On the eve of what should have been an unremarkable meeting of the Parents and Citizens Association at an inner Sydney primary school, an email signed by a “distressed Darlinghurst teacher” lobbed like a grenade into the inboxes of an already rattled tight-knit community.
In that June 22, 2023 email, marked confidential and sent to the P&C executive and several parents (and obtained by the Herald), were accusations levelled at Darlinghurst Public principal Rachel Privett. Included were claims of her ruling by fear, bullying teachers, and speaking ill of parents.
“I feel compelled to disclose that Rachel Privett, our school principal, has exhibited a pattern of troubling behaviour,” the email from the anonymous teacher said. “She has fostered a toxic environment during her extensive tenure at the school.”
That email was not the first that raised significant and varied concerns about the school. But it was the catalyst for long-running tensions within the playground gates to ignite into civil war. A year later, Privett went on leave and has not been seen at the school since. Parents say they have been kept in the dark about when or if she will return.
Privett’s leave coincided with a formal complaint against her being lodged with NSW Education Minister Prue Car via Sydney MP Alex Greenwich at the request of parents, staff and teachers, both current and former.
“Following the receipt of a number of complaints and allegations from parents, current and former staff, and teachers about the principal, I referred the matter to the education minister and an investigation was initiated. I also asked the NSW Ombudsman to oversee the process,” Greenwich said.
“Darlo Primary is such a special school that supports a beautiful diversity of inner-city families. I hope the matters raised can be addressed and resolved in the interests of the wellbeing of everyone in the school community.”
Privett’s lawyer Rachael Sutton responded to the Herald on her behalf, saying Privett “categorically denies any wrongdoing and does not have any access to the material or allegations” put to her.
“As far as our client is aware the NSW Department of Education conducted an investigation into allegations (our client is not privy to the specifics) and found them all to be unsubstantiated,” Sutton said. “Our client has been the subject of a sustained, relentless, vexatious and malicious campaign, causing profound and ongoing harm to her.”
Relieving principals have rotated through the school for the past two years, student numbers have plummeted (although other nearby schools have suffered similar declines as families are priced out of inner Sydney) and lawyers have been engaged as highly invested Darlinghurst parents demand answers from the NSW Department of Education.
At the centre of the parents’ (and some teachers’) concerns is how the education department has handled, or according to some mishandled, complaints that have torn apart the school, pitted teachers against teachers and left dozens of families so shaken that they agreed to provide “victim impact statements” in the hope of forcing change.
More broadly it also highlights a problem plaguing public schools as they bleed enrolments to the independent sector. Parents have far less say in the operations of public schools than their private counterparts, which are held more accountable because families demand value for money.
On May 14, the latest instalment in the drama unfolded when the school’s parent-run out-of-school-hours care, Darlo Play Centre, was suddenly told its licence to operate would be terminated. (The licence was not overseen by Privett). Less than a week later, incensed parents engaged lawyers, outraged at the way the department handled the cancellation of the licence. Some have made unsubstantiated claims of retribution.
According to the formal letter of termination to the P&C’s president for the past four years, Paul Yardley, the education department said continuing the licence of the care service Darlo Play Centre may “bring into disrepute or affect the reputation of, or be detrimental to the licensor”.
That letter claimed that an internal audit found that the centre increased its fees without permission from the department, significantly overcharging parents an estimated $44,608.
The probe also claimed to have uncovered evidence of conflicts of interest involving the former P&C president, Shane Warren, who the department said oversaw the employment and engagement of people closely related to him through family and business ties.
Darlo Play Centre’s licence will be revoked at the end of this school term and the education department will appoint an interim out-of-school-hours provider.
Warren said he could not comment on the claims made against him in the department’s correspondence because he had “not been provided with the details or evidence of these allegations”.
However, he said his business and personal relationships with the named individuals were “well known within the community”, disclosed at the committee level, and recorded in minutes dating back to 2014.
Late on Thursday, the current P&C fired back, with president Yardley sending a rebuttal letter to rattled parents, disputing the department’s claims for revoking the licence. The lengthy letter claimed that many allegations were “factually incorrect”.
In addressing one of the issues, Yardley said the department’s letter “refers to numerous complaints received by the licensor regarding safety concerns, supervision, food handling, and management of the service”.
“If the licensor’s child safety concerns were real and urgent, they were not communicated to the operator (Darlo Play Centre), the P&C, the school, or anyone capable of taking timely action,” Yardley’s May 21 letter says.
Yardley said only one written complaint had been received “in recent years”.
“This was in July 2024 from a family relating to supervision around a specific incident regarding their child, which (with full co-operation of Darlo Play Centre staff and management) was fully investigated by the NSW Early Learning Commission,” Yardley’s letter said.
“The complaint was fully resolved in June 2025. There is no evidentiary basis provided by the licensor of the existence of any further complaints”.
In response to detailed questions, the department said: “The NSW Department of Education terminated the licence for Darlo Play Centre after an audit. The audit raised concerns regarding the governance and operation of the service.”
A spokeswoman for the department also confirmed that “no complaints made about the principal by parents have been substantiated”. The department did not respond to claims from parents and teachers that the department has never contacted them about their statements or complaints.
The school boasts a varied parent body, including creatives, doctors, public servants, lawyers and teachers from the private and public sector. The long-term federal MP for Sydney Tanya Plibersek sent her three children to Darlinghurst Public.
However, a dossier of documents compiled by a group of concerned parents reveal a deeply troubled school where parents and some teachers harbour significant grievances. The Herald has been provided with much of the dossier.
In one of the victim impact statements provided to the department, details of what was described as inadequate management of a student with ADHD were laid bare.
Several clinical child psychologists expressed their frustration in trying to get the school to support the young child. In one report, seen by the Herald, a pyschologist said given her immediate concerns with the child’s mental health, she recommended “URGENT removal” of the child from Darlinghurst, with a formal investigation into “reasonable adjustments” for children “with disability and trauma”. The child’s mother should also receive a formal apology from the school “for how they have treated her and her children”.
In another victim impact statement, also provided to the Herald, a long-term teacher at the school detailed how she was asked to “run errands, some of which were not school-related”. The teacher claimed “once or twice a week” she was asked to “fetch coffee from the shop down the road for all staff”. On another occasion, the teacher said she was asked to pick up a modem from a post office in the city for Privett’s Airbnb business.
“My teaching groups were constantly being cancelled,” the statement said. “I was called away from teaching for trivial things. The children missed many sessions. I did not feel like I could say no.”
The teacher’s submission concluded: “Everyone had to follow her rules.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
