Neil Moon uses former student to improve school's reputation

Staff at the problematic Carenne Special School in Bathurst have complained about Neil Moon's use of a former student to attempt to improve the school's reputation amongst the school community. The recent newsletter mentioned that former student Tim Seager from Seager Productions returned to the school to present a perpetual visual arts award to a student.

Staff were appalled that Neil Moon was so low as to use a former student who was abused by numerous staff to attempt to improve the school's reputation.

Gretel told Carenne Gate that there was no such business as Seager Productions and that the whole presentation was a sham. "There's no business and the student's mother should hang her head in bloody shame. This is a student who was continuously abused by Laurie Clifford and Juliette Van-Emmerick, Laurie didn't understand his unique needs and terrorised him while he was in her class."

It is well known that the student was one of the first to be suspended in years at Carenne, after allegedly assaulting staff. At the time, jrosenberg reported that the student was harassed by Clifford and Van-Emmerick.

It's apparent that Moon has no leadership skills and no sense and is not a fit or proper person to be principal of Carenne.

Neil Moon lies about presentation day

The principal of the disgraced Carenne Special School where child abuse and corruption is allowed to continue unhindered has once again been caught lying to the local media. Neil Moon was caught out lying to the Western Advocate last Thursday following the official opening of a building which has been used by the school for over a year.

Emails from parents flooded in after Neil Moon's interview on local radio station 2BS yesterday, where Mr Moon talked up the school and the presentation day from last Friday.

In his interview, Mr Moon claimed that over 350 people attended the presentation day and that there wasn't an empty seat in the centre. According to a number of parents, this is incorrect. "Neil Moon is nothing more than a bullshit spinner, you can't believe a word that comes out of his mouth. He constantly lies. How can a liar be trusted to look after 80-odd special needs children?," asked one parent.

Mr Moon also claimed that the day was a success despite major flaws in the event and the day being described by attendees as the worst ever presentation day. "I think it really is a reflection on Neil Moon, to run such a pathetic presentation day really shows how pathetic he is as a principal", said another parent.

During Mr Moon's interview, he also said he was grateful for having volunteers for the school's reading program and for its RDA program in an obvious display that he is unable to separate the organisation Michael Auld corruptly misappropriated funds from the school for.

Mr Moon's interview show he is a man who will lie to make himself look better, even though everybody can see straight through it.

Carenne presentation day a farce

According to parents and staff, Carenne Special School's presentation day held at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre was a complete farce, with key Carenne supporters missing from the event. Despite ordinarily attending presentation day, Peter Harvey and Carole McDiarmid were absent from the event. Key Carenne Support personnel were also missing from the event.

As expected, the principal of the school publicly named and shamed for lying to the media, Neil Moon spun how good the school was and how it was one of the few special schools being heavily invested in by the government. One parent said "It was supposed to be a celebration of the students not some spin session, with Neil Moon raving on like a lunatic about how great the staff and school are."

According to the Carenne Saviours, the event was poor compared to previous years. "Neil Moon really showed how utterly incompetent he is with it being the worst presentation day I have been to. It was a absolute joke," said Barracus.

"What made me laugh was half the organisations giving awards didn't even turn up to present them, how do we even know it was them that gave them out? Nobody showed, people don't want to be associated with the school," said nedkelly.

Another Carenne Saviour said "You could tell that it was organised by Louise Smith and Simone Russell, it was a joke, it was the worst presentation day ever."

One parent told Carenne Gate "I was sickened by the day today, it was completely degrading of the students, it was terrible. I couldn't believe the behaviour of some of the staff, they showed just how incompetent the school was."

Neil Moon a man of spin says staff

A number of Carenne Special School staff have complained about what they call spin in today's Western Advocate about the official opening of the new block at the school. As previously reported, the grand opening was a flop with former Carenne supporter and state education minister Verity Firth snubbing the event.

In his interview with the Western Advocate, Mr Moon said "The upgrades have included the introduction of interactive white boards into each classroom and improved access to technology." Staff claim that this is false as every classroom had interactive whiteboards under Terry Mahony's principalship in 2006. "For Neil Moon to take credit for the vision of Terry Mahony is a joke," said Barracus.

