Mahurangi College

This place is a shithole. I have since left but christ, the teachers are all awful - I was actually bullied by my art teacher and know plenty of other who had bad experiences with the art teachers.

I hated it here. I was a good student and got good grades but by the start of year 13 I couldn’t handle it anymore. I had had three biology teachers in year twelve which was such a joke and pretty much fucked up every student in my class in terms of grades. I never met the new principal because I never bothered to go to the hour long waste of time assembly, but i’ve heard he’s banned wireless headphones, phones in whanau (a 20 minute class after lunch), socks above ankle length, jumpers/undershirts in summer (even in the morning when it can get cold), and going to the bathroom during whanau. I know another former student who was struggling with mental health and got no support from the school. She constantly got called out for having bad attendance even though she is incredibly smart and got good grades, just couldn’t bring herself to go to school most mornings. After she left she got a scholarship, to which the school used her name and bragged about it to show how ‘good’ the school is. Where was that support before you could use her name and talents to the schools benefit? I went to counselling once because i was struggling too. I didn’t want to let my parents know because I knew it would be easier to just deal with my problems between me and my counseller and not get my parents involved. I was told that I had two options, either tell my parents, or the counseller will. Although I have a good relationship with both my parents i felt my wishes should’ve been respected because I never went back to counselling after that and my mental health continued to decline. Once in english class, a girl was told to take out her ear piercings, she had quite a few in both ears but i’ve never understood why a piece of metal through someone’s ears would affect their education. She was told to go to the nurse and get them taken out, she told the nurse that they were new recent piercings which can’t be taken out (can cause infection & will close). The nurse (one of the only good adults in the school) told her it’s okay and she should leave them in. On her way back to class she was stopped by another teacher and was told to take them out there and then without a mirror. Her ears bled for the rest of the day, but hey, atleast she had empty holes and blood through her ear rather than metal! While i was in the process of leaving, i went to the career guidance counseller for advice on how to get into my desired field. I was told to just ‘knock on a few doors’ with no actual advice or help. This school will not do any good to anyone who doesn’t want to go to university. They will not help you succeed. Sure, they will help you pass and get your achieved for their school statistics but will not help you exceed in any way. I know this because once in math class the teacher told us she wouldn’t teach us how to get excellence and would only teach us up to the ‘merit’ standard. I did an online class for the start of the year, in the library with my headphones in to hear the teacher through zoom. All the students in the class, in the library with their laptops for this class were told to move to a different area because another class had booked it. We caused no trouble and moved to an aisle in the library with window seats to sit down and continue the class. We were then yelled at and told to get out while we were all in the zoom call with our teacher. We left which disrupted our connection to the internet, and the class. This bothers me because I went to school to learn, not to get yelled at because we aren’t allowed to sit at the window SEATS! I cannot stress this enough, this school only cares about appearance, and most of the teachers are just adults who are on a power trip and like to yell at kids. As much as you think the school has good stats, the bathroom constantly smells like weed, there are bongs hidden in the bushes, kids put vodka in the water bottles and there are fights at least once a week. Kids get home from this school and want to kill themselves. Do not send your kid here. Go to albany instead. It is worth the bus fare to avoid this shitshow of a school.

I was at mahu from year 7-13, there was nothing that I wanted to do more then finish year 13. But unfortunately my mental health here got to an all time low in the beginning of year 13 and I ended up leaving early. The problem with mahu is that all the board cares about is how the school looks from the outside, which is a bummer because on the inside all the students are depressed zombies who have no other options then to go to this absolute disgrace of a school. I was seriously bullied here until around year 9 when I found myself a solid group of friends to stick up for me. I am still recovering from my time at mahu which I’ll always remember as the worst moments of my life.

In this school I was always “a dumb student” “in the dumb classes” as others students would say, and as early as I remember the smart students were always sorted into different classes. And the teachers only helped to the extent of us passing, after we pass there is just no effort at all.

As for the teachers, the majority of teachers here are absolutely disgraceful. Putting on acts infront of their superiors to make themselves look good and then treating the students like caged animals. Teachers like mrs cast (hospitality teacher) just don’t belong working with children. I will never forget the day that mrs cast yelled at me, commented on my weight, and then banned me from cooking in her class for the rest of the year because I was listening to music in my earphone (keep in mind I only had one in and was still paying attention in class). I went to the principal about this and was told “who should I believe, a student or a trusted teacher.” I’ll also never forget that on that night after school I went home and wrote a suicide note and then proceeded to take an entire bottle of anti depressant which I had been on for the last 6 months. I still have that note to this day as a reminder that things do get better. In my 7 years at this school I only found a small number of teachers who actually cared about me and my fellow students. And to them I say thank you.

In conclusion it has now been a year since iv left and I know that things at mahu haven’t changed even the slightest bit (I know this because I am still in contact with a lot of people who go there from year groups 7-13. I hope that someone of high status of the board sees this review and actually tries to make change. And I strongly recommend that you never send your kids here, if they are already there make the extra effort to send them elsewhere.

Class of 2019 here. There’s so many fundamental issues in this school but let me start off with a positive note.

They teach a pretty good curriculum, especially when it comes to the social sciences. That’s a stronghold of the school. The teachers at the school, particularly in the senior part were all pretty good. There’s none that you have qualms with apart from the one that still owes me chocolate from 2018. No I’m just playing here.

However, if you are a student that is just average in terms of grades, the teachers will only teach to the bare minimum to get them to the passing level and not bother extending them. My peers have been disappointed with them.

I’ve been in the top classes throughout the entirety of the this school but the higher pedestal they put the better achieving students on creates resentment among the rest of the students who just thought they weren’t cared about. The school just loves having the excellence endorsement statuses and their stats going for them. “Trust us guys we aren’t a bad school look at these StAts”.

But if you’re a gifted and/or talented student, just don’t bother

Senior management. Ah yes. An absolute joke. Got a bullying issue? They’ll just not hear it out or deal with it because they’re busy and “there’s only a little bit of the year left.” They also love trying to suck the individuality out of you to try emulate their dancing seals aka the prefects they choose every year. Also if you’re not a dancing seal, don’t bother telling them about your achievements outside of school if they can’t use their name alongside it. Mahu be like hmmm today we won’t bother acknowledging huge successes of our students if our irrelevant school hasn’t been mentioned while you did so.

Speaking of irrelevancy, if your child is into sports and wants to compete at high levels through school teams, just send them to any other school. Seriously, Mahurangi is absolutely laughable when it comes to competing in teams. When the school does well in competing against other C grade schools around the country, you will not hear the end of it for a long time. There’s a pretty bad range of sports at this school as well. Send your sporty kids to Westlake.

There’s a huge culture of racism as well. This is a very white school apart from the smaller pasifika population. But if you’re anything different, look out. The bumpkins will get you.

If your kid is relatively smart or can’t afford to send your kid to a better school, fine go here. You’ll be fine. But don’t expect this school will encourage your child to fulfil their true potential. You’ve been warned.

-Regretful student who stayed the entire 7 years.

I went to Mahurangi college from yr 7 - 7r 10. Teachers were very bad and treated the student like they were worthless, not a good school and don’t recommend sending your child there.

School seems to care more about uniform and the look of the school than the students academics and well being, it’s all about looking good and not about caring for the students mental health or education.

I've had a very bad experience here.
I've only met 3 teachers i like and who are actually nice. They don't help bullying problems and don't teach. overall just a bad school in the middle of no where