Boys set to be allowed into Glasgow's Notre Dame High School

Boys are set to be allowed into Scotland’s last remaining all-girls school – despite campaigners claiming the decision would ignore public opinion.

Glasgow’s ruling SNP group has voted in favour of co-education at Notre Dame High School and the city’s Conservative and Green groups plan to do the same.

It means a majority of councillors will be in favour of co-education when a final decision is made at a meeting on November 28.

Councillor Chris Cunningham, city convener for education, skills and early years, said “the SNP group and city cabinet have agreed after discussion and a vote to support the co-education option for the future of Notre Dame High School following the recent consultation”.

Conservative group leader Thomas Kerr said his group entered the process with an “open mind”.

“As Conservatives we are committed to upholding and respecting the outcome of public votes.

“The option to open up the school to both male and female students received the highest number of votes and we believe in the long run will be in the best interests of pupils, parents and the local community.”

Jon Molyneux, education spokesperson for the Green group, said: “Green councillors have indicated our support for Notre Dame becoming a co-educational school and we think the recent consultation has usefully raised issues which are relevant to making all of our schools as inclusive as they can be.”

Consultation on the school’s future closed in May, with almost 5,000 responses. Options included no change, allowing the school to accept boy or retaining the single-sex status but adding more primary schools to the catchment area.

Figures showed that around 54 per cent of votes were returned for the first two options – 39.9 per cent voted to keep the status quo while 13.4 per cent said they would want to keep the school single sex and expand the catchment area.

However, 45.9 per cent of respondents said they would like to make the school co-educational.

A spokesperson for the Girls for Notre Dame said the campaign group was “very disappointed” with the decision to “ignore the outcome of the public consultation” and “the 54 per cent of votes in favour of keeping the all girls secondary”.

“We have also yet to see an educational benefit for the school changing and where almost one million pounds of funding is coming from to start to adapt the school.

“We will of course respect the decision made at committee later this month. It will then be interesting to see this precedent rolled out across all Glasgow secondaries.”

“Any child will then have the right to transition to the secondary school closest to them, whether they meet the criteria of that school or not. Parent power now determines what your local school is rather than the council’s defined catchment areas.”

However, campaign group Notre Dame High For All is delighted with the decision, saying councillors have “voted to do the right thing for Glasgow’s children”.

“We look forward to the council making a decision on the single-sex status of Notre Dame High and hope that the final barrier to local education is removed, to have a fully inclusive school, inclusive of all children,” a spokesperson said.

“We believe this will mean a brighter future for our children, community and a co-educational Notre Dame High.”

Currently, Notre Dame High School has two associated primary schools; Notre Dame Primary School and St Ninian’s Primary School. Some girls attending Corpus Christi Primary School are also entitled to transfer due to a shared catchment area.

The West End school has a capacity of 800, with around 720 pupils currently enrolled. The current school roll includes a significant number of placing requests from over 50 primary schools across the city.