Fresh child protection claims surface at Carenne

Carenne Gate has been contacted by a parent, concerned about the behaviour of Carenne Special School School Learning Support Officer, Adam Ryan towards students at the school. The parent alleges to have make a report to Neil Moon, which was never recorded or investigated.

The parent alleges that she has observed Mr Ryan being 'all over' two female students and 'roughhousing' with male students on the lawn at the front of the school in direct breach of child protection policies of the department.

She claims to have reported Ryan's conduct with the two female students, which she claims to have observed over a period of two months to Neil Moon who promised to do something about it but never got back to her. She said she contacted EPAC today and was told that no report had been made about her report to Mr Moon, despite Moon requiring to notify them.

It appears that once again, Carenne Special School are covering up complaints of a child protection nature.

The Carenne art scam

Carenne parents are being asked to pay $30 for artwork created by their children as part of the Carenne Family Fun Day on 19 November.

Parents have been told that to get their child's artwork that will be exhibited at the family fun day that they will need to pay $30 to cover the cost of creating it, despite it being paid for as part of the school's art budget.

"Carenne has a significant amount of funding for the creative arts KLA," said Barracus.

"I am not sure why the school is spending the KLA money and then wanting parents to pay it back. It seems to me like Neil Moon is trying to use the money somewhere else."

Parents were also critical of the request, with one telling Carenne Gate that she wouldn't be going to the Family Fun Day and that she wouldn't be financially supporting the school in future. "This is just typical of Carenne since Neil Moon came on the scene, he does everything he can to make parents fork out money," said the parent.

A staff member at the school said that spin had been put on the day. "They are making out that local artist Martin Coyte is doing the school a favour by opening the exhibition at the family fun day, but he is not doing it because of the school, he is doing it because his son goes there."

Neil Moon needs to come clean on exactly what he is doing with the money from the day.

Ungrateful, homophobic Michael Auld discriminates against MRR contestant

A committee member of the Riding for the Disabled Association, Michael Auld has attacked a contestant in the My Recipe Rules competition being held for the benefit of the association due to his belief that the contestant is homosexual.

In the email sent by Auld to Christine Porter, Mary Housler, Nola Ramsay, Clare Moore and Ros Luther, Auld says that he doesn't think that RDA should be associated with homosexuals and makes an allegation that the contestant is a pedophile.

The ungrateful Carenne teacher and RDA committee member doesn't realise that without contestants there would be no competition and no funds for RDA. It's time that the DEC investigate Auld and his serious misconduct.

RDA takes a safe bet using Gavin to speak to the media

Following the response to a report of a $1,000 donation to the Bathurst Riding for the Disabled Association in the Western Advocate where Lauren Dare and Michael Auld spoke to the media, it seems as though RDA has taken a safe bet using the more experienced Melinda Gavin to speak to the media.

Unlike Lauren Dare, Mrs Gavin didn't make false promises for the money, simply claiming that it would go towards the "upkeep of the animals", something RDA has had trouble funding since the Snowden Review found that funds had been siphoned from the school to look after RDA's animals.

Gavin's discussion wasn't without gaffe though, with the Western Advocate reporting that Carenne Special School owned eight horses as well as donkeys, rabbits, sheep, pigs and goats. According to nedkelly, Gavin wasn't misquoted -
"Gavin said that to the paper, she said that the school paid for the animals and they were the school's."

This blog has long been critical of the relationship of RDA and Carenne. Carenne has a limited budget, which the likes of Michael Auld, Melinda Gavin, Clare Moore and Paula Hundy have allowed to be siphoned to RDA for minimal benefit. Part of the funding for the yet to be constructed Trade Training Centre found its way to RDA with little scrutiny.

Neil Moon's latest Carenne Support spin

Neil Moon has once again talked Carenne Support up to parents, sending parents an update about the organisation. In the newsletter, Neil Moon mentions how Carenne Support provides the school with therapy assistance and resources and how these services could not be provided if it wasn't for the valuable support the school receives from Carenne Support.

In the mini-newsletter, Moon also expresses thanks to Christine Porter, who co-ordinates services at the school.

One parent contacted Carenne Gate to report that they were told last year that Christine Porter had stepped down as therapy co-ordinator. "It sounds like that was a blatant lie by Neil Moon," said the parent.

