Student safety paramount: Cranbrook head

Sydney's elite Cranbrook School's principal says the safety of children has always been his top priority, after an inquiry heard he suggested a Geelong Grammar teacher retire following a misconduct complaint.

The child abuse royal commission has heard then Geelong Grammar School headmaster Nicholas Sampson suggested it would be sensible for long-time teacher Jonathan Harvey to retire a year early in 2004 following a misconduct complaint.

Mr Sampson is expected to give evidence on Wednesday at the commission's hearing into five decades of abuse at Geelong Grammar School, where he was headmaster from 2000 to 2004.

Mr Sampson has written to Cranbrook parents saying he would provide the school community with the facts about the Geelong Grammar matters when he was able to do so.

"However, let me assure you that the safety of children in my care has always been my paramount consideration," the Cranbrook headmaster said.

The commission heard Mr Sampson suggested in June 2004 that it would be sensible for Mr Harvey to retire early, after the school received a complaint of misconduct involving a former student.

"He suggested that he'd been led to believe that, if I retired early, a formal complaint would not be made, but he wasn't of course certain of that," Mr Harvey told the commission on Monday.

Mr Harvey, now 75, said there was no mention of sexual misconduct in the allegation and he made no admissions to Mr Sampson, who then wrote to thank him for his "outstanding service" since 1970.

Mr Harvey was jailed in 2007 for the 1970s sexual abuse of the former student who made the misconduct complaint.