the main concern focusing on whether students performed better academically in single-sex schools. In response to such concerns, Mr Moore cited a recent ESRI study showing there was “no academic advantage” for teenagers attending single-sex schools.

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He noted Rathdown was “already co-ed ready”, due to its sporting facilities that were rented out to male and female clubs and a music school that caters to external students of all genders. Mr Moore also explained that after research into the subjects and extracurricular activities available to boys in other schools, he was satisfied that the “curriculum and extracurricular activities compared really favourably”.

“The most significant thing was boys toilets,” he says. “They’re now good to go as they were in the junior school this time last year. There was a period of time working with the staff and getting everyone in that zone of getting ready for boys and [making sure] what we offer them fits in with their needs.”

Mr Moore added that, while student numbers are increasing, Rathdown has the capacity to accept these without having to immediately expand the campus. “To be really frank, there’s a lot of choice of schools in this area,” he said. “Our ethos is to advocate for a liberal, tolerant outlook reflecting modern Ireland but we were single sex. Parents who were attracted by our ethos weren’t coming because we weren’t going to that final step. We weren’t empty but, definitely, we had people passing our door to go to St Andrew’s [in Booterstown] and St Gerard’s [Co Wicklow] and other co-ed schools.

“We’ve noticed with the first year enrolment the addresses and how local they are. There was an absence of a co-ed school that you can walk to and cycle to [in the area].”