Newington is steadfast in its commitment to provide all girls who join us with a full  ‘localised’  co-educational experience, even if the whole school is not yet co-educational during the changeover period. This means that we will have some classes with a reasonable balance of girls and boys, and other classes with all boys in a form group. For example, in a year group of 12 English classes in total, we may have eight co-ed classes and four all-boys classes.  For each boy, we would aim for there to be a mix of single sex and co-educational classes.  

This will depend on the number and preferences of students we get starting in 2028. However, we think the following will be the case:  

Due to the nature of the senior academic pathways offered, we envisage those girls who choose to take up the IB pathway to have reasonably mixed gender classes, given that a minority of boys choose the IB pathway.  

For those girls choosing to take on the HSC or VET pathways, we will, where we can, run the class ‘lines’ so that we have a reasonable number of girls in some classes and no girls in other classes. This is instead of allocating girls in an even spread across all the classes in subjects such as Maths and English – where all students complete these subjects. We will also aim to have, for example, one co-ed Modern History class and two single sex Modern History classes. It is all dependent on the subject choices of both the girls and boys. There may be times where girls are a small minority in a class, and we will work intensively with the girls and the boys in those classes so that everyone has an excellent experience.  

By 2032 the Year 11 group will have many more girls in it because of the intake of girls in Year 7 2028.  

The house system is an important aspect of school life, enhancing a student’s sense of belonging at the College. In ensuring our commitment to a co-educational environment for all those who enrol at the senior school from 2028 and beyond, we are exploring what the best experience will be for our girls and boys. This may mean girls are in all 16 houses, or it may mean girls will be in a smaller number of houses for the first year as we transition. If a house remains single sex in 2028, we will aim for it to have Year 7 and Year 11 girls in it the following years, so that by 2029 all houses are co-educational.   

Year 11 and Year 7 girls would go in the same houses to ensure that mentor/mentee relationship. The goal over time is to achieve a gender balance across all 16 houses.  

Girls will be placed as far as possible – in either the same house as a sibling or an Old Newingtonian (ON), subject to family input and our need to have enough girls in each house (see the above question). The number of siblings and ON relationships our girls have may help to decide which houses become co-ed in 2028.  

The College works really hard on excellent pastoral care for our students. Girls will be members of one of 16 vertical houses in the senior school, where they will mix with students from Years 7-12. They will also be members of a mentor group, which is a year-based group that meets daily to connect with their mentor, who will generally follow them through their senior years from Years 7-12. There are also House Days and Mentor Days to enhance cohesion, belonging and a shared identity. 

Girls will have a dedicated point person with whom to connect, should they need someone to speak with, along with their mentor and Head of House. We will work on creating time for girls to be together pastorally to reflect on their experiences, support each other and be mentored by key women on our staff. (Our teaching staff is 50 percent female).  

Our counselling team provides an excellent service for students to talk with and work on any issues they may be having. Most of our counselling team is female. Whilst, like all schools, we do not  provide regular, permanent, ongoing therapy for students, however, if this is required, we will work as a case management team with families, and allied health and medical professionals to manage these individual cases.   

Newington’s female students will compete in the Independent Sporting Association (ISA) competition. This is a representative pathway competition, allowing our female athletes to showcase their talent and represent the College across numerous sports including Basketball, Netball, Cross Country, Football, Touch Football, Tennis, Swimming and Athletics. We will tailor our programs to actual demand but anticipate offering each of these sports and perhaps  even more sports, such as rowing.  The association competes in a round robin Saturday sport-based competition with multiple grades and divisions, as well as major carnival sport event days for Athletics, Cross Country and Swimming. 

Female students will have further opportunities and pathways in NSW CIS and NSW All Schools competitions.  

Other competitions and sporting tours will also be available for female students as time progresses. Newfit and Swimfit programs are also available to improve students’ physical capabilities. 

