Haileybury ‘in it for the long haul’, despite pending legal action over Kormilda acquisition

Haileybury Rendall School says it’s committed to staying in Darwin for the long haul, despite taking legal action over its acquisition of the troubled former Kormilda College.

New Haileybury Rendall principal Andrew McGregor

• Haileybury sues firm that advised it on Kormilda takeover, claiming resulting ‘loss and damage’

HAILEYBURY Rendall School says it’s committed to staying in Darwin for the long haul, despite taking legal action over its acquisition of the troubled former Kormilda College.

The school’s owners, originally based in Melbourne, took over the school in 2018 after commissioning a report on the deal from advisory firm KPMG.

Haileybury has now launched legal action in the Supreme Court to recoup the “loss and damage” it claims it suffered as a result of the firm’s advice.

But a spokeswoman for the school said there would be “no change” to the decision to acquire Kormilda.

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“The legal case is purely about KPMG’s actions at the time Haileybury decided to acquire Kormilda College over three years ago,” she said.

“The decision to acquire Kormilda College was informed by reports prepared by KPMG at that time. There will be no change to that decision.

“The issues in dispute will be decided by the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory on the evidence.”

The spokeswoman said Haileybury had made “significant progress with the support of the Darwin community” in the three years since the acquisition.

“Haileybury is committed to the long term future of Haileybury Rendall School as a world class, tier one school in the Northern Territory,” she said.

“Students from our 2020 Year 12 VCE cohort placed within the very top performing students in the Territory (including ATARs of 99.75 and 99.60).

“Proudly, 38 per cent of students attained an ATAR of 90 and above, placing them in the top 10 per cent in Australia.

The spokeswoman said the school was now set to further expand by building “an international/senior school boarding house” in 2022.

Outgoing principal, Craig Glass, left the job in December after successfully growing enrolments from 250 to 770 in three years.

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“When I arrived, morale was low because most people had left because they didn’t know if the school had a future,” he said.

“We had three goals — academic excellence, high expectations and building community — and I think we’ve been pretty successful in those.”

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