Palmerston North Girls' High School

Terrible school. I do not recommend it at all , the racism at this school is out of it. Disgusting, not only are the students there racist but the teachers. Especially the principal. They do nothing to solve any problems that happen when it’s with Māori , Pasifika students. They give the punishment to them without even getting to the bottom of what happened. They cover up the racism that goes on behind the scenes at this school by using phrases such as “Im not racist I have a Māori granddaughter” Those words were the words of Ms Hamling. They discriminate against young brown students who already have it hard as soon as they walk through those gates. They do not encourage diversity at all. Teachers have told students to stop talking in their native tongue because it’s “New Zealand” english should be spoken. Can you imagine how that student mustve felt ? I suggest you take your young beautiful daughters to any other school but girls high if you are not european. School staff are useless as well when it comes to student voices not being heard. The staff and the principal need to do better for the Non european students.

As an ex student having spent a good while in this school, I have really mixed feelings with this school. This school is pretty good but it isn't as good as expected. My biggest thing is that this school is not all what it is made out to be.
Like you see lots and lots of students coming to this school in year 9 and stay for like a year or two or a few months before deciding to go somewhere else. There aren't a lot of opportunities that you can get with this school especially with sports (and even with sports teams, they don't select players for teams fairly), and not alot of support especially with bullying which is actually pretty bad and very toxic at this school everyone can know anything or say anything about you just because they've heard it once then suddenly half the school doesnt like you (everyone no matter who comes here will experience some level of bullying or just dumb things) but there is a range of different students who go here, and come from a range of different backgrounds but there is a strong clique culture at this school though sometimes with ethnicity as well which makes "fights" and "breakups" really obvious. And canteen food is not that good and is so expensive for no reason. Oh but the most annoying thing I hated was in the morning especially winter (FREEZING COLD) mornings they would lock all the classrooms and the one library would be full with everyone trying not to literally freeze outside in the cold and during the summer the classrooms would also be locked AND during lunches and breaks we aren't allowed to have our lunch in a classroom or anywhere inside and there would not be enough shady areas to have lunch either.
And it's really boring here as well, especially with no phones it's really really boring... I would say the most common phrases I've heard from students are "it's so boring here there's nothing to do" and "I hate this school" But anyway going to school here is okay, although there are ups and downs it all depends on you (But just keep in mind there's a reason why not many girls stay too long at this school). Best of luck to you though!

I was the last of 3 to have to unfortunately endure this school. Even my mother is thanking her lucky stars that she did not have another girl; she's grateful to be done with dealing with this school. The principal, has a history of dealing with issues she shouldn't; like why are you calling my mother asking where I was when she'd called the attendance line to say I'd be away for a week because my grandma died; how is my attendance any of your business when it was almost the first time I was off school that year. If your daughter has issues with a teacher she'll just say "Oh but she's one of the best teachers we have", cool but sometimes teachers don't work for everyone and you as the principal should be concerned in how to help students, not to tell them to grow up and deal with it. I spent majority of my time at girls high teaching myself because a lot of the teachers don't know how to teach, they just tell you what to do instead of showing you how. Another factor which made learning hard was how teachers who do teach things properly rather than the ones who don't is that our marks suffer because things have to be moderated by other teachers; if the head of department has taught her class to a specific standard and showed them how to structure their essay of course when she looks at another teachers classes essays who did not do that, their marks are not going to be ask good because they aren't up to the same level. Also in me and my sisters final years she continuously made it harder for us to excel due to how she dealt with classes etc. She has no care for actual learning: she changed the pathways course, which is for people to branch out and discover other courses we don't offer at the school (Due to how lacking the school is in course options) to a course where everyone is doing the same papers that you can only achieve in and don't count as university needed credits when some of the other papers or standards you could do that interested you could come with university needed credits. In my year 12, we already started school when she made us aware that one of the classes needed to be split into 2, this caused all the people who had to shift into a new class for their whole timetable to change. She wasn't concerned at all about issues brought up with my mother calling her about the new teachers I'd gotten because of this shift and how they didn't work for my learning and I'd had issues with before. Principal cares more about banning phones than she does about getting a reliable wifi source for us to access all the things we need to that are online. My sister and I couldn't even name like ten teachers who are great and go above and beyond to make sure you're learning comes first always. The school isn't even disability friendly, whether it's physically or academically (like dyslexia or chronic illnesses; regarding environment etc). Literally could not recommend another school more.

I hate the school and the teacher especially Mrs bosh since she is racist in class and yells at us for nothing and just breathing she teaches the most unnecessary things and gets mad at us all the time for nothing gives us a bunch of homework pages and says what is important but when it comes to the tests then nothing that was important was in the test at all she always talks about herself and try’s to be a clown

Hi I went to this school from year 9 to year 10. This school is not a school I would recommend unless u are wanting to be patronised by not only your teachers in class but the principals as well. Oh you have a learning disability no you don’t no not at pnghs, I have been told by the people that should of been helping me ( the learning support department ) that I was quite literally just giving up that I was throwing my life away. Even with proof that I had been diagnosed with 2 learning disabilities. Feeling like the your teachers are one are not wanting to be there two don’t care about you and your success, is not a great feeling and I know others can agree. It is 2023 and this school still has the mentality as if they are stuck in the 1900s, very archaic. I have had the the opportunity to another school and you can see that there are many ways of think not just one. PNGHS needs to rethink there process. The discrimination toward neurodiversity is appalling, if you not fit into there idea of there normal then i wish u all the best.

its pretty good, but that comes from a place of privilege as i am NZ European and do not experience hardships faced by other students. I have found an amazing group of friends that i love and everyone i have encountered is very friendly. Some teachers are quite questionable tho, and they almost have too many opportunities that you end up missing out on stuff.

the school does not represent or embrace the diverse cultures within the school. teachers have told students to stop talking in their native tongue and does not make an effort to learn the basics of the language (hello etc.)
if you are of european descent, pnghs is the school for you:)

I definitely recommend, such great opportunities and such lovely people!