All students in Years 9 & 10 will be involved in either the Cadet program or Newington Challenge Program. Newington currently has a strong co-educational Cadets program, and this will continue to be available for all female students from Year 9.  

Newington Challenge is an outdoor education program culminating in a camp experience in both Years 9 & 10. 

One of Newington’s strengths is its wide array of co-curricular offerings, and this will continue to expand. Female students will of course have access to activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh program along with Debating and Public Speaking programs.  

Yes it will until the end of Year 11. Newington has a long tradition of sporting excellence, and we significantly value the benefits of sport for holistic student development.  Our sports policy aligns with our philosophy of developing well-rounded individuals. We work with families of our high performing athletes to ensure the balance is right for the student. We also work with families of students whose passions lie elsewhere to find options that still focus on fitness and teamwork.  

In Year 12 students have been able to partake in one sport instead of two and this will continue.  

Yes, we have plans to develop spaces for dance at all campuses, for all students. Stage One of our building works has been designed specifically with a co-educational lens and will become a bespoke sport and wellbeing precinct with a focus on belonging. It is a space that will allow our entire community to come together, as well as provide upgraded sports and wellness facilities for all our staff and students.   

Yes. For those students in Years 10 & 11 on State or National Pathway, the College develops programs tailored for each student and encourages a balanced approach to help them reach their full potential. 

The IGSSA is a girls’ school competition only and they do not admit co-ed schools, so we have no plans to compete. The ISA competition is highly competitive and like the IGSSA, provides students with the representative pathway to CIS, NSW All Schools and eventually Australian All Schools. We are confident our GPS and ISA affiliations will deliver excellent opportunities and competitions for our students. 

The College will continue to provide a wide array of formal and informal curricular offerings, and these will be, if required, gender based to ensure we encourage all students to fulfil their potential. Our culture review exploring our current strengths and areas of opportunity will help guide further our expanded offerings, as will the needs and interests of the girls and boys who join us. Newington is committed to ensuring all students become the best version of themselves and are leaders in all fields. 

Absolutely we do, we are a non-selective school with a large dedicated inclusive learning team to support all students’ learning needs, including gifted and talented students. Our success lies in the partnership with families to provide all information upfront so we can provide the personalised approach each student needs to thrive.   

As an existing boys’ school, we are confident that we have it in us to keep offering a good education for boys. We are undertaking an independent cultural review with The University of Sydney, evaluating our current strengths and identifying opportunities for cultural renewal to ensure all our students – boys and girls, current and future – continue to experience the best of Newington. Our current students’ opportunities will only be enhanced with the introduction of girls.  

We explore this issue in some depth in our Why co-ed booklet found on our website here. The largest reliable studies say that there is almost no difference in pure academics between co-ed and single sex environments. You can also read more about it in this article from PubMed here.

Recent research supports the advantages of co-educational environments for both girls and boys. For girls, these settings help develop critical social and communication skills. The American Journal of Psychology (2021) highlights that girls in co-ed schools develop essential interpersonal skills through their collaboration with boys, thereby equipping them for diverse real-world interactions including leadership. These experiences boost confidence and resilience, skills vital for navigating professional environments beyond the school gates.   

Boys also benefit from co-educational environments, particularly in areas such as emotional intelligence and empathy. According to a 2023 study by the University of Melbourne, boys in mixed-gender classrooms demonstrated improved social awareness and were more likely to engage in positive, respectful behaviours. For girls, the study found that when they were exposed to mixed-gender environments they had increased confidence and resilience, largely due to experiencing a wider range of perspectives and social interactions. The study suggested that boys who interact with girls in collaborative settings are less likely to internalise harmful gender stereotypes perpetuated on social media and are more likely to value equality​.  

UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring Report (2022) likewise, emphasised that co-ed schools enhanced critical thinking through exposure to diverse viewpoints for all students. These interactions encourage all students to develop better listening and cooperation skills, fostering an inclusive mindset, and a deeper understanding of gender equality;; essential if our society is to progress.    

