Cranbrook appoints first female head after scandal

Sydney private boys’ school Cranbrook, which will become co-educational from 2026, has appointed its first female head in the institution’s more than 100-year history.

The school council told students and staff on Thursday that Ravenswood School for Girls principal Anne Johnstone would take up the position as Cranbrook’s principal from the start of term 3 next year.

Johnstone will replace the school’s former high-profile head Nicholas Sampson, who sensationally resigned from his $1 million-plus a year post in March after allegations of workplace bullying and historical abuse at the prestigious eastern suburbs school.

Ravenswood principal Anne Johnstone will be the next head of Bellevue Hill private school Cranbrook.

“Throughout the competitive recruitment process, the council was impressed by Anne’s energy, warmth, intellect, wisdom, deep educational experience and by her values,” the council’s chair Geoff Lovell wrote in a letter to parents.

Lovell said recruitment firm Korn Ferry was enlisted to conduct an “extensive global search” for the school’s new principal.

“The council is confident that, in appointing Anne as our new head of school, we have secured a leader who can fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the school community and guide Cranbrook to become the very best co-educational school it can be,” Lovell said.

Johnstone, an English and history teacher, has been principal at Ravenswood on the upper north shore since 2016, and before that head at Seymour College in Adelaide. She was also deputy headmistress at Anglican private girls’ school St Catherine’s and the school’s head of junior school.

The announcement caps a tumultuous year for the school after an ABC Four Corners program on March 4 detailed claims of bullying of female staff and allegations of a toxic culture. Separate claims emerged days later that Sampson was aware a teacher had sent sexually explicit messages to a former student at another school but failed to notify the council.

That program triggered the resignation of Sampson, who had served as head of the $46,500-a-year institution for a decade. In June, Cranbrook made a confidential settlement with Sampson, saying the basis for him leaving the school “may have caused confusion”.

In 2022, Cranbrook – one of Sydney’s wealthiest schools and the alma mater of billionaire Kerry Packer and his son James – announced it would move to co-education, accepting girls in years 7 and 11 from 2026 and becoming fully co-ed by 2029.

That decision – and the timing of the school’s move to co-ed – sparked a bitter dispute that later led to the mass exodus of its former council and board president Jon North. That crisis came just a month after the school unveiled a $125 million building upgrade.

All-boys private school Cranbrook will become co-educational from 2026.Credit: The Australian Institute of Architects

In his letter on Thursday, Lovell said Johnstone had “led a significant period of innovation and development” at Ravenswood that included “historically high demand” for enrolments at the kindergarten to year 12 school.

“She has implemented a positive education and wellbeing program and has helped support outstanding student academic achievements in the HSC and International Baccalaureate diploma program. Anne has also expanded the boarding program and fostered a strong relationship with Ravenswood’s brother school, Knox,” he said.

New principal of Cranbrook, Anne Johnstone.

This included co-curricular activities and development of the Knox-Ravenswood cadet unit, he said.

“Her commitment to educational excellence, including co-curricular and the wellbeing of students, is aligned closely with Cranbrook’s vision and mission,” Lovell said.

Johnstone said she was “honoured to lead a school with a vast and significant history of educating boys. I am also excited about the great potential and opportunities ahead as we welcome girls to Cranbrook from 2026.”

In September, the school said it would regularly survey students about bullying and provide “intensive” training for teachers, following a months-long review conducted by law firm Thomson Geer.

That review into the handling of serious child safety concerns, triggered by the scandal that forced Sampson out, received 76 reports from community members.

Last week, federal education department bureaucrats told a Senate estimates hearing that the school had failed to hand over the contents of that review.

The federal government has been conducting a concurrent investigation into the school.

Michele Marquet, the head of the junior school and a Cranbrook veteran of 26 years, has been serving as acting head of the school since March.

Lovell said Stuart Meade, who was deputy headmaster of Cranbrook from 1997 to 2002, will return to be acting head of school for term 2 next year, with Johnstone to start her position at the start of term 3, 2025. Marquet will return to her position as head of junior school in term 2 next year.

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