Newington co-ed protest: Wild scenes at prestigious $42000-a-year private school as parents with placards protest a major decision on its future

Furious parents have gathered at an elite $42,000-a-year all-boys school holding placards to protest the college’s controversial move to introduce girls to the student body. 

Around 30 protestors gathered outside Newington College, located in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Stanmore around 8am on Wednesday morning, to voice their opposition to the controversial decision. 

The prestigious school – which charges annual fees of $42,201 for a year 12 boy to attend the college – announced in 2023 that girls will be admitted to the school as early as 2026. 

The school is set to become fully co-ed by 2033.

Protestors held up messages on placards calling on the school’s council to scrap the decision with one sign stating the college has already lost ‘$5m in bequests.’

Another demanded a new vote on the co-ed policy.

‘Demand school council transparency and accountability,’ it read. 

The move marks the first time in the school’s 160-year history that female students will be admitted to college. 

Several parents who gathered outside the college said students who attend the school were afraid to speak out against the decision over fears they could lose their place at the school according to reports by the Daily Telegraph. 

Parents who were outraged by the school’s decision had initially planned to meet up at Stanmore Park before making their way to the school to stage a ‘peaceful and silent’ demonstration. 

Outraged protestors (pictured) including parents gathered outside the prestigious college to protest the school council’s decision 

Newington College has been an all-boys school throughout the college’s 160-year history (pictured Newington College student)

Wednesday’s protest saw parents who opposed the decision also handing out stickers to other parents who were dropping their son’s at school. 

The headmaster of the college Michael Parker wrote to the parents of students warning them about the planned protests. 

Mr Parker said earlier that the school would place more staff around the ‘perimeter of the college’ to protect students. 

He said in the letter that while those who are staging the protest have a right to voice the opinion, the school’s focus will remain on the start of the new school year.  

‘There will be several hundred boys starting their first day at Newington tomorrow and they will be experiencing all sorts of mixed feelings as they walk through the gate at this threshold moment,’ the letter stated. 

Several parents who gathered outside Newington College (pictured) said students were afraid of speaking out against the move out of fear of being removed from the college

Protestors (pictured) had planned to gather at Stanmore park before going on to stage a ‘peaceful and silent’ demonstration outside the school grounds

Former student John Ramarque wrote in a change.org petition that was set up in November last year in opposition to the school becoming co-ed that the move poses threat to the school’s proud ‘culture’.

‘As a proud member of Newington College in Stanmore, NSW, Australia, I have witnessed firsthand the unique culture that has been cultivated over generations.’  

‘This culture is being threatened by recent decisions made by our headmaster and council. The decision to make our school co-ed is not just a change in policy; it’s an erosion of our her.’