Boys from Cranbrook School in Sydney’s east have had to put up with rival private college students taunting them on playgrounds and rugby fields for generations.
One current rendition of a decades-old rhyme reads, “Get a girl, grab a girl, get a girl if you can; if you can’t get a lady, get a Cranbrook man.”
The catchphrase has evolved significantly over time, but the slur has never altered.
It was formerly also common for students at Scots College on Bellevue Hill, farther up Victoria Road, to mockingly doff their hats and offer seats on buses and trams to Cranbrook boys.
The 104-year-old Anglican college, which is exclusively male, and its extremely affluent backers are currently engaged in a playground argument over whether to change their status.
Behind the school’s wrought iron gates, billionaires and other influential corporate and political figures are debating whether boys and girls should mix as teenagers.
It seems sense that these parents are zealous about their kids’ education. For a boarder, annual tuition at Cranbrook can reach $75,489, and for a day lad, it can reach $39,894.
The co-founder and CEO of Atlassian and third richest man in the nation, Scott Farquhar, who is believed to be worth $26.41 billion, is in favor of the decision to admit females to Cranbrook, initially in Years 11 and 12.
To speed up the process, Farquhar and his wife Kim Jackson have volunteered to provide scholarships for girls attending other institutions.
Former federal Labor minister turned political analyst Graham Richardson, known for his personal slogan “whatever it takes,” is one of many opposed to the change.
The dispute has produced charges of a lack of transparency and occasionally vehement debate. The proposal’s disclosure through a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald rather than the school itself hasn’t done much to allay fears.
In an opinion piece for the same publication, Evan Hughes, a Cranbrook alumnus and the son of the late art dealer Ray Hughes, discussed the school’s unfavorable past reputation.
The old joke immediately crossed my mind: were they finally letting lads in? Before vehemently supporting the suggested modification, Hughes wrote.
Headmaster Nicholas Sampson informed senior staff and members of the school council about the decision to admit females to Cranbrook in April of last year.
It happened in the midst of a wave of complaints from young women about being sexually exploited, abused, and denigrated by boys attending private schools.
Many parents initially supported the co-ed plan, but others who wanted to maintain the school’s traditional identity immediately opposed it.
Headmaster Nicholas Sampson informed senior staff and members of the school council about the decision to admit females to Cranbrook in April of last year.
Gretel Packer, a wealthy businessman and the brother of James and Kerry, wants ladies to attend Cranbrook and sent her two kids there.
Will Vicars, the billionaire chief investment officer of Caledonia, and Walter Lewin, the chairman of venture capital firm OneVentures, are two other supporters of the proposal.
Managing director of the McKinsey global management consulting firm Angus Dawson and director of Macquarie Group Nicola Wakefield Evans both support the pro-girls movement.
Influential Cranbrook parents convened for dinner in March at Vicars’ Bondi residence, according to the Australian Financial Review, including Gretel Packer, Wakefield Evans, Dawson, and Lewin.
Sampson and the leader of the school council, investment banker Jon North, were also there. North apparently received encouragement to push even harder for the headmaster’s co-ed goal.
Daisy Turnbull, the daughter of former British prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy, has lately started working as a part-time commerce instructor at Cranbrook.
She attended the Catholic all-girls Kincoppal-Rose Bay school, and it’s been suggested that her attendance would have helped draw in more female applicants.
Mike Cannon-Brookes, Farquhar’s business partner and second-richest person in Australia with $27.83 billion, is a longtime resident of Cranbrook but has remained silent.
In September, it was revealed that he and his wife Annie were relocating their sons from Cranbrook to a school in the Southern Highlands, where they have a sizable real estate holding.
The most notable opponent is longtime Packer family advisor Richardson, who has stated that if he had known Cranbrook would become co-educational, he probably would not have enrolled his son there.
Chicken heir and fashion retail pioneer Robby Ingham, his wife Sarah, and real estate investor Lesli Berger and his wife Kirsty are also opposed to the proposal.
Beyond whether their boys should attend classes with girls, some parents’ views may prove to be important behind the rowing sheds.
It happened in the midst of a wave of complaints from young women about being sexually exploited, abused, and denigrated by boys attending private schools.
