Future female students at Newington College will be ‘second class citizens’

Parents at one of Sydney’s top private schools believe female students will be treated by “second class citizens” under a controversial plan.

Girls who join a top Sydney school when it goes co-ed will not be able to add to its rich sporting history because they will be treated like “second class citizens”, parents fear.

Newington College is set to see girls join Year 7 from 2028, but parents are angry that when they do they will be offered roughly half the sporting opportunities as boys in their class.

But a spokeswoman for the exclusive school said the list of sporting options available to girls had not been finalised and would be up for discussion.

Newington going co-ed will also see girls barred from the elite Independent Girls Schools Association (IGSA) – forcing them into the Independent Sporting Association (ISA) competition, where students face potential lengthy round trips as they venture to Orange, Bathurst, the Central Coast and the Southern Highlands on a weekend.

“With the Olympics on now and with the Matildas popularity, you can see there has been this exponential growth of opportunity in women’s sport in recent years,” a Newington parent said.

“That’s why there’s a lot of fury at what is happening and the main issue is that girls are going to be really second class citizens in this new environment.

“They’re going to be offered half the choices the boys at the same school are offered and will be denied access to playing top tier girls schools.”

Boys at Newington are currently able to compete in 14 sports as part of the GPS competition.

They include rowing, rugby, cricket, fencing, volleyball, rifle shooting, table tennis, and new fit – strength and condition exercises – against top schools from The Scots College, to The King’s School, SCEGGS and St Joseph’s College.

But at this stage none of those sports will be on offer to girls. The girls will have the option to play basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, athletics and cross country running – all of which are also on offer to boys.

They will also have the option to play netball.

In a statement, a Newington College spokeswoman said they would work to “maximise opportunities” as the girls side of the school grows.

“By 2026, when our first girls arrive in Kindergarten and Year Five, we will have a range of sporting opportunities for girls to complement our offerings for boys in the IPSHA competition, and we will continue to build on those from 2028 in the ISA competition as the number of girls increases into the senior school and based on demand, as occurs with all schools,” the statement said.

“We are currently the only GPS school fielding teams in every GPS sport and competition, which speaks to our competitiveness and student focused co-curricular program.

“We are excited about our strong sporting offering, which builds upon a 160-year legacy of high-level competition across every GPS sport.

“We will, as we do now, continue to work with our families to maximise opportunities within the GPS and ISA competitions in the years to come.”

Originally published as Future female students at Newington College will be ‘second class citizens’