A 400-year-old boys school has rejected plans to admit girls for the first time.

Wilson's School had flirted with the idea of becoming a co-educational secondary, but following a consultation with parents, staff and students, it will remain an all boys school.

This week, governors of the school, which counts actor Michael Caine and fashion designer John Galliano among its alumni, met to consider the responses from the consultation, but concluded the school should not turn its back on its history, despite financial pressures.

When the consultation was launched last month, a representative explained the reasoning behind the move.

He said: "Wilson's has been hit hard financially by Government decisions to cut funding for sixth formers, by £1,431 per pupil in our case.

The governors are determined to preserve the outstanding provision that the school currently makes available and expansion will certainly help us meet the financial challenge that the cuts present us with."

Secondary schools in Sutton were asked this year to consider whether they would be willing to expand to meet a growth in demand as more pupils than ever enter the primary school system.

The new plans had included expanding the school from five to six forms of entry and becoming fully co-educational in Year 7 and the Sixth Form from September 2015.

However, now, a month later, the school has decided against the proposals, however the school said of those consulted "there was a small majority opposed to becoming co-ed."

The headmaster, Mr Damien Charnock, said: "There are strong arguments on both sides: those favouring co-education argued that there really ought to be a co-educational grammar school in South London and parents who had both sons and daughters were understandably very enthusiastic.

Others felt that the school should remain as it is: an exceptionally good boys’ school with a very well established brand and reputation."

Parents are fully committed to the proposed expansion of the school but, on balance, would rather it was with boys only. This expansion - from five to six forms of entry - will enable us to make the opportunities of a Wilson’s education available to as many students as possible".

The chair of governors, Mr Steve Wisson, said: "Becoming co-educational would obviously have been a fundamental change to the character of the school and we felt, having listened carefully to all the arguments, that there was not a sufficiently compelling level of support to justify this.

The purpose of the consultation was to seek and listen to feedback from our key stakeholders and that is precisely what we have done in coming to the conclusion that we should remain as an all boys grammar school".