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The head of Sydney’s most expensive school has attempted to quell a storm of complaints in a parents’ WhatsApp group, writing a 1700-word email about toilets, new microwaves and promising a nutritionist will review the term one food menu.
Scots College principal Dr Ian Lambert rebuked parents for their discussion, which raised concerns about school governance, declining HSC results and facilities at the Bellevue Hill school.
“What is not helpful is the circulation of uninformed comments in private forums. It creates unnecessary anxiety and distracts from the focused environment that year 12 requires,” he told parents this month.
In a subsequent letter, Lambert disputed parents’ claims that as principal was not accountable to anybody after the school’s council was disbanded in 2016, when 12 members of its governing council, a mix of legal and financial heavyweights, were replaced with senior church figures.
Lambert this month said he reported to the College Council, which is appointed by the General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church NSW, and met with subcommittees at the school. He is also accountable to the NSW Education Standards Authority, he said.
“I think it is important to understand that, as principal, I do not have the authority to act in isolation or according to my own personal interests or desires. I am very much under authority,” he said.
Other issues raised included the $60 million Scottish baronial castle, which parents claim was partly inaccessible to students, as well as the purchase of a taxidermied camel from a Sydney antique store with a price tag of $13,000.
One parent claimed the camel was asbestos-ridden. A school spokesman said the stuffed animal, now in storage, did not contain asbestos.
Parents also voiced concerns about a shortage of change rooms, lack of shade, insufficient year 12 common room study facilities and a lack of microwaves at the school, which has more than 2000 students across five campuses and charges almost $55,000 for year 12.
Lambert said some concerns were “entirely reasonable and require attention” while others were inaccurate.
He detailed 20 infrastructure projects completed since he began at the college in 2007, including The Graham Clark Centre for Innovation in the Sciences and the Lang Walker Business Centre.
“In all these projects, we have consciously increased student toilets, change rooms, dining, study and meeting spaces for students and staff.”
Additional microwaves and a new refrigerator will be installed in the Tah and Thistle room this week for year 12 students, Lambert said, while five new microwaves have also been installed in the Black Watch Café.
“A nutritionist will be conducting a review of the Term 1 menu before it gets locked in, and all parents of Boarders will be advised so that you can have full visibility of your son/s’ diet.”
In another email to parents on Thursday morning, which was 1800 words long, Lambert addressed the school’s decline in The Sydney Morning Herald’s HSC league tables after it fell 40 places to rank 81st last year.
“I understand why this creates anxiety,” Lambert told parents.
The Herald’s HSC league tables are calculated as the number of students achieving in the top band in each subject, as a proportion of total enrolments in that subject. Lambert noted rankings could be distorted if a large number of students received marks which were just a few marks short of scoring in a top band.
He listed numerous “well-known” ways the school could boost its rankings to place it in the top 30, including choosing easier subject combinations more likely to guarantee top band results.
“If we ever begin shaping subject advice to improve a newspaper table rather than to maximise your son’s ATAR and his preparation for life beyond school, we will have abandoned our purpose,” he said.
He went on to say the Herald’s HSC school rankings do not fully reflect the depth of the work being done. “It means choosing integrity over optics, substance over headlines, and long-term formation over short-term applause.”
Referring to a recent Financial Review story that compared the increase in fees with the academic decline, Lambert said: “Scots is not a school for everyone. If a family’s sole measure of value is movement in a newspaper ranking, then another model of schooling may feel more aligned to that expectation. We will not re-engineer our academic program to chase headlines.”
Lambert asked parents to email with specific concerns in the future.
Asked about infrastructure spending, a spokesman said: “Our facilities are funded entirely through generous old boy and parent donors, prudent financial management, and consistent budget surpluses that allow upgrade and improvements.
“The college receives no infrastructure funding from state or federal governments.”
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