Newington College turns around financial performance as it pushes ahead with co-ed plan

One of the most talked about schools in Sydney has delivered a 130 per cent lift in its bottom line. Find out how the improvement was achieved.

As Newington College embarks on an expensive revamp to go co-ed, new documents reveal the elite Sydney school has engineered a stunning financial turnaround — although there are questions over whether the improvement can be sustained.

Newington ran a surplus of $9.06 million in calendar year 2023, up 130 per cent on the previous year’s $3.94m, an annual report published on Friday shows.

The bottom line was boosted by extra rental and lease income and the revaluation of investments, as well as a donation from the college’s fundraising arm.

Still, the result appears to be the healthiest since at least 2015.

Newington needs all the financial firepower it can muster, given some critics have estimated that its co-ed plan will cost $100m.

Newington has specialised in boys’ education for 160 years. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Net revenue, including tuition fees, was reported as being up by 7.5 per cent to $68.5m from $63.8m.

That lift is greater than the increase in individual tuition fees, which rose 5.7 per cent in 2023 to $38,884 for a year 12 student. Tuition fees have since been jacked up to more than $42,000.

Former Newington dux Peter Thomas, who is a critic of the co-ed plan, said it was difficult to compare Newington’s latest revenue figures with the previous year because the college had stopped reporting the value of scholarships and bursaries.

“You could easily reduce the level of scholarships to increase (net) revenue,” Mr Thomas, who is executive director of sharemarket-listed company Decmil, told The Saturday Telegraph.

This was put to the college but it declined to answer any questions about its annual report.

The school booked “other income” of $3.79m, up 88 per cent on the previous year’s $2.02m.

The 2023 other income figure included a gain of $1.07m due to the revaluation of investments. There was no such windfall in 2022.

Peter Thomas has questioned aspects of Newington’s financials. Picture: Supplied

Another helping hand came in the form of a $500,000 donation from the Newington Foundation, which did not contribute assistance in 2022.

Revenue from registration fees — paid by parents who want to send a child to Newington in the future — rose by 48 per cent to $440,000 from $298,000.

Government grants grew by 4.5 per cent to $11.1m.

On the expenses side, salary costs lifted by 6.5 per cent to $49.5m from $46.5m. But the rate of increase was reduced by the upward revision of the 2022 employee bill.

When compared to the previously reported 2022 salary cost of $45.2m, staff expenses were up by 9.5 per cent.

“You can’t keep growing salaries at 9 per cent,” Mr Thomas said.

Pay to “key management personnel” rose by 8.7 per cent to $4.52m from $4.16m.

Earlier this week, headmaster Michael Parker rebuked some parents and former students over what he called a “campaign of negativity” opposing the school’s decision to introduce girls after 160 years of boys-only education.

“This behaviour needs to stop, and we will be enforcing our Code of Conduct for offending behaviour whether in person or online,” Mr Parker said.

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