Strengths and opportunities: an update for Term 3
Dear Newington community,
Welcome back to the new term. I hope that it has begun well for your whole family. It is an exciting time with many fixtures, concerts and activities planned. Several more Year 9 groups are going north to our Service Learning campus Eungai Creek, and Year 12 are counting down the weeks to their exams. Soon they will be counting down the days.
Tony McDonald wrote to you earlier in the week and included material about the upcoming ONU election. For those of us who are proud of the Newington of the 2020s, it gives us an opportunity to not just receive good news about Newington, but to advocate for the College too. This includes our improving academics, our strong finances and our healthy culture.
In light of the achievements of the current students and recent alumni, who deserve to be recognised and celebrated, and our staff who turn up to the school each day ready to do their best for each and every child, I have put together this overview.
Our Academics are strong and improving.
Our average ATAR was the highest in 2023 since 2001 – an amazing achievement. Our median ATAR was very good as well. Our value add on each student has gone up each year for the last five. In the IB we are significantly above national and international averages. Our mean and median ATARs in the IB have always been in the 90s – and often well into the 90s. There is still more that we can do to improve – and we plan to – but our results are improving.
There is much more to say about this. I hope that you get the time to read about it at this link.
Our Finances are strong.
We have healthy surpluses and cash balances. Our most recent financial statement is publicly available at this link. Several years ago, the College Council made the calculated decision to redirect some of the surplus from a future means tested scholarship fund (a laudatory aim) to day-to-day teaching and pastoral care (also a laudatory aim). In doing so we reduced the College’s surplus and reduced the staff to student ratio from about 1:11 to about 1:9. We now have many more learning support staff, Heads of House, time for mentor meetings etc. Covid was also met with some financial decisions we are still comfortable with – having a zero percent fee increase in 2021 and helping families in hardship during a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Our surplus and cash position is controlled, healthy and will soon be used to finance a well-designed building program.
Please read some more about this at this link.
Our Sport is strong.
Our sports program educates for teamwork, skill development and courage. We also teach how to win with grace and how to lose with dignity. And we do win quite a lot. In the most recent summer season, we won Premierships in the 1sts basketball, the 1sts and 2nds water polo, the 2nds cricket and the swimming relays. We will continue to be competitive in the Great Public Schools of NSW (GPS) competition.
Please read some more about this at this link.
The Independent Sporting Association (ISA) Competition is strong. This is the competition our senior school girls will be going into. It is a good competition. It has camaraderie, good sportsmanship and good competition. Other schools our girls will be playing include Redlands, Barker, Cranbrook and Oakhill. Our junior school girls will participate in the same Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA) competition that our boys currently do, with a broader range of sports offered.
Please read more about this at this link.
Our Governance is strong.
We have some long serving, loyal College Council members – all within the terms of our own Act and Council Policies. Fifty eight percent of current Council Members have been on the Council for three years or less, and we have a gender balance of 63 per cent male and 37 per cent female members of Council. There is experience, a range of specific skills and fresh perspectives. All members of Council are volunteers.
Our culture is open.
In 2022, we consulted widely about co-education. We encouraged students to have an open opinion and stressed it was fine to be supportive of single sex or co-education. I heard plenty of both views from boys. They came to the qualitative research sessions. The Newington community knew that co-education was a possibility for almost two years. Our Parent Code of Conduct and Conditions of Enrolment are long standing and standard features of Independent Schools.
Please read more about this at this link.
I write to the students to say – You should be proud of the school you are at right now – and you make it excellent. Your spirit on the driveway, in the classes, in the House areas, on the sports sidelines and on the stages is indefatigable. You have much to be proud of and I look forward to continuing to celebrate it with you.
I write to the parents to say – If you are happy with Newington, please be a promoter of it. Both because there is much to be happy about, and because your kids deserve to hear the best about a school that they spend most of their waking hours at. I hope that the information in this letter gives you more ability to do so. I hope we can take time to accentuate the justifiably positive.
I write to the staff to say – Your education of our students is first rate. You are doing terrific work as teachers, as mentors, as coaches and as operational staff who keep the whole place running. You are great role models and I am proud that we are all in the same vocation of educating the next generation together. You, with the students, make the Newington of today.
I write to future parents to say – The Newington of the future is even more exciting. Between the Eungai Creek campus, our ‘Hearts/Minds/Wings’ philosophy, the Centre for Critical Thinking and Ethics and the upcoming strategic plan, we will continue to be at the forefront of education in Sydney.
On the issue of co-education, the Council is fully committed to co-ed. The Executive is fully committed to co-ed. The staff are excited. The actual students of the future will mainly have already been schooled in co-ed environments for most or all of their lives. Newington is and will be an excellent, inclusive, forward-thinking school with high standards and we would be privileged to educate your children as they grow into the adults of the 2030s and 2040s.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Parker
Headmaster