We will work to develop all students to ensure that we bring out the very best and empower each young person to be the best versions of themselves.   

As we gradually transition to a fully co-educational environment, we will continue to explore ways in which we could offer boarding for girls in the future. We do not plan to offer boarding in our first co-ed years.  Currently, we only have a small boarding house, for just Years 9-12, however we will explore options for a girls’ boarding house into the future. 

Yes. There will be considerable opportunities for our girls and boys to lead both formally and informally through our SRC, sports, cadets, Newington Challenge, and co-curricular.  Our formal senior leadership positions will include both male and female prefects and in 2029 we plan to have a female Senior Prefect alongside a male Senior Prefect. 

In 2028, our first Year 11 girls will be trailblazers at Newington, as they become the first female student leaders in the College’s history. Our male leaders will also be trailblazers, as the first male student leaders of a co-educational Newington College. 

The ongoing legal action is generating a lot more noise externally than it is within the school. We are pleased that the proceedings are being expedited and will be heard in May.  

We remain steadfast in defending the proceedings and continuing towards co-education commencing in 2026. The Court has noted that the Attorney General of NSW, as the protector of charitable trusts, has indicated that the College Council has the power to make the decision they have, to transition to co-education.  

As background, the case brought by the plaintiff is centred on the claim that the word ‘youth’ in a trust deed from 1873 should preclude Newington from becoming co-ed. 

We will put in place dedicated implementation teams to manage the change. Our staff will continue their focus on delivering an excellent Newington education to our students. 

Our phased approach will also help ensure there is minimal impact on our existing students. 

A specialist uniform designer will create stylish, flexible, contemporary, comfortable uniforms for all students in consultation with our community. 

We will convert existing and build new bathrooms for all students. They will include a number of single, all-gender facilities. 

We do not plan to take female boarders at this stage, but this might change in the future. We welcome any interested families to contact us about this. 

We will designate male and female student leadership positions in most areas (whole College, House, etc). If a future student leader does not identify as either gender, we will manage that at the time. 

We already have a very wide range of subjects, and our Academic Executive will explore the possibility of additional subjects as part of increasing the size of our year groups. 

Yes. A majority of our staff have already taught in co-educational or girls’ schools so there is a wealth of knowledge and experience. It is important to add that a good teacher is usually a good teacher of everyone. 

Future girls at the senior school will compete in the Independent Sporting Association (ISA). Key sports in the ISA that we could consider include touch football, netball and basketball. We will also explore other sports for girls which are part of Newington’s offering, such as rowing and athletics. 

At the Prep schools, we will enter girls into the Saturday Sport Girls IPSHA Sports Competition which where the boys currently compete.

ISA is a strong Saturday competition of about 20 schools. It already includes the Sydney co-ed schools Barker, Redlands and St Andrews. ISA has indicated it would look favourably on any application to join the competition from 2028. 

Newington will still be a part of the AAGPS and plans to remain as competitive as we have been. The Armidale School is also a member of the AAGPS and is co-educational. 

The competition we already play in – the Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHAA) – has co-ed and single sex schools, with separate fixturing for boys and girls. We may have combined Wyvern/Lindfield representation if this is attractive in some sports. 

We hope this will be the case and plan to have further discussions with MLC. 

We will work assiduously, creatively and proactively to have all genders participating in all activities. 

We have extensively researched and considered the implications and practicalities of this change. 

The College is stepping into the change to co-education with vigilance and care. Every step will be carefully planned with the intention of giving the best possible education experience to our students now and in the future. 

Our website has information about the admissions process. We look forward to both the daughters of Old Newingtonians and whole new communities of families joining Newington. If you are interested in enrolling your child at Newington, please apply through the website or fill out an expression of interest.

The transition will be gradual, beginning in 2026 when we will welcome girls at our preparatory schools Wyvern and Lindfield in Kindergarten and Year 5. The first girls will join the senior campus in 2028 in Year 7 and Year 11. As these students progress through their education at Newington, the College will become fully co-educational by 2033, with the first co-educational cohort graduating in 2029. 

