Exclusive Catholic girls’ school Loreto Kirribilli seeks $1m donation from parents for building fund

Parents at exclusive lower north shore Catholic school Loreto Kirribilli have been handed a building fund donation form with a tick box for $1 million.

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Parents at exclusive lower north shore Catholic school Loreto Kirribilli have been handed a building fund donation form with a tick box for $1 million.

And the parents, who already pay up to $22,000 a year in fees, are angry at being pressured to cough up after the school newsletter revealed one former pupil had already given $1 million to the fund.

“It is like an arms race among these schools at the top of the market to compete with each other to have the newest and best buildings,” Sydney University Associate Professor Helen Proctor said.

Sydney University Associate Professor Helen Proctor.

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Loreto has received the green light from the Independent Planning Commission for a $97 million, three-stage school makeover including a seven-storey learning hub, gymnasium extension and chapel refurbishment.

Parents have received a form asking them to “Pledge your voluntary donation to the innovation centre and ancillary works” with eight tick boxes starting at $5000 and jumping up to $1 million.

It is in sharp contrast to other private schools such as Waverley College, which has a maximum $25,000 one-off donation box for its capital works appeal; Wenona, which has one at $20,000; and Ascham, which asks for a maximum of $10,000.

“There is a lot of pressure being put on parents … these schools have professional fund raisers exerting this pressure on people to pay,” Assoc Prof Proctor said.

Loreto has a full-time development manager whose job is described on the website as being “to encourage families to contribute to the school for the benefit of all current and future students.”

Loreto Kirribilli received a $1m donation from a former student. Picture: Richard Dobson

The school is competing in a buildings “arms race” with other Sydney private schools such as Knox Grammar, which spent $64 million on capital works between 2014 and 2016, and Scots College, which is spending $25 million to redesign its library to look like a Scottish castle.

Loreto receives almost $21 million in fees from parents, as well as a further $6.8 million from the federal government and $2.7 million from the NSW government — however, it cannot spend that money on capital works.

Knox Grammar School at Wahroonga. Picture: AAP

The Scots College in Bellevue Hill. Picture: Damian Shaw

Loreto principal Anna Dickinson said details of the $1 million donor, a man who left the school at the end of Year 2 in 1954, had been included in the newsletter “for transparency”.

She said he was “a very humble man” and did not want a building named after him.

“Our families have been very, very generous with being able to support this campaign where they can,” she said.

“People are paying what they can afford, we have had a $50 donation.”

Ms Dickinson said the building fund campaign had reached $4.6 million and would wind up at the end of the year.

“We don’t get any government support for capital works, the school has been built on donations,” she said.

Originally published as Exclusive Catholic girls’ school Loreto Kirribilli seeks $1m donation from parents for building fund