Five days inside Cranbrook: The principal, the emails and the resignation

It looked like 2024 would be a good year for Cranbrook School headmaster Nicholas Sampson. The civil war that had erupted between its former powerful governing board almost two years ago had been fought and won. A new girls’ uniform had been designed ahead of a transition to co-education in 2026, and the Bellevue Hill school’s new water polo pool was the envy of the eastern suburbs.

But by 8.34am on Friday, the British-born Sampson, who has spent more than a decade at the helm of the institution, had sensationally resigned and his image and name were erased from the school’s website.

New allegations came to light about a Cranbrook teacher on Thursday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The school’s council and Sampson had spent Thursday evening locked in crisis talks following fresh allegations that a current Cranbrook teacher sent graphic emails in 2014 to a former female student that he taught at a Catholic girls’ school.

That emergency meeting capped off a week of intense scrutiny for the prestigious school following the airing of an ABC Four Corners program which raised questions about the treatment of female staff within the school.

As well as the allegations of bullying and misogyny at the school, the episode also revealed a former student had lodged a civil case against the school claiming he was sexually assaulted by another student in 2013.

The program also aired previously reported child abuse royal commission findings relating to Sampson’s response to abuse allegations about a maths teacher at Geelong Grammar in Victoria.

Then on Thursday afternoon, the new allegations came to light.

Nicholas Sampson sensationally resigned as Cranbrook headmaster after a tumultuous week for the school.

It has been alleged Sampson became aware of the emails in 2015, but kept the teacher employed, and promoted him while at Cranbrook.

“The circumstances of the matter and subsequently Mr Sampson’s failure to disclose the matter to the current school council in the context of this week’s ABC Four Corners broadcast, have led to an irrevocable breakdown of trust between the headmaster and the school council,” council president Geoff Lovell said in a letter to parents on Friday.

Late on Friday morning, students were called into an assembly where Michele Marquet – the head of the junior school and a Cranbrook veteran of 26 years who had been appointed acting headmistress – addressed the students.

One student present said Marquet said words to the effect of, “She loves Cranbrook and wants us to ignore any insults hurled at us and will work to make the school a better place”.

Students outside Cranbrook School on Friday.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Those words were a consolation to some parents and students, who felt the boys were now being held responsible for the actions of staff. According to one mother, a student who had been walking through Westfield Bondi Junction had been approached by an irate member of the public about the contents of the Four Corners program.

“A lot of the boys now want to leave the school because they’re worried that when they go to university, they see you came from Cranbrook, they feel like it’s tarnishing their career prospects,” another parent said.

While the acting principal was happy to address concerns inside the school, Lovell, who had earlier in the week spoken to 2GB to defend the school, was not returning calls from journalists.

At 3pm on Friday, two security guards were stationed at the school gates while a media pack waited outside, with teachers shepherding boys into waiting buses and cars.

Some students said they had been targeted by members of the public over the Four Corners story.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Parents, mostly behind the wheels of large black SUVs, declined to speak to the media, with one mother saying they had been asked not to.

Privately, the Cranbrook gossip train was in overdrive. One mother, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there was relief following Sampson’s resignation. “I haven’t heard one parent defend him,” she said.

“I wouldn’t say he is unpopular with the parents, but he didn’t know the boys’ names. He wasn’t one to wander around to talk to boys. He liked talking, but just to the masses.”

The lack of support stands in stark contrast to 18 months earlier when an online petition was launched to save Sampson’s job as the school faced a crisis over plans to become fully co-educational in 2026.

In 2022, 10 of the 11 members of the council quit following an internal feud that had been simmering for months due to a breakdown in the relationship between Sampson and council president Jon North.

A previous push by Cranbrook parent and billionaire Scott Farquhar in 2021 to have the school enrol girls in 2023, with an offer to fund 40 scholarships for girls, ultimately failed.

Other parents did not want to rush the process, preferring to admit girls from year 7 and at a later date. After commissioning KPMG to do an independent review of the co-ed proposal, the school ultimately settled on a plan to admit them to year 7 from 2026.

Major supporters of the move included billionaire fund manager and former student Will Vicars, chair of property trust Dexus Warwick Negus; McKinsey managing partner Angus Dawson; and Macquarie Bank director Nicola Wakefield Evans.

Labor figure Graham Richardson, who has a son at the school, had previously asked Sampson to resign from his post, and on Friday, he welcomed the appointment of Marquet as acting principal.

“I can only say I’m a strong supporter of Michele. She’s an outstanding educationalist, and a good person,” he said.

A new Cranbrook board was appointed at the beginning of 2023, with female members making up half of its new board representatives.

Richardson said that he believed they too must resign.

“I want a board who can stand up to people, not just acquiescing.”