War of words reignites over Cranbrook plans to go co-ed in 2026

The war over the future of elite boys’ college Cranbrook has exploded again just months after the divided school community signed off on a controversial plan to go co-ed, Annette Sharp writes.

Cranbrook School’s debate about going co-ed has been heated.

The 18-month war over the future of elite boys’ college Cranbrook has exploded anew just months after the school’s deeply divided community signed off on a controversial plan to take the 104-year-old institution co-ed in 2026.

The latest issue dividing the embattled community involves the tenures of school headmaster Nicholas Sampson, a Brit, who has been at Cranbrook for a decade, and president of the school council Jon North, who has been on the school’s council for 13 years.

Sampson has become the figurehead for the pro-change co-ed faction, one initially backed by billionaire Atlassian founder Scott Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson, and Gretel Packer’s multi-millionaire investment adviser Will Vicars among others, while North, conversely, has been cast as the powerful traditionalist holding back the winds of change as conservative president of the Cranbrook school board.

On Thursday the school council fired off a letter to Cranbrook parents and alumni stating it was “disappointed” to have to address a media report published earlier in the week that claimed there was an ongoing governance crisis at the school.

The board went on to state that the article related to “complaints by four disaffected individuals” over community consultation concerning the school’s transition to coeducation as well as school governance and Sampson’s tenure.

President of the school council Jon North.

Cranbrook principal Nicholas Sampson.

The so-called disaffected individuals, as later correspondence would show, are business strategist Angus Dawson (an ex-student, parent and donor), funds manager Warwick Negus (an ex-parent and donor), lawyer and company director Nicola Wakefield Evans (ex-parent and donor) and billionaire fund manager Vicars (ex-student, ex-parent and donor).

According to the council, the “disaffected four” had not only “challenged the reputation … of Cranbrook through an ongoing media campaign” they had also “intimidated members of the school council via legal threats”.

It further claimed the group, which unsuccessfully lobbied for girls to be enrolled at the school from next year, sought “to force the resignation of several council members in order to reshape the council” and were pushing to “remove the influence of the Anglican Church”, the institution which founded the school.

Concerning headmaster Sampson, North’s 10-person council clarified it had extended his tenure “to the end of 2024 at his request” and clarified North and another board member will retire “over the next two years”.

Will Vicars.

Nicola Wakefield Evans.

Angus Dawson.

Warwick Negus.

On Saturday Dawson, Negus, Wakefield Evans and Vicars shot back at North calling the November 17 letter “self-serving” and demanding a response to 10 questions relating to the breakdown of the relationship between the headmaster Sampson and the council president North.

In a three-page document the group — acknowledging they were indeed “disaffected” — celebrated, in fact “rejoiced”, at Sampson’s role in progressing the co-ed vision which they share and support.

The entrance to Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill, Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

“We believe that Nicholas Sampson is an exceptional headmaster and an internationally recognised educational leader who has clearly transformed the school, physically and aspirationally,” the group informed the Cranbrook community.

“We have been acting in order to ensure that the school does not lose his leadership. And yes, we are disaffected …”

It claimed North’s “council is treating parents with condescension and arrogance”.

The group’s support of Sampson is in stark contrast to others at the school who remain sceptical of the leadership of the headmaster who, during his tenure as headmaster of Geelong Grammar in 2004 and as revealed at the 2015 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, wrote a reference for convicted paedophile Jonathan Harvey, a teacher at Geelong, and made arrangements for him to confidentially be paid out a $64,000 sum.

Cranbrook School. Picture: Richard Dobson

A divorcee, Sampson also lives on the school’s campus with a separated former Cranbrook mother — something that has also prompted consternation among some parents.

Saturday’s letter from Dawson, Negus, Wakefield Evans and Vicars also confirmed reports the headmaster had lodged a formal complaint against North following the breakdown of the relationship between the two men.

The group is eager to ensure Sampson’s tenure at Cranbrook is extended while the council is said to favour the appointment of a woman to the role as the school transitions towards co-ed.

In their earlier battle to move the school co-ed, one championed by Farquhar and Jackson who have since retreated from the fray, perhaps burnt by the exposure, the co-ed proponents had pushed to introduce 40 girls to Cranbrook’s senior school by 2023.

For many parents paying huge private school tuition — among the highest in the city — to send their sons to the exclusive boys school, the timeline was unthinkable.

That date has now been pushed out to 2026 and will include girls from Year 7 up.