Waitaki Girls' High School

I do not recommend going to this school. The principals main aim is not to get good exam results, not to make students feel welcome or happy but to show off the school and get the role higher. The bullying is so intense here. Do not expect to not get bullied when coming here. I have never seen a physical fight but I have have seen some real beef. Some teachers are actually ragebait and some can't even teach. People here are so racist and not inclusive. Not just students but staff to. Also no one tells you any school information and the school notices and emails lack of any information. Dont even get me started on the lunched. My opinion is that no one is ever going to find a perfect school but this school is not it.

I am a student at this school and it is quite bad. The school lunches that are offered here is absolutely disgusting, and not edible. When you complain about this to staff, they're usual response is that "you'll be fine." "It's not that bad." I get that the school doesn't make them, but they could also take notice to how their students complain about it. An idea could be that they could switch different food companies. The teachers are also quite rude. They expect automatic respect for them but don't give the students any. In my opinion, most of the teachers here don't take notice that not all of the students are at the same academic level as each other. Some are pretty smart, but some have trouble learning in classes. The teachers don't really do anything about it, which doesn't really give the girls a chance to have the same learning experience as the rest of the class. The teachers either ignore them completely, or they just ask them why they haven't done anything, even when they haven't even tried to help them. I get sometimes the student won't try, which leaves the teacher frustrated. But anyway some teachers seem to have personal hatred for some teachers but yeah. Thank you

I have been a student at this school and it’s horrible to its students. There’s a few teachers who think it’s fine to treat us like 5 year olds. It got to a point where I didn’t feel safe going there and whould stay home. You should never have to feel like you don’t feel safe. One of my teaches last year bullied me and a friend of mine and then made us apologise because we were the ones “bullying her” luckily she has gone to a new school. I was dealing with some stuff that the teachers knew of and the basically told me to suck it up and to stop acting like a child because I’m at school and had to focus on doing good. I was getting threatened to get beat up I refused to go to school because I didn’t feel safe. When it got taken to the principal we had a meeting and they told us that we just need to come to school and deal with it. The food is terrible most is undercooked or dry. There wraps and sandwiches are revolting and I got sick off of it one time. The physical education lacks 2 days a week for year 9 and 10 you should be getting some type of p.e everyday instead of being tucked up in a stuffy classroom

I got bullied horrendously here. Nearly developed an eating disorder because of bullies making comments about my food (I'm skinny to begin with). My best friend attempted suicide while here and nobody cared. She received no extra support in school after that despite the teachers being aware of what happened. Neither her bullies nor mine received any form of punishment because the teachers favored them. I recently had a mental breakdown due to the bullying and moved to another school in the north island. I have now realized the low standards that teachers at Waitaki Girls High have due to the difficulty I've had getting my NCEA level one because of how little I was taught there. I am a high achieving student who was in the top of my classes at Waitaki Girls, but because of the little I was taught I am now in tutoring and extra help. Please don't send your daughters here. I highly recommend Whangarei Girls High School though, as since I have started attending the teachers are wonderfully supportive and just want their students to succeed. Don't make the mistake I did.

Supportive staff, welcoming place. Supportive of difference. Lots of sports and chances to try new things.