Newington College’s co-ed move risks sending the school broke, its former dux and school captain Peter Thomas claims

One of the best and brightest to walk through Newington’s gates has analysed its financials. He says the $100m-plus cost of going co-ed risks breaking the prestigious Sydney school.

Going co-ed threatens to send Newington College broke, according to one of their own — a leading businessman who was dux of the school.

Former Fortescue Metals executive Peter Thomas said Newington is in a deepening “financial hole” and appears to be “betting that a bigger school, and millions of dollars of extra fees per year from girls, will get them out” of it.

According to an analysis by Mr Thomas, since 2019, expenses have been rising at an “unsustainable” rate of 5.4 per cent compared to revenue increases of 3.4 per cent, putting the college on a path to annual losses.

“Given the deterioration in the school’s financial position in the last five years, how does the leadership hope to pay for the $100-$200 million investment needed to deliver the … co-ed strategy?” he asked.

The Daily Telegraph put this question to Newington, which did not respond directly, but did say it was “in a healthy financial position”. The school also declined to provide its 2023 financial statements.

Former Newington dux and school captain Peter Thomas. Picture: Supplied

Mr Thomas said Newington risks being unable to afford the cost of its co-ed expansion and hence “could become the first large independent school in NSW in 100 years to fold because it ran out of cash.”

Newington said “the numbers being quoted are a selective misinterpretation of our true position.

“The financial opinion fails to take into account our significant investment in Covid fee relief for Newington families in 2020 and 2021, our investment in teachers, pastoral care for students and means-tested bursaries, nor the impact of reduced government funding,” the school said.

“We appreciate the passion that a few objectors to coeducation have for the college, but this is not a licence for disinformation.”

Mr Thomas – who was also school captain in 1988 – is part of a group of parents and former students who oppose the co-ed move, announced in November last year.

The first intake of girls is due to begin in 2026, in kindergarten and year 5. In 2028, 50 girls will start in each of years 7 and 11 at Stanmore.

The college plans to be fully coeducational by 2033.

The size of each year group will rise from 250 now to 300.

More former students oppose the change than support it, according to a survey.

Newington College at Stanmore plans to go co-ed starting 2026. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

But Newington has said that within three months of the announcement, it had received 570 applications for future female students and over 1000 applications in total, “up from the usual 20 per week.”

In an opinion piece published in The Telegraph, Mr Thomas writes that “a 10-year building program of new classrooms, sporting facilities and change rooms, that will inevitably lead to a loss of green space in one of the most congested parts of Sydney.”

Newington has vowed there will not be a loss of green space and that its potential options for expansion include going underground, which the Inner West Council has already approved.

Annual fees were recently hiked by $3000 to $42,000.

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