Cistercian College Roscrea, a boarding school for boys established in 1905, is to admit girls for the first time from next year. The fee-charging school, best known for its rugby and music traditions, plans to introduce “day boarding” for girls initially before expanding to full boarding facilities for all students in the coming years. The boys’ boarding school, located at Mount St Joseph Abbey on the border of Co Tipperary and Offaly, said the decision was taken by its patron, the Community of Our Lady of Silence. While the school came close to closure in 2017, due to declining enrolments, it said pupil numbers have since grown to 260 day and boarding boys. It said it now wants to “include the whole family in its offering”. [ ‘It comes from fear’: Aoife Daly on parents’ battles to get autistic children into schoolsOpens in new window ] Colm Maloney, president of Cistercian College Roscrea, said the school was “thrilled to announce what we consider a very significant and progressive step for what has been an all-boys school since its inception in 1905". “Our proposed transition to a coeducation model aligns with our mission to provide an exceptional learning environment that nurtures academic excellence, openness to faith, leadership, and personal growth,” he said. “We want to be a home for everyone in the family, our uniqueness is that we are a small school which remains on the big stage, always.” The Abbess of St Mary’s Abbey, Glencairn, Mother Marie Fahy, expressed her “wholehearted support” for the change. “We pray for all those entrusted with the important job of preparing young people for life at such a formative time as well as all those young people who will undoubtedly benefit from this welcome decision.” Cistercian College is a private boys’ secondary school founded 120 years ago, located on the outskirts of Roscrea in North Tipperary. The school currently has a population of over 260 day and boarding boys. The school is located on the grounds of Mount St. Joseph Abbey -–the College is surrounded by open fields and woodland and provides a unique holistic educational experience for the students in its care. [ Teaching union urges members to back new Leaving Cert reform packageOpens in new window ] The schools, where fees range from €8,845 for day pupils to €19,368 for seven-day boarders, includes many prominent past pupils including former taoiseach Brian Cowen, former tánaiste Dick Spring and former minister for foreign affairs David Andrews. The move comes as more single-sex schools are moving to coeducational models in response to a shift in parental preferences. Ireland still, however, has a very high proportion of single-sex schools in comparison with other European countries. At second level, about 35 per cent of girls and 28 per cent of boys attend single-sex schools. In the EU, Ireland is second only to Malta in terms of the relative number of students attending all-boys or all-girls schools.