City Impact Church School

I attended this school from year 0-12. Although this environment will be spoken about as safe nurturing and encouraging this is not the case. The school has never managed to increase its numbers much past 200, the reason for this is due to their issues which they do very well in concealing.

There is pervasive bullying at this school, even though they would never admit it. There is much more going on behind these doors that are not spoken about and never addressed. Their Christian teaching unfortunately had the ability to make children feel quite bad for any problems they were facing. Poor mental or emotional health, oh you must not be praying enough. Experiencing burnout, you must not be spending enough time with God. These underlying teaching can be exceptionally dangerous for children and families long term. Students in my class who faced these issues believed it was their fault or their sin, not because they were over worked. There were a number of children who were struggling with suicidal thoughts, abuse, and poor emotional health. This was never spoken about at school no one knew what these problems were and no child was every encouraged to seek professional help but rather talk to a youth pastor or just pray for it.
The workload of this school is something parents and students should be prepared for. In year 11 I was required to do 3-4 hours of school work and study each evening. In the school holidays I was required to do 40 hours a week of homework and study (especially for exams). We were told if we got behind it was impossible to catch up. Any students that were behind in art by 1/2 way through the year were encouraged to drop the subject to avoid the school looking bad and receiving bad marks. Before exams we were reminded of the schools impeccable exam averages and we better not be the ones to bring that down... Super encouraging to hear right before an important exam. Each of these things were said to be directly by the principal.

I had some amazing encouraging teachers at the school who I know what have done anything to help me succeed. The Principal, his wife and the head pastor are the only people I hold resentment towards. The way they have treated children and the words they have spoken will leave deep scars on many of the children, including myself, who went through the school.

Many ex-students including myself have made formal complaints to the school which they brush off easily as they believe they are 'still achieving a higher purpose' who cares if a couple of kids get hurt along the way. The trauma experience at this school will leave a mark on many children for the rest of their lives.