{"id":275149,"date":"2025-11-10T09:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275149\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T09:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T09:49:11","slug":"boy-expelled-from-prestigious-sydney-school-after-national-tennis-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/275149\/","title":{"rendered":"Boy expelled from prestigious Sydney school after national tennis competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The headmaster at one of Sydney’s most prestigious schools has defended a decision to expel a hard working and talented student for attending a national tennis competition.<\/p>\n

Twelve-year-old Aarav found out on the first day of Tennis Australia’s week-long invite-only age championships that he wouldn’t be able to return to the independent Redeemer Baptist School in North Parramatta.<\/p>\n

The boy’s parents said they were shocked by the email, claiming their son had only missed two days of school this year for tennis.<\/p>\n

Aarav started playing tennis at age five and has a bedroom full of trophies. (A Current Affair)<\/p>\n

“I requested he be excused for this week and they came back with … we are withdrawing his enrollment and expelling him from the school,” parents Lavanya and Hari said.<\/p>\n

In an email, headmaster Russell Bailey referred the parents to the school’s 60-page handbook.<\/p>\n

“We require parents to seek advance permission when their child requires absence for sporting events or other activities that are not school-related,” he told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n

Lavanya and Hari said the decision was unfair on their child, who worked incredibly hard to be good in the classroom and on the court.<\/p>\n

“Three to four days a week he finishes school at 3.30pm … and has to be in the court at 5 o’clock, play until 8.30pm, come back, shower, sit and do his homework,” his mum said.<\/p>\n

Aarav’s report card is intimidating, with As in most subjects.<\/p>\n

The headmaster of the independent Redeemer Baptist School in North Parramatta defended the decision. (A Current Affair)<\/p>\n

“I make time,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I do homework during school hours, recess and lunch, and on the school bus.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I should be expelled for missing a week to go to some major event for nationals and stuff like that.”<\/p>\n

He started playing tennis at age five and has a bedroom full of trophies.<\/p>\n

“He’s very good, we’re so proud of him,” his parents said.<\/p>\n

Hari said they had been unable to find a school to take him immediately but had secured enrolment for next year.<\/p>\n

“A lot of my friends from primary school are there so I’d probably feel welcomed,” Aarav said.<\/p>\n

Aarav dreams of one day winning a grand slam just like his favourite player Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

Full statement from Russell Bailey, headmaster at Redeemer School<\/p>\n

As a place of education, our parent orientation and School Handbook reinforce ACARA’s common goal for children to attend school 90% of the time.<\/p>\n

We require parents to seek advance permission when their child requires absence for sporting events or other activities that are not school-related \u2013 and this allows us to work with families to minimise any impact on education.<\/p>\n

We have supported students with this approach as they have competed in high-level competitions across a range of inter-school, statewide, national and international competitions including in archery, golf, gymnastics, athletics, computing, football, music and science.<\/p>\n

There are a number of inaccurate remarks in your questions, but unfortunately Privacy Laws prevent us from discussing individual students.<\/p>\n

However, in general terms, we can say that we will revoke an enrolment if a parent repeatedly fails to follow the school’s requirements and does not work with us in the interests of their child’s education. At that point, there is no requirement to pay further fees.<\/p>\n

Given our expectations are clear from the start, this happens very rarely, and it is a very sad and disappointing outcome for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headmaster at one of Sydney’s most prestigious schools has defended a decision to expel a hard working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-275149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}