Victoria’s teaching regulator sent authorised officers into both campuses of Fitzroy Community School on Tuesday morning, executing unannounced inspections at the alternative primary school that has been at the centre of child-safety and governance investigations for months.
What regulators were looking for
The Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) arrived at the North Fitzroy and Thornbury sites around 11 a.m., the ABC reported. Investigators were checking whether any teachers were working without registration and whether staffing levels were sufficient to supervise children—basic compliance questions that carry extra weight while historical sexual-abuse allegations and claims about violent discipline remain under review.
It is unusual for the VIT to deploy its authorised-officer powers, which allow entry, searches and document seizure. Tuesday’s twin raids signal that regulators are no longer relying on paperwork alone as scrutiny intensifies.
A school under overlapping probes
Fitzroy Community School, which has operated for roughly five decades, faces parallel inquiries into child safety and governance. Three staff members were recently found unfit to hold positions of authority in Victoria’s education system, and co-founder Faye Berryman was suspended on an interim basis in August. Her son Nick Berryman was suspended last year; former principal Tim Berryman remains under investigation, and the VIT is examining a separate physical-abuse allegation involving another teacher this year.
Sisters who raised concerns about sexualised conduct have lodged a civil claim in the Supreme Court of Victoria, adding a courtroom track to the regulatory action.
Leadership churn and falling rolls
The raids follow a string of resignations, including former principal Craig Dowell this month and two board members in September. Acting principal Miranda Frankel told parents in a 12 October email that media attention had been “challenging” for families and staff and that further coverage could not be ruled out.
Federal school data from 2025 listed about 98 students across both campuses, but enrolments have reportedly dropped sharply—particularly at the Brunswick Street site—as families withdraw children. The federal Education Department said it would weigh Victorian regulators’ findings when deciding whether the school remains a “fit and proper” institution, declining to comment on active compliance matters.
Victoria’s Registration and Qualifications Authority has been monitoring governance changes at the school, including new board appointments with personal ties to the founding family that critics say complicate independence. The authority declined to answer detailed questions from the ABC about those arrangements but is understood to be tracking the leadership reshuffle.
Regulators versus a shrinking cohort
Child-safety campaigners argue that Tuesday’s raids show the state is finally using its strongest tools, not just suspension orders against individual teachers. With enrolment falling, each withdrawn family reduces both fee income and political cover for a model that marketed itself as progressive alternative education.
What families hear next
The school has told parents it is cooperating with authorities and working with an independent investigator to review allegations, which have not all been tested in court. The VIT emphasised that ensuring the safety of children is central to its mandate, without detailing Tuesday’s seizures.
For Melbourne’s inner north, the raids mark a new phase: regulators on site, classrooms under watch, and a half-century-old alternative model fighting to prove it can meet minimum safeguarding standards while civil and criminal processes continue.