"Alway goes coeducational"

Somehow it is fitting that the penultimate post in our series celebrating 40 years of co-education focuses on a specific Alway house photograph. There's something quietly significant about the penultimate: not quite the end, it’s the promise of what’s next – a bit like the end of the year in Alway.

If such a photograph were similarly composed today, we would think nothing of it. The photograph teems with a familiar balance, but the evident vitality in the composition belies its importance in our story of co-education. The photograph deserves a place in our series because it captures the first year of Alway as a mixed house.

Taken in the Summer Term of 1998, it includes not just Forms One and Two (Years 7 and 8) but also two Heads of House and the Sixth Formers who supported them by undertaking evening duties, together with Chris and Lynne Webber who had been Houseparents of Alway since 1991.

With all of Year 7 and Year 8 present, the change in the house population is all too obvious. For the very first time there is also a female Head of House as a well as a male Head of House, and the Sixth Form present are from de Winton as well as from the boys Houses. Less obvious is that, just like those in Year 9 whose photographs were being taken elsewhere on that day, the ‘Alwayites’ in the photograph only ever experienced Christ College as a fully co-educational school.

Looking back through back issues of 'The Breconian' and the 'Newsletter' of the time, it is striking that very little was said about that first year as a mixed house. While there was much anticipation and excitement behind the scenes, it was such a natural step forward that even its announcement in the Spring Newsletter of 1997 was strictly matter of fact.

Alway Goes Coeducational

As the number of junior girls continues to rise so encouragingly, in the process putting pressure on existing boarding accommodation for girls, the Governors have decided that as from September Alway will house all our 11 + entrants, - both boys and girls. The necessary alterations have already been carried out, and Chris and Lynne Webber will continue as houseparents. A flat has also been prepared for a resident female house tutor.

Under the experienced supervision of the Webbers, dormitories were rearranged to create facilities for girls and new routines were devised to welcome the new residents. But its opening as a mixed house in September 1997 was without fanfare and not even referred to in the term's Newsletter or the Head’s report to parents on Prize Day.

In 'The Breconian' 1997 Sarah Blake (Donaldson's 1996-2001) reflected, 

Bannau is no longer a pioneer house. It is no longer a new concept to have young girls at CCB. As we begin to accept ourselves as members of CCB, so we have come to be accepted, and to be treated as equals.

The changes in Alway were more evidence of the new reality. Bannau girls moving into Year 8 transferred to Alway to join classmates they already knew; the new Year 7s - whether boys or girls - didn’t know anything different; life in Alway just carried on with its characteristic enthusiasm, exuberance and energy under the watchful eye of the same Houseparents.    

Our #40years posts through this year have celebrated pioneers and milestones. What’s really special about our penultimate photograph is that it celebrates a less obvious success: it records a moment when co-education was entirely unremarkable. By the time Alway became a mixed house, it was simply part of school life and full of promise for the future we know today. 

Survivors 1996-2003

2, 5, 7 have been overshadowed by much bigger numbers since St Nick's opened, but the Survivors photographs are still prized by those who did the full 7 years from Alway to the Sixth Form. The Survivors photo of 2003 includes the girls who joined Alway in Year 8 from Bannau. 

Can you help? 

• Tell us what you remember about the first few days in Alway in 1997. Share a sentence, a paragraph or a story with Huw or Felicity. Our current pupils would love to know more.
• We are missing the Survivors photos of 2004 and 2005. Be in touch with Felicity if you can help.
• And if you have any other photos hiding in the attic tell us about those too. 

Prompted to look for past Alway house photographs? Find them in the Gallery. If you have a photgraph that is missing from our gallery, let us know and help us complete the collection.