"Neil Moon will never be the principal that Terry Mahony was. Terry Mahony was a leader, Neil Moon is just a 'yes man'", said another Saviour.

According to staff, interactive whiteboards from the demountables were removed and installed in the new building by Michael Auld and Doug Rowe. Staff reported to Julie Brown last year that the projectors were not mounted properly and were affected by skylights in the roof. Since then, a short-throw system has been installed in one classroom in the new building.

"Clearly Neil Moon is a liar, but that's what we have come to expect from him," said one Saviour.

The statement about the buildings replacing most of the demountables was also completely untrue according to Carenne staff. "The demountables are still there at the back of the school, used for classes and anyone who remembers when Terry Neal was principal will remember him claiming that it was exciting for the new building to be opened but the demountables were still a problem on the news."

Mr Moon's published spin just one day from the school presentation day show that he is a man of spin who will lie to make himself look better.

Parents claim Carole McDiarmid "spun" at presentation day

Parents claim that the Carenne Special School was a DET star attraction today with Carole McDiarmid, Peter Harvey and Gerard Martin in attendance. Parents say that a speech by Carole McDiarmid attempting to rally support from Carenne parents and friends sounded like an attempted cover-up.

During her speech she spoke about the "infamous website" and claimed that "everything on it is just rot". She said that Carenne was a great school and needed everyone's support as it was going through a difficult time.

Parents also complained about the P&C raffle results, when Scott Russell won second place. Parents say that Simone Russell is on the P&C committee and her family should not have entered. They claim awards given to students were equally slanted towards family and close supporters.

Carenne Special School newsletter full of "spin" say parents

A number of parents have contacted me over this week's Carenne Special School newsletter which they claim was more of a public relations and "spin" exercise than anything else.

In the newsletter, relieving principal Terry Neal claims that Carenne Support has purchased for Carenne Special School a wheelchair bus. Parents believe this is to hide the misappropriation of two buses in 2004/5.

The newsletter was also full of claims about how great the new classrooms were (on most of the class pages), despite the same staff claiming to parents that the classrooms had major issues.

Terry Neal on the front page mentioned that the classrooms will be "ideal" after some more fine tuning in relation to light and IT equipment. Staff have complained about skylights which create excessive light and let in too much heat. Staff also claim that Michael Auld didn't consider the skylights when he had the projectors installed.

Staff have also told me that there are issues with IT equipment after it wasn't installed correctly or important equipment mysteriously went missing while in the care of Mr Auld.

NSW DET spin machine at it again

Posted October 22nd, 2009 by jules85 on Sydney Indymedia

The local newspaper for the Bathurst region, the Western Advocate ran an article yesterday about how Western NSW Education Director had visited Carenne Special School on Monday to inspect the new buildings which classes moved into at the beginning of this term.

In the article, Mrs McDiarmid said the new classrooms were "state-of-the art and the latest design for special education classes." and made claims that students and staff were thrilled with their new buildings.

The Carenne Saviours claim this is not so and is just another product of NSW Department of Education and Training spin. One saviour said "If the former principal had not been pushed by a staff member to have the rooms put down as severe classrooms thinking we would get more they would hae been more suitable, as always, this person interferes and botches everything up." The saviour told us that benches had to be modified and there were power points which dangle into the middle of the room which children like to try and swing off.

Complaints were also made about where the whiteboards were located and how there were skylights in the classroom which interfered with the operation of the school's data projectors.

Another saviour said "These are meant to be state-of-the art? They are no different to the other classrooms! You would think in this day and age we would have gotten things like Interactive Whiteboards built in but we had to move them from the other rooms and things went missing as they do."

The third Carenne saviour was less critical "At least they won't leak like the old demountables did, although when there is water running down the steps of the main wing, it pools at the door of the first classroom. Still, at least we don't need a bucket inside to catch the drips."

It sounds as though instead of taking the opportunity to listen to staff concerns, Mrs McDiarmid has used the visit to promote herself and the department.