The News Hub

Publisehd: 18 February 2026.

Did you know that Pembroke School was formed through the combination of two single-sex schools: Girton Girls’ and King’s College?

Following Girton Girls’ relocation to Kensington Park in 1927, the two schools shared social functions, and occasionally combined classes. This past collaboration, as well as the schools’ physical proximity meant that, when low enrolment numbers hit both Girton and King’s in the 1970s, a merger seemed like the logical choice.

The proposed amalgamation of Girton and King’s was announced in September 1973 and received an immediately positive response. Within three months, the new school had received over new 190 new enrolments, with an expected 774 Junior-Senior enrolments expected for the school’s official opening in 1974.

As the schools were already adjacent to each other, the merger to form Pembroke School was quite smooth. The former Girton campus was designated as Pembroke’s Junior and Senior Schools, while the King’s campus was designated as the Middle School.

In 1976, Pembroke instituted a Hearing Unit, allowing hearing-impaired students to be educated alongside their peers in a mainstream school, rather than being forced into a special education school as was common at the time. This program has continued into the present day, with 2026 marking 50 years of Pembroke School’s Hearing Unit.

Photographs: Pembroke Middle School Quad 1976 and 1984, courtesy of Pembroke School Archives.