Newington College is a multi-campus independent Uniting Church single-sex and co-educational early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1863 at Newington House, Silverwater, the college celebrated its sesquicentenary in 2013. The college is open to boys of all faiths and denominations. Newington has been governed by an Act of Parliament since 1922. Newington has two preparatory schools, Wyvern House in Cambridge Street, Stanmore, and a school at Lindfield on Sydney's Upper North Shore. Newington currently caters for approximately 2,000 students from Year K to Year 12. Edmund Webb House, a boarding facility, is in Cambridge Street, Stanmore. The Robert Glasson Memorial Boat Shed is on the Parramatta River at Abbotsford and contains a boarding facility for thirty boys. , Newington has 16 houses, expanded from eight houses. The college is a member of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), the Australian Boarding Schools' Association, and is a founding member of the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales (AAGPS). The college prepares students for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the NSW Higher School Certificate. History Early history The Reverend John Manton proposed that a collegiate institute, 'decidedly Wesleyan in character', be founded in Sydney and that the school 'be open to the sons of parents of all religious denominations'. On 16 July 1863, the Wesleyan Collegiate Institute opened with 16 boys and a small number of theological students. As no suitable buildings were available in Sydney at the time, Newington House, the centrepiece of John Blaxland's estate at Silverwater, was leased. Newington College, as the school soon became known, prospered during its time on the Parramatta River and in 1869 was the first Australian school to play rugby football (against the University of Sydney), and soon after was the first school in Australia to hold an athletics carnival. In 1869, the Newington College Cadet Corps was formally incorporated by the Governor of New South Wales, Somerset Lowry-Corry, 4th Earl Belmore. It is the oldest continuous corps in the Australian Army Cadets. Expanding student numbers meant that more extensive premises closer to the city were required. A bequest by John Jones of land at Stanmore saw the College move to the newly fashionable inner-city suburbs. A