Michael Davies steps down after facing months of pressure over the sacking of a teacher for cutting a student’s hair

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The headmaster of the elite Melbourne private school Trinity Grammar has resigned after months of pressure over the sacking of a popular teacher who cut a student’s hair.

Dr Michael Davies, who had been the head of the boys’ school since 2014, announced his resignation at a staff meeting on Tuesday morning.

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He had faced pressure to stand down from the school’s powerful alumni network, the Old Trinity Grammarians Association, who were outraged about the sacking of deputy headmaster Rohan Brown after Brown cut a student’s hair on school picture day.

The student complained, and Brown was sacked by Trinity’s school council for allegedly “contravening disciplinary procedures”.

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Brown was reinstated after five weeks of student protests, legal threats, the resignation of school council members, and finally an investigation by a former federal court judge.

It exposed deep divisions within the school and alumni community about the direction of the school, including an open letter signed by 50 former school captains who were concerned that the dismissal of “Brownie” signalled a “change in culture and direction of the school”.

In a statement on Tuesday, Davies said he would see out the end of the term, which ends on 29 June.

“Having successfully resolved some complex matters over recent weeks, I am now content that our hard work in recent weeks has helped the school return to a position where students and staff are enjoying the normal rhythm of school life,” he said.

Former Carey Grammar principal Phil De Young will be appointed interim headmaster until a replacement for Davies can be found, which the school has said may take “many months”.

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Trinity School Council chairman, Robert Utter, said the council was sorry to see Davies leave.

“Over the past four and a half years, Dr Davies has been instrumental in the school’s continuing evolution as a leading private educational institution,” Utter said in a statement.

He credited Davies with improving the school’s rating “as one of the best performing Victorian schools across a wide range of educational, pastoral and personal development metrics”.

“It would be easy to forget these achievements given recent circumstances at the school but they remain accurate measures of our recent history,” he said.