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Top private boys’ school Newington College considers becoming co-ed By Jordan Baker February 16, 2022 — 4.21pm A second high-fee private boys’ school is considering becoming co-ed, with Newington putting the idea to its community alongside a proposal to make the school more culturally and socio-economically diverse. The school’s chairman Tony McDonald wrote to parents and alumni on Wednesday to outline the plan, acknowledging that the school’s existing demographics will not be “as appropriate in the decades to come as they are now”. Newington’s proposal follows a similar discussion at Cranbrook, an eastern suburbs school that has educated media mogul Kerry Packer and his son James. St Paul’s College at Sydney University also recently announced plans to become co-ed. The decision comes amid community questions about how high-fee, all-boys private schools - that also tend to be less culturally diverse than the communities around them - can prepare their students for the wider world. Newington, opened by the Methodist church in 1893, is in the inner west suburb of Stanmore, and is a member of the Athletics Association of Great Public Schools, a historic group of boys’ schools that also includes The Kings School, Shore and Sydney Boys High School. It would be the second GPS school after The Armidale School to become co-ed. The culture at private boys’ schools has come under scrutiny after a petition calling for better consent education prompted thousands of young women to reveal they were sexually assaulted during their school years. Newington’s headmaster Michael Parker will lead the consultation with parents, students, alumni and education experts. “The old adage of ‘two ears, one mouth’ will be crucial I think,” he told the Herald. “I will be doing a huge amount of listening to students, parents, alumni and community - and not a lot of talking. I think these sessions will deliver important insights for the Newington College Council as they make some very consequential decisions for the future of the school.” There is increasing demand for co-education in the inner west, which is dominated by private and public single-sex schools. Sydney Catholic Schools is also re-thinking single-sex education, with the former Marist Brothers schools at Penshurst and North Sydney opening their doors to girls, and Champagnat in Maroubra to become co-ed next year. As part of its long-term planning, Newington is also investigating how to “maintain socio-economic and cultural inclusiveness in a college that has always prided itself on its diversity but finds itself in a gentrifying area,” Mr McDonald wrote in his letter. “Indeed, many of our current parents say diversity is one of the key attractive features of Newington. We would like to examine how to maintain and strengthen it.” A third proposal, also to be debated by the school community, is increasing the size of the school, amid estimates that an extra 42,000 extra school-aged children would live in the surrounding area over the next 20 years. link: https://www.smh.com.au/national/ ... 0220216-p59x2g.html |
