The boy who is suing his private school

Inner west boys’ school Newington College is set to go into 2025 facing the possibility of two legal battles over its controversial plans to admit girls to the 161-year-old institution.

A current student has launched action in the NSW Supreme Court alleging that the school’s governing council contravened the terms of the school’s 19th-century charitable trust by implementing its plan to admit girls from 2026.

A student claims the school council has breached its duties under the terms of its charitable trust by planning to admit girls.

A statement of claim filed last Thursday says members of the school council had breached their duties of an original deed of indenture by considering, and planning to implement, the move to co-ed.

It says the word “youth” used in the original 1873 trust is limited to the education and advancement of boys and young men and that the school’s governing council “breached the Trust Purpose by paying, applying and/or setting aside trust funds held subject to the Trust Purpose on in connection with [...] implementing its decision to transition Newington College into a co-educational school.”

The boy – known as student A – cannot be identified after the court issued a non-disclosure order and a psychiatrist’s report said he faced being bullied and shunned if his identity was to become known.

Graduates and parents of current Newington College students earlier this year protesting against the move to co-ed.Credit: Kate Geraghty

“The alleged comment by a college house mentor that it’s a shame the police didn’t have pepper spray (for the parents protesting outside the school) within hearing of students, which if deemed credible illustrates this risk,” the report said.

“Participation as a known individual would cast Student A as an adversary and a threat, and potentially, a kind of ‘traitor’ to the school’s governing body and staff, and by extension to the school itself.”

The statement of claim also sought an interim order that the Newington Council would not use college property to fund its legal defence to the proceedings.

The school first unveiled its plan to admit girls in November 2023 and has faced a fierce backlash ever since.

A school spokeswoman said the college and its councillors were confident that their decision was in the best interests of the school, its community and the students.

“The college is disappointed by the proposed legal proceedings,” she said.

“The college will respond to the legal proceedings, and welcomes the opportunity for this matter to be heard expeditiously so that it does not distract the school from the work it undertakes to benefit our students, staff and community.”

The possibility of a second legal action emerged on Sunday after lawyers acting for the parents of boys enrolled at Newington published an open letter noting examples of what it called “misleading and deceptive conduct”. It says it is in the process of obtaining instructions regarding a class action to be commenced in the Federal Court of Australia.

The letter alleged parents’ fees collected by the council had been transferred to the Newington Foundation – the major fundraising arm of the college that provides means-tested scholarships. The letter said the transfer had not been disclosed to parents in enrolment information and meant parents “would be subsidising the education of others”.

“We are further instructed that representations were also made to parents [by certain members of staff in leadership roles] that the college would not become co-educational, with those representations having been made prior to the announcement made by the chair of the council on 20 November 2023.”

An email from the Newington Tradition Supporters Fund, and published on the Save Newington website on Sunday said: “To be very clear, the position we now find ourselves in, having to commence legal proceedings against the college and individual councillors is not our doing. It is unfortunate that the only way that transparency is attained is by having the court’s supervisory jurisdiction for trusts look into the council’s conduct and hold them responsible.”