Top-performing Sydney school eyes more campuses across city

One of the state’s top-performing private schools has flagged plans to open more campuses in Sydney,claiming the waiting list to enter year 7 is five times the number of students it can admit.

Inspired Education,which owns Reddam House in the eastern suburbs,said it was looking to establish more co-ed schools in other parts of the city as demand rises across its primary and secondary years.

Reddam House,which has campuses in the eastern suburbs,is looking to open other schools in Sydney.

Reddam House,which has campuses in the eastern suburbs,is looking to open other schools in Sydney.Peter Rae

The high-fee school,split between two campuses in Bondi and Woollahra,is known for its intensive teaching approach,weekly testing and strong academic results,climbing the HSC rankings to fifth spot last year and outperforming selective school Sydney Grammar.

In 2019,Reddam became the first school in NSW to relinquish government funding to become a fully for-profit enterprise after joining the private-equity backed corporate Inspired group that operates 80 schools in more than a dozen countries.

It gave up about $5 million a year in funding to become a part of the multinational company,which has multiple schools in the United Kingdom,Spain,Portugal and New Zealand.

Last month,Inspired lodged a proposal for a new 1560-student campus in North Sydney,outlining plans to overhaul a six-storey Harry Seidler-designed block at 41 McLaren Street into a high-rise school from kindergarten to year 12. A state significant development application said its plans for a new co-ed,non-denominational school would “contribute to the demand for educational facilities within the North Sydney” local government area.

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The project has received almost 20 objections – including from North Sydney Council – while a submission from private girls’ school Wenona in the suburb raised concerns about traffic congestion in the high-density zone and whether there was enough demand to justify another high school in the area.

But a spokesman for Inspired said it was “continuing to look for opportunities to establish Reddam campuses in other parts of Sydney”,flagging the northern beaches as another area the group is eyeing for expansion.

“There is great demand on the north shore for further,modern schooling options,” he said,adding that the group could eventually have up to five Sydney campuses.

“Our continued academic success has seen demand surge to five times the number of students we are able to accept,” he said.

The Harry Seidler-designed building at 41 McLaren Street,North Sydney,that could be transformed into a kindergarten-to-year-12 Reddam House school.

The Harry Seidler-designed building at 41 McLaren Street,North Sydney,that could be transformed into a kindergarten-to-year-12 Reddam House school.Peter Rae

Reddam has long had an unconventional ownership structure:it was founded by businessman Graeme Crawford,who,after establishing a group of schools in South Africa in the 1990s,moved to Australia to set up the school in 2001. Crawford is now president of the Inspired group.

Last year,US private equity company Stonepeak made a $1 billion investment in Inspired,while other recent investors in the international school group include the Singaporean sovereign wealth giant GIC and other private equity firms TA Associates and Warburg Pincus.

Reddam principal Dave Pitcairn said there were benefits of being part of an international network of schools,which allow pupils to join exchange programs and music partnerships.

The popularity of the unconventional school among parents,which this year raised fees by 7 per cent to $40,000 for year 12,has been driven by academic results.

The school uses regular 50-minute cycle tests to track students’ progress and expects pupils to achieve an average score of at least 60 per cent.

Pitcairn said the approach “prepares students for exams,and helps with learning how to handle pressure of final tests”.

Butsome critics said continual high stakes testing can put unnecessary pressure on children. “Even among the strongest students it can cause high stress,” one education expert said.

“It’s only in the past five or six years we have had waiting lists. I think parents ... like the co-ed and non-denominational nature of the school,” Pitcairn said. “There aren’t many of those schools in Sydney like us.”

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Lucy Carroll is education editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously a health reporter.

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