The second anti-A-level argument, which has emerged more recently, is that attempts to make the sixth form accessible to more students have resulted in a lowering of standards; the ubiquitous “dumbing down”. There can be few parents who remain unaware that the A-level system is flawed, given the stormy debate that has been raging over sixth-form education There are two main charges against A-level exams. The first, which has been around for many years, is that asking pupils to choose specialist subjects at the age of 16 closes many doors for good, at a stage where few can have decided on their future careers. They like it because it develops fitness and coordination.”The girls’ version hasn’t the kudos of the men’s, of course, but even that may change, she likes to think. “Women’s soccer is the fastest growing game in the UK and it’s got a big public profile in the States – it’s only a matter of time here,” she says..

“Girls come here having often had experience in clubs or junior schools. Half of the GDST schools still do lacrosse – mainly the ones outside London. Croydon also has a sports club that the girls can pay to use outside school hours, or at weekends or during the school holidays, a facility a number of the GDST schools are developing.At Queenswood, near Potters Bar, a day and boarding school for four hundred 11-to 18-year-olds, football is the buzz sport. Run with the support of Arsenal Ladies, it has been offered at the school for a year now. “It has become very popular,” says the principal Clarissa Farr.

For those not so sporty, there’s even netball for those who can’t play netball very well – just the sort of attitude likely to pull in those who would otherwise give up and vegetate.Girls’ sports do remain traditional, the sort of sports their mothers remember only too well – the mud of the hockey field or the hurly burly of the netball court is etched into many memories. But now as girls go up the school they increasingly take different options, says Lorna Ogilvie, the headmistress of Croydon High School and chair of the committee of heads of PE of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST), a group of 25 independent girls’ schools.”Schools are offering options such as aerobics, squash and golf – even body combat and salsa dancing,” she says. Rugby hasn’t become the preserve of independent schools – more than one and half thousand state comprehensives are affiliated to the Rugby Football Union – but at schools like Bradford it is firmly in the tradition of the school.Girls are also attracted by a strong sports ethos – at Charterhouse girls play everything the boys do. They also have their two main winter sports, hockey and netball, and lacrosse, tennis, and rounders. Charlie Lines, the director of sport at Bradford, favours rugby because he can offer more pupils a chance to play (15 instead of 11) and because the varying demands of the game mean he can offer pupils of varying size a position – shorthand for being able to offer a slightly overweight child a prop role. Interestingly, across the Pennines, at Bolton and Blackburn, it’s back to football – that’s how much tradition dictates these things. Tradition certainly plays its part here – Charterhouse soccer playing days go back as far as 1881, when Old Carthusians won the FA Cup, beating Old Etonians 3-0 in the final.Charterhouse does offer rugby in the sixth form, but at Bradford Grammar, and all the surrounding grammar schools, it’s the number one sport throughout the school.

All sports are played throughout all terms – from archery to octopush (underwater hockey).For boys, it can pay to check whether a school is a rugby or a football school. Tradition and the availability of good coaches often dictate which sport a school offers – they might not major in both. Traditional public schools sometimes favour football (or soccer, as they like to call it – the term Charterhouse says one of its boys invented from the title Association Football). Grammar schools can favour rugby.Bob Noble, the director of sport at Charterhouse, points out that almost no big-name footballers come from public schools – talent gets snapped up young by football clubs. But there are fiercely fought traditional fixtures and a lot of rivalry between schools. He has first-hand experience of disappearing facilities – the playing field at his old grammar school was sold off years ago.