King’s School launches investigation into headmaster

The King’s School has launched an investigation into an incident involving its headmaster at a faith lecture attended by about 100 students and staff in the last week of term 2.

The headmaster, Tony George, is alleged to have clipped the back of a senior school student’s head at a biblical studies class in the historic Futter Hall, sources familiar with the matter have said.

The King’s School headmaster Tony George.Credit:

The headmaster is on personal leave for health reasons, the school said in a statement. The incident is alleged to have occurred during a discussion about free speech and religion.

In a letter to parents on Monday afternoon, the school said the matter is being reviewed in accordance with its procedures.

“The school is aware of concerns regarding an interaction that occurred during a lecture attended by approximately 100 students and staff,” the letter said.

“The wellbeing of our students and the integrity of our learning environment are of paramount importance.

The King’s School in Parramatta.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“When concerns are raised, they are taken seriously and addressed through appropriate processes.”

King’s, in North Parramatta, is Australia’s oldest private schools. It was established 193 years ago, and its fees range from almost $30,000 for kindergarten to $47,000 for year 12 and $82,000 for tuition and boarding in high school.

George last year made headlines for attacking victimhood culture, “wokeness” and the brain drain to the state’s selective schools in a treatise on educational leadership.

Writing in The King’s School Institute’s journal Leader, George suggested wokeness had evolved into the “age of victimhood” while later outlining how private school students had become targets for ridicule in contemporary media.

In 2022, an old boys’ representative on The King’s School board quit over plans to fly the headmaster, his deputy and their wives first class to the world’s most prestigious rowing event, the Henley Royal Regatta, to rub shoulders with the heads of Britain’s top schools. The school was ultimately forced to repay the cost of the headmaster’s wife’s flights.

During that same year, the Department of Education launched an audit of King’s over concerns about possible misuse of taxpayer money after the school’s council approved a request by the headmaster to have a pool built at his on-site residence.

The school was ordered to stop the planned construction of a plunge pool at its headmaster’s residence after a government investigation found it would be an improper use of the school’s money.

The King’s School has submitted plans for a campus development worth $170 million over the next decade, which includes a new science and technology building, nine staff townhouses and a primary school performing arts centre.

The masterplan development, which extends to 2035, also includes “concept plans” for a sports pavilion, new boarding and day boy houses, and an entrance through land owned by Tara Anglican School for Girls.

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