HSC scandal teacher betrayed by daughter
By Justin Norrie and Harriet Alexander
June 22, 2005
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The coaching college boss who allegedly wrote HSC assignments for cash was reported to the NSW Board of Studies by her own daughter.
Daniella Gardener, 28, is in a bitter feud with her mother, 53-year-old Rachel Gardener - to the point that she says they have taken out apprehended violence orders against each other.
Yesterday they exchanged a barrage of claims and counter-claims. Daniella, who worked for her mother as a tutor at Acclaim Education in Homebush West for almost two years, alleged her mother may have helped as many as 2000 students cheat the system.
She told the Herald yesterday that she decided to reveal the alleged systematic corruption at the college after her mother sacked her last October. Rachel Gardener labelled the cheating accusations as "a vendetta, all lies" and said she had disowned her "drug-abuser" daughter. Now their bitter fight has reached the Board of Studies, which is investigating the legitimacy of HSC results for 261 former students who were coached at Acclaim.
Before creating Acclaim in 2003, Rachel Gardener ran another tutoring service, At Rachel's, for four years and had tutored from home since the 1980s, her daughter said. For the past eight years she had taught English at Homebush Boys High School, but this year took unpaid leave.
"My calculations are she could have been writing essays for 1500 to 2000 students over 15 to 17 years. When I was at school she was training me to be a tutor and to write essays."
Her mother firmly denied these allegations and said "you might want to think about why [Daniella's] saying these things".
The daughter said Acclaim had a team of about 40 tutors, with at least four Homebush Boys High teachers, who coached between 120 and 250 students a week in demountables in her mother's garden. Some of the 40 tutors had written assignments for money.
Students often came from elite schools, such as Sydney Grammar and Pymble Ladies College, and entered "prestigious universities".
But Rachel Gardener said her daughter's "lies and smears have ruined the lives of 300 students … we are rigorous about ethics, we teach life skills, and we certainly never overstep the line between teaching students and … cheating … I feel like I've lost a daughter … I know I'll certainly never talk to this person again in my life. This is a vendetta, all lies."
Daniella Gardener said her mother had reported her to police four times this year: for break and enter, malicious damage, assault and theft. In all cases, police had opted not to press charges. A confessed former heroin user, she said she quit five years ago when she became pregnant. She now wants to reclaim her daughter, who has been in her mother's care.
The Board of Studies says HSC students found to have cheated will be stripped of the qualification, leaving their university positions in doubt. The University of Western Sydney, where some Acclaim clients are said to be studying, warned that a fraudulently gained qualification could lead to suspension or expulsion.
Rachel Gardener confirmed she had been jailed for eight months in Paris for bank robberies in the late 1970s, but said she was "just walking along the street when I got caught up with some people I didn't know very well. As a result, I got done for something I had no part in."
