Like many a $46,000-a-year all-boys school, Shore in North Sydney has struggled to avoid troubling headlines. The latest was a report in this masthead that former teacher Clare Walker is lodging a complaint against the school with the Human Rights Commission, regarding headmaster John Collier ’s characterisation of the murder of young Sydney woman Lilie James by her former boyfriend.

Collier, a former headmaster at St Andrews, had taught the killer, Paul Thijssen, whom he described to staff at Shore as a “fantastic young man”. He later issued an apology buried in a school newsletter.

Collier isn’t sticking around. He’s set to finish up at the end of the year, after being brought out of retirement three years ago to help the school through a rather turbulent period.

His predecess

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