Porter was heavily involved in students not getting therapy and it being covered up and the defrauding of the state Department of Disabilities. nedkelly told Carenne Gate that Porter had been implicated in an investigation into services funded by ADHC. She said -

"It was found that Christine Porter herself was responsible for lying to ADHC and receiving money for therapy wasn't being done. She blamed Coleen Leis, Peter Richards, Barbara Woolfe and Angie Cranston for it but the truth is that Carenne Support was being paid to use therapists to do the therapy not the school for staff to do it,"

"Porter nearly ruined Marion Baker when she exposed the fraud going on with Carenne Support,"

"Even after Carenne Support lost ADHC funding, Christine still co-ordinated therapy involving other organisations such as GWAHS and ADHC. She interfered in their work so much that numerous complaints were made about her to the department."

Neil Moon had the opportunity as a principal from another school to come into Carenne and fix the problems, but he has instead shown that he is as corrupt as the rest of them.

Carenne Support refuses to answer questions at AGM

The Carenne Support AGM held at Carenne Special School last night was a farce according to one source in attendance. The source, who has a child at the school decided to go to the AGM after receiving a memo from the school inviting her to attend the Carenne Support AGM to discuss Carenne Support.

According to the source, the memo mentioned that Carenne Support was a worthwhile cause and they used their funds for physiotherapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy on students. "I have read the blog where you say that most students don't receive therapy so I went along to see for myself, it was the weirdest AGM I had ever been to."

The source claims there was a discussion about Carenne Support's financial position, where Graeme Grundy said the organisation was receiving increased revenue from the education department but was spending more on therapists. The source said she found it unusual that the financial statement wasn't circulated at the meeting.

The source asked Carenne Support what therapy they gave, knowing that her son only received therapy provided by NSW Health. Mary Housler became defensive and told her that the client list and their details were confidential. "I wasn't asking for details, I wanted an overview," said the source.

It's time that Carenne Support realises that as an organisation which claims to be a charity, it is accountable to the public and should be ran transparently.

Abuse by Melinda Gavin ignored by Neil Moon

Staff at the Bathurst Christian Life Centre on Friday reported the physical abuse of a male Carenne student to Neil Moon on Friday, only to be told that they had "misinterpreted" the situation.

Christian Life Centre staff contacted Carenne Gate after being brushed off by Neil Moon. They claim they observed Melinda Gavin forcefully grabbing a student by the arm and pushing him into a bus, while telling him "stop your f---ing shit." The incident was witnessed by four staff, one of which immediately contacted the school.

One of the staff said -

"I couldn't believe the principal's attitude, he told me you don't understand how to deal with these sorts of kids, they need to be treated like this sometimes. You misinterpreted the situation."

According to the staff, Mrs Gavin was responsible for the supervision of a male and female Carenne student at the church, with no teacher present. This is a serious breach of the Department of Education and Communities' child protection policies and guidelines set by the Public Service Association. Even after repeated reports of these breaches on this blog, Neil Moon continues to ignore policy and allow aides to be solely responsible for the supervision of students.

Neil Moon has had numerous opportunities to fix the issues at Carenne and has done nothing and should be stood down and replaced by a real leader.

Staff development day "laughable" say staff

While staff and students at virtually every other school in NSW returned to school for term 4 today, staff of Carenne were relaxing at Yarrabin Guest Property near O'Connell under the guise of "team building" in accordance with recommendations in the Snowden review into the management of Carenne.

As with most things organised by Neil Moon, the day was poorly organised with staff told to come to school and get on Carenne's buses to go to the farm. Unfortunately, the buses weren't big enough for all of Carenne's staff.

Once at Yarrabin, staff were once again briefed about this blog and how to deal with the stress that comes from it, with staff being told not to contribute to or read the blog. Staff were told that the blog was not widely read by the community and was only known to the school and the "troublemakers" trying to destabilise the school.

Staff were reminded to focus their efforts on the students and not to tell anyone outside the school what happens in the school.

Some team building exercises were then carried out before some relaxation.

Despite the actual planned activities going for two hours at most, Melinda Gavin was outside playing with Yarrabin's horses instead of taking part in the activities.