Many parents initially supported the co-ed plan, but others who wanted to maintain the school’s traditional identity immediately opposed it.
Cranbrook has started a $125 million building effort to repair outdated infrastructure that heavily depends on kind donors.
Farquhar, who attended the elite James Ruse Agricultural High School in Carlingford, and Vicars, a longtime resident of Cranbrook, are reportedly two of the project’s biggest financial backers.
There are further financial incentives for individuals who support the coed bid. All-girl schools like Ascham and Kambala in the area are popular choices for well-to-do parents who want to attract their kids away from Cranbrook.
Adding more female students to the campus might help boost Cranbrook’s academic standing among prestigious private schools in the eastern suburbs.
In the state’s HSC results from the previous year, Cranbrook came in 35th, much behind all-girls schools Kambala (11th), Ascham (16th), St. Catherine’s Waverley (23rd), and Kincoppal (28th).
The insults from students at other universities are in part because Cranbrook has never been a sporting powerhouse and is not a member of the Athletic Association of Great Public Schools.
Basketball and touch football will be available in the summer, while soccer or netball will be available in the winter if girls are admitted to Cranbrook.
Supporters of co-ed schools believe that sex interaction in the classroom will promote “healthy and respectful” relationships in later life.
22 recent head prefects have submitted a letter to Sampson and North pleading with the institution to adopt the co-ed model.
The letter claimed that Sydney’s single-sex independent school arrangements “produce one-dimensional interactions between the genders.”
Certain attitudes and behavioral norms that emerge in these enclaves are, to put it mildly, no longer acceptable in the larger Australian community.
North announced the addition of more extracurricular programs that would include girls in a letter to the Cranbrook community in December.
He claimed that the council had examined research on the advantages of co-educational schools and other secondary institutions that have undergone the transformation.
With the help of the school and the community, he stated, “We have been inspired to implement adjustments that will better serve our students both during their time at Cranbrook and as they move on to tertiary study and professional endeavors.”
North suggested speaking with parents, teachers, students, and alumni about allowing girls to enter Years 11 and 12. He said that the council unanimously decided to put the co-ed proposals into action.
This will be a significant move for Cranbrook, therefore there needs to be strong community support, he stated.
“The consultation process will ensure that all viewpoints are heard in choosing the best co-educational strategy for Cranbrook,” says the statement.
At three town hall-style sessions held in early May, the principal supported a request to enroll 70 senior females to join 190 boys in Year 11.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Kim Jackson allegedly utilized a WhatsApp group for parents of junior schools to promote participation in one of those discussions.
‘Hi All. A reminder The Cranbrook community forum on co-education is tonight, she wrote. According to our informal survey, the clear majority of parents support co-ed and believe tonight’s consultation will focus on the “how.”
However, based on our interactions with the school board, the topic of the meeting tonight is “if” co-ed should take place at all.
Therefore, if you are firmly in favor of co-ed, your presence tonight (in person or virtually) is required to make sure it takes place.
Moments later, an anti-coed parent reacted angrily to Jackson’s tweet.
‘Hi everybody. Unfortunately, a lot of families feel deceived by this suggestion and are vehemently opposed to it, the parent stated.
“Your voice deserves to be heard as well.” Make sure to show up so that your opinion can be heard.
“You are entitled to object to the choice to go co-ed; it is not final.” No more advocacy for or opposition to the plan shall be made on this forum.
Co-education supporters think the consultation process has been too slow.
At the school’s Mary 31 annual general meeting, a group of current and former parents spoke out against the re-election of three council members, including North.
North claimed that his detractors were attempting to “quietly undermine Cranbrook’s governance in order to achieve power and influence for themselves.”
He and the other council members were re-elected with nearly 80 per cent of the vote. Whether the school ever becomes co-ed is still in the consultation process.
An online poll was emailed to parents this month to evaluate their degree of worry over the many objections that have been expressed to the proposal.
Some mothers and fathers have been anxious their boys will be distracted by the presence of girls. Some worry their boys’ academic scores could decline, or they would lack confidence to participate completely in classrooms.
The survey also asked if parents were concerned that making Cranbrook co-educational ‘would result in the loss of an environment that gives rites of passage for boys and provides a space where boys can be boys.’