NSW inquiry recommends Redeemer Baptist School be barred from enrolling new students

A New South Wales parliamentary inquiry has recommended that Redeemer Baptist School, a school in western Sydney run by the Redeemer Baptist Church, be prevented from enrolling new students while it is under investigation by the state's education standards authority. The committee's report was tabled in state parliament on Tuesday.

The committee also recommended that allegations raised about the school be investigated by NSW Police and the Office of the Children's Guardian, a state agency that works on child safety.

The committee found that the school breached basic child safeguarding standards, which are the rules meant to protect children in schools and other organisations. It also found that sexual assault allegations at the school were not handled appropriately, and that the school put children at significant risk of harm. The Guardian

Former students and teachers told the inquiry that students were made to share beds with teachers. Others said the school's principal had once wandered naked through a common area.

The committee further found that staff at the school lacked essential workplace rights, and that the school failed to meet basic standards of good governance, meaning the way an organisation is directed and held to account.

Abigail Boyd, the Greens MP who chairs the committee, said the school had been subject to parliamentary scrutiny in 2006. She also said it received about $6 million a year in government funding.

The report said allegations of persistent fraud involving Centrelink, the federal agency that administers welfare payments, and questionable tax practices at the school needed proper investigation.