The headmaster of The King’s School, Tony George, is under fire from teachers, parents and old boys following the ‘clip over the ear’ incident. Michael West reports.
The headmaster of The King’s School, Tony George, will take the stage on Monday morning at the inaugural Australian Character Education Summit to be held in the Trophy Room at King’s expansive 148-hectare campus.
Holding forth amid the gathering of education luminaries, George is slated to discuss “key values” in leadership, values-based education, and the character traits needed to be a successful school leader.
Yet the very leadership success of the King’s headmaster has become the subject of intense scrutiny. As revealed in these pages, Tony George is under investigation for an incident earlier this year when he “clipped a boy over the ear” in a religious education class in front of around 100 boys and teachers in the Futter Hall. They were said to be shocked.
The King’s School headmaster controversy deepens as boy is ‘clipped over the ear’
George then went “on leave,” and the school soon confirmed that an investigation into the incident was underway – and that investigation is still underway and unlikely to wrap up before the Character Education Summit next week.
It is not merely the Futter Hall incident, however, which has the school community concerned; the School Council is under pressure over the renewal of Tony George’s tenure at Australia’s oldest and largest school on a number of fronts.
Feverish anticipation
“The TKS community’s feverish anticipation of news from School about a decision on the Headmaster is at breaking point,” one senior source in the school community told MWM.
“The Year 12 Graduation Day [last week], with 800-plus attendees, was rife with speculation. The rumour mill is on overdrive.”
Whether in the staff rooms, on the sidelines of the rugby at the JS White Oval or in the chambers of Sydney’s Anglican Synod, it is not merely the “clip over the ear” incident that is affecting King’s morale, but questions over the colourful headmaster’s managerial style and performance.
Staff exodus
A missive by a senior staff identity, obtained by MWM, which has made its way to the school Council, cites “a worrying staff exodus”, “leadership style”, failure to attend meetings, and concern over George’s appointment from a little-known school, St Stephens in Western Australia.
“Ultimately, there has been much reputational damage associated with his tenure,” says the email. “These, in large part, have been generated by decisions made by TG. It seems that the only time that TKS appears in the mainstream media, these are stories that focus on decisions he has made, be that the request for a lap-pool or first-class/business class tickets to the Henley Regatta or ill-timed attacks on wokeness culture.
“While I’m sure the Head had no intention to harm the student at the centre of the current scandal, at the very least it reflects a reckless and dangerous lack of judgment.”
Tony George declined requests for an interview for this story, and King’s public affairs did not respond to questions. MWM spoke with former staff, old boys and parents.
Big business
King’s is big business. It is a tax-free charitable institution, dominated at council level by Sydney’s Anglican Church, but also an institution subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of $17m a year. Last year, King’s recorded revenue of $117m. Income has risen from $92m in 5 years, assisted by the school’s controversial decision to apply, and obtain, $8m in JobKeeper subsidies during Covid.
It is fair to say that many other wealthy private schools and well-heeled golf clubs and others helped themselves to JobKeeper with no need for it, yet King’s is one of the wealthiest, and while the school helped itself to $8m in JobKeeper, the leadership declined to pass through a $2.5% pay rise for the teaching staff.
If the teachers were restless then, they are furious now, say King’s sources. “The 2025 Staff Engagement Survey results have fallen through the floor. There is pervasive staff room unity and calls for a ‘revolt’ if TG returns to the job in Term 4″.
Captain’s calls and the Common Room
The note to the Council accused George of “destroying the Common Room” (where teachers gather daily before and after lessons).
“Having announced that he would not recognise the right of the Chairman of the Common Room to speak on behalf of staff even though she had been elected by the staff as their representative, the Head then refused to meet with or allow the IEU [independent teachers’ education union] representation to meet with the staff.”
“… there has been a worrying exodus of staff from TKS. These have included a great many Heads of Department as well as many other talented teachers many who have left due to a clear lack of direction from above. In addition to the loss of several excellent and high-performing staff, there has also been the appointment of several staff of questionable abilities due to several ‘Captain’s Calls’”.
Concern over captain’s calls extends beyond the Common Room. George also stands accused of “high bursar turnover” and extravagant spending on projects, and lack of transparency.
The Arms Race
Key among these was King’s decision to splash $15m on a 16-hectare property at Naamaroo Drive in Lindfield, up from the Lane Cove River. They acquired it from the Uniting Church, with some observers claiming there was not enough discussion or disclosure of the deal.
Yet the strange thing is, there is no development approval for King’s to redevelop the land for educational purposes, which makes the $15m price-tag seem ritzy and a run-through of the King’s financial statements sheds little light on acquisitions and valuations on individual projects launched by George, which have not yet come to fruition.
The Lindfield property is presently zoned Private Recreational and has a conference centre in the bushland, and one school source said the idea behind the acquisition was that the land would be developed into a “feeder school” for King’s main campus at Parramatta and/or a centre for Christian leadership.
“The problem was that members of the OBU (Old Boys Union), the King’s School Foundation and the school executive were unaware,” said one source.
Land banking and launching extravagant building projects (in independent school-land they call it the ‘Arms Race’) is by no means contained to King’s, yet the school already sits on the largest chunk of land of any in Australia, 130 hectares. Then there is Tudor House, the feeder school on the Southern Highlands, with 69 hectares, and the Futter Park rural estate with 5,042 hectares near Harden in NSW.
One source said of the Lindfield acquisition – “this on top of boarding staff underpayments, bursar turnover, rising legal and consulting costs, no capital project improvements”.
Under Tony George and the previous head, Tim Hawkes, King’s has performed well academically. At ATAR (the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank), students have been getting good marks relative to other schools. This has brought disaffection among old boys, however, due to the changing demographics and ‘culture’ of the school, as King’s has actively marketed for bright children from overseas, even showcasing its education wares at fairs in China to attract academic talent.
And so the decision to renew the tenure of Tony George has the King’s School Council under pressure. Corporate governance is a concern, one Synod source telling MWM the Anglican clergy voting as a ‘bloc’ and backing the headmaster had become contentious. Another source said the clergy did not vote as a bloc but did generally back the incumbent.
The Council is against the wall on this, he said. If they don’t renew George’s tenur,e they may face a legal claim and ensuing negative press (as was the case recently with rival GPS schools Shore and Cranbrook), and if they do, they face continuing unrest by staff and old boys … and the spectre they they will have to “own” any further mishaps.
Cranbrook and the private school “arms race”. How far is elite school funding out of whack?
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.