Our transition model will take Newington through the next decade to 2033, when we expect to be fully co-educational. We are ready to invest the resources, time and expertise to make a careful, deliberative transition. 

Our broad framework has considered: 

• the appointment of additional co-education focused roles and a co-education planning group in 2024, with our community stakeholders represented
• the first intake of girls into Kindergarten and Year 5 in 2026. This will allow girls to have a mentor/mentee relationship from the outset. The overall size of the cohorts at our K-6 campuses will stay the same
• our first intake of Year 7 girls in 2028. The overall size of our Year 7 cohort should grow from approximately 250 to approximately 300 at this time, including the students graduating from our prep schools
• a small Year 11 intake of girls in 2028. These girls will be foundation senior students and will also act as mentors for the Year 7 girls
• from 2032, an additional small intake of new boys and girls into Year 11 who will join those students who have already been at the College for a number of years
• our boys competing in the AAGPS sporting competition and our girls in the ISA sporting competition (more on this below). We expect to be fully competitive in both

Several important reasons led to the College Council’s decision. 

Newington College has a proud history as a school that has educated young people to discover what’s possible and become purposeful members of society. It is, and will continue to be, a thriving, rigorous, thoughtful place. However, it is the responsibility of the College Council to consider, protect and embrace the future of Newington as well as its present. This decision has been made to ensure the College remains a vibrant, contemporary institution, in step with the society it is part of. 

Our students will enter a world that will require them to walk and work alongside all genders collaboratively, respectfully and empathetically as colleagues, employers, employees, partners, parents and friends. 

We believe the best way to prepare them for these roles is for different genders to learn alongside each other in an everyday, unremarkable way during their childhood and adolescence. Although some Newington students already interact with girls in drama productions, orchestra and cadets, and our Early Learning Centre is already co-ed, daily connections will facilitate everyday and authentic relations and experiences. 

Secondly, diversity and inclusiveness are increasingly important in our culture. They are now the norm, not the exception. This has already re-shaped traditional institutions, systems, industries and workplaces. 

Diversity at Newington has meant different things at different times – at our inception it primarily meant different denominations. As time progressed, it more explicitly encompassed different socio-economic, ethnic, sexual orientation, geographic and faith groups. 

In today’s world, diversity inescapably includes gender as well as these things, and our commitment to inclusivity leads almost inexorably to our deliberations about co-education. 

Demographic trends played some role but were not a deciding factor. The decision has been made because we want to go co-ed, not because we need to. Applications for students to attend Newington remain very strong. That said, qualitative and quantitative data we have reviewed suggests fewer young people are planning a single sex education for their actual or anticipated children in the future. 

Girls can be confident their own experience will be robustly co-ed, even as other parts of the school are not all fully co-ed during the transition. There will be active consideration to the gender balance of Houses, classes and different subjects to ensure this occurs. This could mean some classes during the transition decade will remain all boys. We will work towards individual co-ed classes with a reasonable balance of boys and girls. 

We are well aware that, like most schools, our community will include children who change or do not identify with a gender. We will respect and accommodate that, just as many other schools do already. 

Working with respected external experts, we studied carefully the educational literature about single sex and co-educational schooling. The research can be deeply divided, opaque and partisan. The biggest limitation is that most studies do not take account of other critical factors (such as socio-economic advantage) that often overlap with single sex education. More robust studies usually do not show benefits in single sex education in terms of academic achievement. 

A persuasive meta-analysis conducted by Erin Pahlke, Janet Hyde and Carlie Allison in 2014 analysed 184 exhaustive studies in this field across 21 nations and 1.6 million students. They found that same-sex schooling produced no academic advantage in high school for boys or girls. In primary schools the results were mixed, usually miniscule and often in favour of co-education. 

