Gippsland Grammar reeling from principal’s sudden resignation

A leading country grammar school continues to face significant challenges following the sudden resignation of its “amazing” principal and mounting historic sexual abuse cases.

Former Gippsland Grammar principal Michele Wakeham resigned suddenly last year. Picture: Supplied

A leading country grammar school continues to face significant challenges following the sudden resignation of its principal and mounting historic sexual abuse cases.

Gippsland Grammar, a historic co-ed Anglican school in Sale, is still reeling from the sudden resignation of Michele Wakeham last year from her “dream job” as principal.

Ms Wakeham, a well-regarded educator with a background at Trinity Grammar, only started as principal in 2023. Her resignation letter to the school community last year says she made the decision to prioritise her MBA studies and spend “more time with her three young boys”.

It’s understood she was reluctant to leave but felt she had no choice. One inside source praised the “amazing work she has done and the magnitude of support and admiration she has from the community”.

Deputy principal Bo Power is now acting in the top job.

The school’s enrolments have stabilised, with 1036 enrolments in 2024 – enough to stave off a threat from the schools bank to call in a multimillion-dollar loan.

However, the school faces considerable pressure from mounting historical sexual abuse liabilities.

Ms Wakeham only started as principal at the school in 2023.

Rightside Legal Partner Laird Macdonald said the school was facing the fallout from “three decades of offending”,

“There was a pretty consistent program of offending and the school seemed reluctant to engage, dismissing serious cases as on-off incidents,” he said.

“I imagine it would have been difficult for the principal to manage, especially in some cases where old boys have closed ranks.”

Mr Macdonald said he had always found Ms Wakeham to be an “engaged individual” but others in the past have found the school very difficult to deal with.

“Survivors often had stony-faced silence from the school,” he said.

“Gippsland Grammar lawyers were very aggressive in defending a recent claim, which led to more people coming forward, which represents further liabilities for the school.”

Gippsland Grammar is facing mounting historic sexual abuse claims.

He said there were now additional survivors from existing known child abuse perpetrators, including one with a very significant claim.

Former students abused at the school have been compensated up to $1m, while others have received a fraction of this amount.

The school has repeatedly come under fire for its inadequate reaction to child abuse claims as recently as 2019, failing to sack a 21-year-old maths tutor months before he had sex with an underage student.

The school’s 2023 financial report – the latest one publicly released- shows it is in a cashflow crisis, posting a loss of half a million dollars. The school’s bank mandated that enrolments must be above 1013 or a loan of $4.7m could become payable. However, the auditors said the school could continue to operate as a “going concern”.

The 2023 report says the school is managing six historic claims but could not estimate the liabilities of these cases.

The school did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Originally published as Gippsland Grammar reeling from principal’s sudden resignation