Carenne whistleblower nedkelly told Carenne Gate that she knew most of the comments about the blog were false -

"They can say all they f---ing like that this blog is not read by ordinary people. I know it is. I have been attacked in the street by people telling me that I am the c--- mentioned on the blog."

Barracus told Carenne Gate that she believed the day was a waste of time and effort -
"As usual with these kinds of things, it was a complete waste. Nothing was achieved. Any staff development day organised by Carenne is a joke. The only time staff development is done is when we go to Dubbo or MTC."

Once again, parents have been duped and taxpayers have been ripped off.

Is this Bathurst's biggest con-artist?

Once again, corrupt Carenne Special School teacher, Michael Auld has been involved in the deception of donors to the Bathurst branch of the Riding for the Disabled. The Western Advocate reported today that campers at Mount Panorama had donated $1,000 to RDA for it to purchase equipment for a new horse and riding boots for participants taking part in the program.

Carenne Gate received an angry response from staff and parents at Carenne saying that students didn't wear special riding boots when going horse riding and that there organisations far more deserving of the $1,000.

Parents told Carenne Gate that they had to pay around $100 per year for their child to take part in the horse riding program in addition to fees for the therapy farm. They said they did not know where these fees went.

In the article, Michael Auld claims to be a coach at RDA - a claim that is completely false. The only coach at RDA is Melinda Gavin, which is why whenever she is unavailable the program is suspended (without parents being refunded). A trainee coach, Lauren Dare has only recently become involved in the association, following it being grilled for over a year by parents and this blog.

The question must be asked, with the continuing rip offs by RDA, including part of the $3.7 million trade training centre to be established behind Carenne, all of which involve Michael Auld - is Michael Auld Bathurst's biggest con-artist?

Neil Moon breached self-evaluation committee guidelines, attempted to mislead in annual school report

Regular readers of this blog would be well aware of the general level of incompetence displayed by Carenne Special School's principal Neil Moon. Moon is known as someone incapable of dealing with the serious issues at Carenne and who will lie and mislead parents and the public at every available opportunity to make himself look better.

Each year, every school in NSW has to publish an Annual School Report about the school. These reports include information on student numbers, staff numbers, student performance, school self-evaluation and areas identified for improvement. These reports are part of the department's requirements for transparency and accountability to parents, the school community, the department and the federal government.

As part of the reporting process, the principal appoints a self-evaluation committee consisting of community and parent representatives, teachers and executive staff members.

In 2010, Neil Moon breached departmental guidelines by not having a community or parent representative on the committee. In the report he lists Simone Russell, a school learning support officer at the school as the parent representative. He also lists Janelle Kemp as a teacher, despite her acting as an assistant principal at the time of the report. Given the history of both Mrs Russell and Mrs Kemp, parents and the public at large should be concerned about their appointment to the committee and Mr Moon's misleading statements about who they represented on the committee.

Once again procedures developed by the department for transparency and accountability are being sidestepped by Neil Moon who continues to cover-up the mass of issues at Carenne.

The police impersonator

Over the past several days a poster claiming to be the Bathurst Police has made a number of comments on this blog. This person is not the Police but an impersonator.

To assist police in their investigations I have revealed their IP address here.

As I told Sgt Fawkner in 2009, I am prepared to speak to Police and make a statement so long as the investigation is not being ran by officers in the Chifley Local Area Command.

Carenne staff development day a farce

Next Monday, when staff and students at every other school in NSW return to school, Carenne Special School staff will be at a resort near Oberon for what Neil Moon has told staff is much needed "R&R" under the guise of team building. The day will cost taxpayers around $8,000.

Carenne applied to the education department to be allowed to change one of its end of year staff development days to the beginning of term 4 so it could work on recommendations in the Snowden Review of 2010 (which has been kept from parents). One of those recommendations was for interpersonal relationships between staff needed to be developed, staff needed to be able to trust each other and a more cohesive culture needed to be fostered.

Unfortunately, it is the cohesive culture that has developed at Carenne that has made it such a toxic environment for staff and students. This culture has allowed the development of a klan mentality where wrong-doing (from incompetence up to child sex abuse) is never reported because it is seen as "snitching on your mates". It is this culture that needs to be broken.

Once again it shows the continuing joke that is the Carenne Special School under the leadership of an incompetent and corrupt principal.