A Catholic school will end its 150 year tradition of admitting girls only, to welcome boys.

Our Lady's Abingdon, founded in 1860 by the Sisters of Mercy, has announced that boys will be admitted from September next year.

The Radley Road school is currently co-educational at its junior school, for ages three to 11, but will now start to allow boys into Year Seven upwards.

It aims for the whole school to be mixed by 2013.

Headmistress Lynne Renwick said: "This is a very exciting day for us.

"Boys from our feeder junior schools will be able to move on to the senior school.

"Brothers and sisters can be educated together, strengthening the family feel of our school. The wheel has gone full circle. When we were founded in 1860 it was to educate boys and girls.

"Now, as we prepare for our 150th anniversary, we can realise our founder's dreams."

She said facilities at the school were already big enough to accommodate extra pupils, which she estimated would be no more than 100. The toilets and changing facilities would be refurbished, and a new dining hall and Astroturf pitch built.

Abingdon currently has no Catholic secondary school for boys, but has two independent boys' schools and one other independent school for girls.

Mrs Renwick said: "We have had parents ringing up saying they were really happy and they wanted to send their boys to the school, we have had three boys registered already."

Chairman of governors Patrick Tobin said: "I have been the head of single-sex schools and the first Catholic independent co-educational school. I believe passionately in parental choice.

"We will be the first school in Abingdon to offer families the choice of independent secondary co-education. We know many families will be delighted."

He added: "Co-education at Our Lady's Abingdon gives Catholic parents a choice that they do not currently possess. For many boys and girls, co-education is the best education for life.

"We are blazing a trail that others will follow."