Despite the legal battle, the $45,000-a-year school is confident the appeal will be thrown out and is forging ahead with enrolling girls in kindergarten and year 5 from next year. It will admit girls into years 7 and 11 in 2028, and become fully co-ed by 2033.
Last month, the school unveiled its new prep school girls’ uniform, which includes a grey pinafore, striped shirt, shorts and skort. The full senior school uniform – including pants, skirt and summer dress – is set to be launched in mid-October.
Parents Suzanne and Matt Gruber have enrolled their daughter, Autumn, who will start kindergarten next year. She will join the first intake of girls into the junior campus, following her brother, Patton, who is in year 2.
Patton and Autumn Gruber in the Newington school uniform.Credit: Steven Siewert
“For us, it was a bit of a drawback that it wasn’t a co-ed school when we enrolled our son. But there weren’t many co-ed private options in the inner west, so we went with an all-boys school,” Suzanne said.
For Matt, his “limited social interaction with girls” during his own school years was partly behind the appeal of a co-ed school for his children. The convenience of having both children at the same school was another factor. “We also wanted both kids to go all the way through from kindergarten to year 12 at the one place,” he said.
Parker said the school has “well exceeded” projected enrolments for year 5 in 2026, while kindergarten is also at capacity. However, between 50 and 60 students have withdrawn since the co-ed announcement in late 2023.
Newington has appointed Brigid Taylor, former principal of Marist Catholic College North Shore, as director of co-ed, and teachers have gone through gender bias training.
Parker said the college would stay in the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools (GPS) for boy’s sport and join the Independent Sporting Association (ISA) for girls, alongside Cranbrook, Redlands, Oxley and half a dozen co-ed schools.
Brigid Taylor, Newington’s director of coeducation, is the former principal at Marist College North Shore.Credit: Louie Douvis
“The ISA is a great competition, and we look forward to cheering on the girls with the vigour we currently have for our boy’s games,” he says. The primary school will introduce girls’ soccer, netball, touch football and basketball, while the school has lodged a master plan application for new senior sports courts and dance studios.
Primary school year groups remain the same, but the school wants to lift enrolments from 250 to 300 in each senior school year group over the next decade. Demographic trends played some role in the move, the school said, but they “were not a deciding factor.”
Loading
The school said it also considered “catchment areas, the socio-economic makeup of our student body, and changes in government funding for independent schools” ahead of the co-ed decision.
Plans for $110 million in building upgrades have been lodged with the state government ahead of the co-ed transition, including a three-storey building comprising indoor sports courts, gymnasium and car parking.
Read the full article here
