By Lucy Carroll
The future of historic private boys’ school Newington College, and its plans to begin admitting girls from next year, is set to hinge on a legal interpretation of a 152-year-old trust deed.
Historians and a lexicologist will be among experts called on in a legal dispute over whether the school’s council contravened its 1873 trust by planning and implementing a move to co-education.
Newington’s lawyers appeared at a directions hearing on Friday, just over a month after a fresh challenge was launched in the NSW Supreme Court by a current student who is suing the school over the co-ed decision.
The historic Newington College in Stanmore is set to go co-ed from 2026.Credit: Louie Douvis
The 162-year-old inner-west boys’ school has faced 14 months of intense backlash over its decision to admit girls in the junior school from 2026 and become a fully co-educational campus by 2033. The school first announced the move to parents in late 2023.
Just before Christmas, a current Newington student launched proceedings alleging that the school’s council breached the terms of the college’s charitable trust and an October 23, 1873 original deed of indenture, by considering – and implementing – the move to co-ed.
The statement of claim says the word “youth” used in the original trust is limited to the education and advancement of boys and young men, and that the college council breached the trust by using its funds to “implement its decision to transition … into a coeducational school”.
A student claims the school council has breached its duties under the terms of its charitable trust by planning to admit girls.
In the directions hearing on Friday, before Justice Guy Parker, lawyers representing the school said it would seek expert advice from historical experts on the matter, while the plaintiff’s lawyer said it would be seeking opinions from an expert in lexicology, someone who writes dictionaries.
The boy who launched proceedings – known as student A – cannot be identified after he obtained a non-publication order based upon a psychiatrist’s report that said he faced being bullied and shunned if his identity was to become known.
The matter will next be heard in mid-May.
Parents at the school are also considering commencing a separate class action in the Federal Court in relation to alleged “misleading and deceptive conduct” by Newington’s council.
Despite the prospect of multiple legal challenges – and months of bitter public feuding between alumni over the move – the school is forging ahead with $110 million in major building upgrades ahead of the co-ed transition.
Plans released on the NSW major planning portal show the school is proposing a new four-storey teaching and learning building, upgrades to its Centenary Hall and a new performing arts theatre, multipurpose gallery, sports courts and basement parking.
“This proposal will also allow an increase in its students and staff, commensurate with Newington’s transition to a fully co-educational school by 2033,” a scoping report by Urbis said.
“The consequences of not carrying out the proposed alterations and additions at Newington College would result in the school not being able to best support the continuation of its current value proposition and sustain its future co-educational vision.”
The college, which charges $45,000 a year is one of multiple high-fee Sydney schools planning major infrastructure upgrades in the next decade.
In a letter to parents last week, Newington’s chief operating officer, Ross Xenos, said he hoped legal representatives from all parties could determine how the legal case can proceed quickly and efficiently.
“In addition to these proceedings, our representatives have approached the court separately asking the court to provide advice that the college is justified in defending these proceedings insofar as they relate to the differing views of the meaning of the term youth in the 1873 deed of indenture,” Xenos said.
“We again affirm that the college’s principal focus in 2025 is and will be our students, and they continue to have the full attention of our educational leadership and teaching staff.”
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