We note that the studies found the quality of the teacher was far and away the most important factor in school success for both sexes. Newington College already has experienced teachers who have taught in both single sex and co-educational environments. 

Our research shows that, although there may be some differences between boys’ and girls’ learning styles and preferences, any ‘learning style’ differences within a sex are much greater than the differences between sexes. Some boys prefer competition, some do not, some girls prefer auditory learning, some do not. Good teachers will cater for a variety of learning preferences regardless of whether the classroom is single sex or co-educational. All students should be exposed to a variety of different styles regardless – they are going to need all of them at different times in life. 

Students at Newington have the opportunity to explore a broad range of subjects and electives. The College currently offers more than 30 electives in Year 9 and 10, and offers the HSC, International Baccalaureate and VET pathways. The Cambridge IGCSE curriculum is also being offered for the first time in 2024 to Year 9 and 10 students. 

As with every year group, the exact subjects and pathways offered will be affected by demand and selections within the specific cohort. 

Our overall staff, the College Leadership and the Academic Executive already have gender parity. We will continue to work on parity across the College more broadly. 

If you are interested in enrolling your daughter at Newington, you can apply or fill out an expression of interest.

Our plan is to grow the senior school by about one fifth, subject to planning laws – from 250 to approximately 300 in a year group over the next 10 years. We plan to maintain the current size of both Wyvern and Lindfield K-6. 

Newington is already a substantial secondary school – we will not be transitioning from a small to a large school. And our pastoral care and knowledge of each child are far better now than they were half a century ago when we were smaller. 

The quality of pastoral care depends on strong structures, people and culture. We will maintain this approach with a range of proactive programs so each student is known well by many people. 

Larger secondary schools can allow more choice for students. They offer more chances to find like-minded peers and people within a broader community. They provide more opportunities to embrace the diversity of different cultures, genders and world views. They can offer more subjects and co-curricular opportunities. We will look to offer more places in existing opportunities as we get larger. 

We understand that a strong community and culture depends on shared values, loyalties, comfort and connection. We will be vigilant in pursuing these. 

Having considered factors such as the future of demand for a Newington education within our key catchment areas, the socio-economic makeup of our student body, and changes in government funding for independent schools, we concluded we should grow in alignment with society in a measured and staged way. 

Growth also provides economies of scale that will allow the Newington of the future to thrive. It will also help us preserve our diversity. 

We have a variety of well-considered, designed and costed options that will ensure contemporary, flexible spaces at our school for the next decade for learning, sport, co-curricular and day-to-day operations. The planning and approvals process will begin as the best options are confirmed. 

Although we are not increasing the size of the prep schools we have earmarked projects for refurbishments, more contemporary classrooms and better play areas at both Wyvern and Lindfield. Some of these projects have been socialised already with works beginning in early 2024. 

We will build new bathrooms. 

We acknowledge that a portion of fees always pay for future building projects – our current students are enjoying the excellent facilities provided by the fees paid by previous generations of families. Our commitment to giving students the best possible education at Newington means continually assessing our facilities and programs, even in the face of inflation and rising costs. 

No. At some point in the future, we may build underneath one – we gained approval to do this in 2014 – but we intend for our green space to remain the same. 

The concept master plan developed in 2022-23 revealed the campus is able to be developed without compromising the unique green oasis used by our senior students every day. We believe we can build new facilities and improve the ones we have, whilst also keeping all our green space. 

The review invited input from staff, current parents, students, alumni and friends of Newington, including the Uniting Church. Their perspectives gave us valuable insights and enabled us to examine issues through varied perspectives. We are grateful for all this input and thank those who participated. 

The values that are the bedrock of Newington College include a balanced and rigorous education; inclusiveness and diversity; making a positive contribution to society; delivering a contemporary and innovative learning experience; teaching a balance of hard and soft skills; critical thinking as the foundation of lifelong learners, and an accountability to our students, their families, our alumni and society at large. These were a constant source of reference throughout the process. 

We are committed to remaining a part of the AAGPS.