Principal fined after pleading guilty to working as a teacher while unqualified

THE founding principal of a new-age alternative school has been convicted and fined after it was revealed he had no right to teach under Victorian law.

THE founding principal of a new-age alternative school has been convicted and fined after it was revealed he had no right to teach under Victorian law.

Neil Lennie, 67, earned up to $600,000 a year during his decade at the helm of The New Generation College between 2004 and 2014.

But he shouldn’t have been working there at all and was today fined $8000 for what a magistrate described as an arrogant refusal to comply with Victorian education regulations.

“This is a matter of sufficient public concern,” magistrate Franz Holzer said.

“You’ve contributed significantly to this community by way of educational benefits to many, many students.

“But I have to temper that with the reality that from a point in time ... there appears to be a lack of compliance and a lack of respect of the need for proper regulatory adherence.”

The court heard Lennie, a respected educator, was a qualified teacher before the introduction of the Victorian Institute of Teaching.

Under new guidelines he was required to submit his qualifications to the institute so his registration could be renewed.

But he failed to do so and in 2009 informed the VIT that he had resigned from his position of principal and was working as a volunteer at the school.

The college, in Melbourne’s CBD, didn’t include sport, religion or assemblies in its curriculum for VCE students.

It catered for 200 students in a university-style learning environment and had plans to expand into Melbourne’s outer suburbs.

It has since been renamed Melbourne Senior Secondary College.

Mr Lennie pleaded guilty to two charges of working as a teacher while unqualified.

VIT chief Melanie Saba said unregistered teaching was a matter of great concern.

“The institute is very pleased that the court’s decision upholds the importance of only registered teachers teaching children in Victorian schools,” she said.

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