Newington College co-ed war: Uniting Church enters debate as frustrated parents engage lawyers

The Uniting Church, which owns Newington College and appoints the school council, has broken its silence on the controversial decision to go co-ed after angry parents engaged a law firm.

The war over Newington College’s decision to become co-ed has gone thermo-nuclear after a group of parents with sons at the elite private school engaged a Sydney law firm that specialises in corporate governance to demand information on the controversial decision under threat of legal action.

The bombshell seven-page letter sent on Wednesday by the firm Brown Wright Stein to the Newington College chairman Tony McDonald begins by saying the parents have “concerns as to the announcement made on 20 November 2023 that the College will become co-educational from 2026.

“As will be apparent from this letter, the parents (being contributors with respect to fees) are contributors to the funds held by the Council of Newington College (“the Council”) as trustee of a charitable trust.”

It then notes that state Attorney-General Michael Daley has been copied into the correspondence because he is “the protector of charities” in NSW.

The letter goes on to raise the powers and responsibilities the school council has under Newington College Council Act of 1922, which was passed by state parliament, to carry out the “general objects” for which the school was founded in 1873.

Newington College will have to be revamped as part of going co-ed. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

The legal letter sent to the Newington College chairman

“Furthermore, and as outlined in the College’s website under its ‘history’, it is clear that the College was conceived as ‘… decidedly Wesleyan in its character … [but] … open to the sons of parents of all religious denominations’,” the letter, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, says.

It continues: “We are instructed that the College, upon its inception, was intended to be (and has been) a College, and in particular for the advancement of education of boys and young men. Upon establishment of the College (and indeed the establishment of the charitable trust of which the Council holds property), it was never contemplated that girls and young women would be educated by the College.”

NSW Attorney General Michael Daley.

The letter goes on to demand copies of the founding documents of the college and asset summaries.

The firm said it was also seeking “the consultation and/or research and/or advice process (“Process”) that the Council has undergone to form the view that the College ought to become co-educational”, the cost of that work, and information explaining the “power the Council had to incur” those expenses.

Newington College Council chairman Tony McDonald. Picture: newington.nsw.edu.au

“For the avoidance of any doubt, we have included the Attorney-General of NSW on the basis that the Attorney-General is the protector of charitable trusts, and that in the event that proceedings are to be commenced, then the Attorney-General is to provide approval and will be a necessary defendant (given the terms of the Charitable Trusts Act 1993 (NSW)).

“We will be separately corresponding with the Attorney-General (again, as the protector of charities) with respect to the possible commencement of ‘charitable trust proceedings’.”

The Telegraph was first to raise the potential for legal action over the co-ed move due to the Newington College Council Act.

Mr McDonald and the school declined to comment “at this stage”.

In its first comments on the furore, the Uniting Church, which owns the school and appoints the council, said “we support Newington College’s decision to go co-ed.” It made no further comment.