Pulteney Grammar School scores education award in wake of principal Cameron Bacholer’s resignation

A leading Adelaide private school caught up in controversy and the subsequent resignation of its principal has been lauded with a national education award.

Pulteney Grammar School has been lauded with a national award for innovation in education only a month after its principal resigned following claims of a “toxic culture”.

Cameron Bacholer’s resignation was announced on October 10, following the findings of an independent review into the school’s leadership.

Parents, students, former staff and old scholars told The Advertiser that teachers and families had been leaving the school of about 1000 students in recent years because of changes in its culture.

Now it has emerged that Pulteney is among three South Australian schools recognised in The Educatorpublication’s Innovative Schools for 2023.

An awards page on The Educator’s website spruiking the winners includes a photo of Mr Bacholer listed first among six members of the school’s leadership. He is listed as principal from 2020-October 2023.

Former Pulteney Grammar School principal Cameron Bacholer. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Educators who believe their school “is pioneering a new direction in education” were invited to enter the awards, now in their ninth year.

From the total 107 nominations, 35 schools around the country were chosen for the full 5-Star Innovative Schools list of 2023, announced on November 7.

Immanuel College, in Novar Gardens, and St John’s Grammar School, in Belair, were the only other SA schools to feature in the full list.

Pulteney Grammar School’s board has said it will not begin recruiting for a replacement principal until next year, which prompted concern from some parents and students about ongoing uncertainty.

Mr Bacholer was appointed in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and was previously deputy principal at The Knox School in Melbourne.

Pulteney Grammar School has been recognised by The Educator publication. Picture: Dean Martin

In a letter to parents, the board said Mr Bacholer “sought to capture the best of past traditions and link it with a forward-looking plan” and enrolments had grown 10 per cent under his leadership.

Mr Bacholer did not make a public statement about his resignation.

Pulteney interim principal Deb Dalwood, who stepped up from the deputy principal position when Mr Bacholer resigned, on Wednesday said the award was “testament to Pulteney’s ongoing commitment to innovation and contemporary pedagogy and teaching and learning”.

The review at Pulteney, conducted by independent advisory firm VUCA, followed the launch of an anonymous online petition demanding “the current heads of school be replaced immediately”.

The school charges between $17,000 for Reception and $28,000 for Year 12.