By Lucy Carroll
The former headmaster of Cranbrook School, Nicholas Sampson, has settled a legal dispute with the school’s governing council for an undisclosed sum following his dramatic resignation from the prestigious all-boys institution in March.
In a public statement released on Tuesday, Sampson said he had also lodged a detailed complaint with the ABC Ombudsman regarding a Four Corners program about the private school in Bellevue Hill in Sydney’s eastern suburbs that aired earlier this year.
Nicholas Sampson, headmaster at Cranbrook School in Bellevue Hill, resigned in March.
Sampson resigned from his $1 million a year position at the school on March 8 amid claims he was aware a teacher had sent sexually explicit messages to a former student at another school but failed to notify the council.
Those allegations came days after the airing of an episode on the ABC’s investigative program that raised questions about the treatment of female staff at Cranbrook and included claims of bullying and misogyny at the school.
In a letter to the school community on Tuesday, the school’s board said it had “finalised arrangements for the conclusion of Mr Sampson’s employment by the school, which have now taken effect. The terms of these arrangements are confidential.”
In its statement, the council said that, when announcing the headmaster’s resignation on March 8, it made a public statement “to the effect that Mr Sampson had failed to report to the school council allegations of historic misconduct involving a Cranbrook senior school teacher while employed at another school”.
“We confirm that was a reference to the school council as constituted on that date and that the council did not intend to suggest otherwise.
“The council wishes to clarify that Mr Sampson did report the matter to a differently constituted council in 2015 and acknowledges that its statement may have caused confusion,” the council’s statement said.
Sampson, who had run the prestigious school since 2012, engaged high-profile lawyer Rebekah Giles and barristers Arthur Moses, SC, and Sue Chrysanthou, SC, to represent him. The Herald revealed in March that a range of legal claims were made on Sampson’s behalf, including defamation, breach of duty and false and misleading conduct.
Under the terms of his contract, which ran until 2026, Sampson was required to give one year’s notice, the equivalent to his remuneration package of about $1 million.
“I am extremely pleased that I am no longer in dispute with the Cranbrook School council,” Sampson said in his statement.
“The school’s position in relation to my tenure and conduct as headmaster has been clarified in its statement today. The harm done to my reputation arising out of the misinformation that followed the earlier statement has now been ameliorated, and I have been vindicated.”
Sampson said he had lodged a complaint with the ABC Ombudsman, saying reporting in the Four Corners episode about Cranbrook, titled Old School, which aired on March 4, was “wildly inaccurate, lacking in impartiality and in contravention of a number of the ABC’s own editorial standards”.
“It is gravely concerning that our own national broadcaster is prepared to broadcast dishonest and biased reporting callously and unfairly impacting so many. I am determined to pursue that complaint to its conclusion,” he said.
In the statement, Sampson said he “appreciated the council’s goodwill in publicly clarifying its previous statement and acknowledging the confusion caused by those words. There now cannot be any doubt that I reported the matter to the council in 2015 and that the allegations were externally investigated by an independent body, NSW Police and notified to the Office of Children’s Guardian.”
In Cranbrook’s statement to teachers and parents, the school listed multiple “important milestones” achieved while Sampson was headmaster, including the decision to introduce co-education in 2026.
That decision – and the speed of the co-ed move – sparked a bitter dispute that later led to the mass exodus of its former council’s then-president Jon North.
The mass resignations in late 2022 followed months of disagreement and a breakdown in the relationship between Sampson and North.
The allegations that led to Sampson’s exit had related to a male teacher at Cranbrook who allegedly sent multiple graphic emails in 2014 to a former female student he had previously taught at Mount St Benedict College in Pennant Hills.
On announcing Sampson’s resignation, Cranbrook council president Geoff Lovell gave a statement saying the failure to disclose past conduct matters to the current council, in the context of other allegations aired on the previous week’s ABC Four Corners program, led to “an irrevocable breakdown of trust” between the headmaster and the board.
The matter was reported to NSW Police and the NSW Ombudsman at the time and the Association of Independent Schools NSW investigated the allegations at Cranbrook’s request.
The 13-person council includes Old Cranbrookians Association president Martin Cayzer and the Anglican Archbishop’s nominee Lovell, who was previously deputy chairman of Shore’s school council and on the University of Sydney’s St Paul’s College council.
The ABC has been contacted for comment.
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