Mt Albert Grammar School

In the very short time my son has been at mags this year, I am extremely impressed with the communication from the teachers to the parents already, it’s fantastic. It gives us a good insight into what is taught in each subject and what is expected. A big 5* from me

This school feels less like a school and more like a control centre. Everything here revolves around discipline, not learning, not creativity, not student wellbeing... just discipline. They care more about uniforms than your mental health and bullying. Socks not high enough? Detention. Shirt slightly untucked? Detention. It’s exhausting. You spend more time in your junior years worrying about how you look than what you’re learning. Senior managers go on a power trip during assemblies. If you talk, turn around, or even yawn, they’ll single you out and embarrass you by making you stand up at your seat in front of everyone. It’s not about correcting behaviour anymore, it’s about control through fear and public humiliation. You just stand up, be embarrassed, and wait for the assembly to end, then head off, having a miserable day from the shame. The school expects us to move on, but they don’t realise how this gets ingrained in your memory, shaping how you feel about the school and being in large groups like assembly. The whole system is built on punishment and control. No understanding or empathy to the students unless you have a teacher who actually cares about teaching. Just rules stacked on rules, and consequences designed to scare you into obedience. Honestly, it feels like they care more about their own image and reputation than the students. If you want a place that treats students like humans, this isn’t it.

Here’s a review draft of your “stinky stinky pig place” featuring Solon: The so-called establishment where Solon resides can only be described as a stinky stinky pig place, and that’s being charitable. The air is thick with a greasy musk that clings to every surface, making even a brief visit feel like a lifetime sentence. The walls sag in their own fatigue, plaster peeling like scabs, and the floor sticks to your shoes as if it resents your attempt to leave. Solon, the unlikely inhabitant, presides over this ruin with an odd sense of permanence, as if the decay itself were his philosophy. There is no charm here, no rustic quirk that redeems the place, only the oppressive stench of fried grease that hasn’t been fresh in decades. If wisdom can thrive in filth, then perhaps Solon is its prophet, but for the rest of us, entering this place is a trial of endurance rather than an enlightening experience. Overall, the stinky stinky pig place is more a monument to rot than anything else, and only those with a taste for the grotesque—or a desperate need to witness Solon in his chosen habitat—should ever venture inside. Would you like me to make this sound more humorous and satirical, or more dark and serious?

year 11s need a new girls dean. all she cares about is your face.

This school doesn’t even deserve 1 star, they don’t deserve any stars at all. In assembly, a kid yawned while a teacher was speaking, the teacher immediately called him out and made him stand up infront of everyone (OVER A YAWN, what if he just didn’t get enough sleep??). The teacher got a muslim student in trouble for nose piercing that she HAD to get because of her culture, and the teacher who got the student in trouble even has a NOSE piercing and other piercings. The teacher who rhyme with hay for cow (if ukuk), she is the most devil teacher ever! She would scold at people for no reason, power tripping and use her role to tell everyone what to do. Bullying is normal in the school, if you dont have a stong mental (DONT GO HERE) teachers dont care, they just care about the school image and cover the bad system in the school. the PE teacher with lots of pimple in his face, he would give students 2 points in PBU, disrespect students, constantly compares us to schools like Mt Roskill Grammar, saying things such as “This is Mags not MRGs” when we slack ff just a little bit. His ego is taller than him and he is a brat. The normalization about racism in the school, if you’re Asian or black, you would immediately face discrimination in the school, if you’re white, you’re in heaven, teacher would treat you like royalty, you would get more opportunities and leaders in the school. You would never EVER see a bunch of asain prefects walking around the school because 90% of prefects in the school are WHITE. They teach us about being fair but the teachers seem like the only one who dont get it. THIS IS A TRUTHFUL FACT ABOUT BEING IN MAGS. ONE WORD : DRANING ASF.

shotty school dont go, no diversity allowed

I'm attending mags in 2025 but I'm really confused about the sandal requirements. If you look into the pictures they took of the year 9's first day, you can see that there are some people who don't wear sandals and wear normal school shoes. As well as that, there is this part on the website where it says that sandals are compulsory in term 1 and 4, but right underneath it said that sandals were strongly recommended and that shoes and socks are also acceptable because it is also part of their school uniform. I'm writing to ask if there might be any past students, current students, or parents who may be able to help me. Please leave a comment and thank you very much!

MAGS is not a good school. They care more about the uniform you wear instead of you, and will cover up incidents to look better to the parents and students. You will get detentions every time you are late to class, and the punishments from the deputy principals / senior management are awful, like making students stand up during assemblies to humiliate them. Other students will disrupt the learning in most classes, and there is quite a bit of verbal putdowns and bullying that goes unaddressed. There are good teachers and bad teachers at every school, but a few teachers are very racist - they treat the white people with more attention than the people of color. That being said MAGS can be decent academically when you get a teacher that knows what they're doing.

Although I shared some good memories at this school with friends, the school itself is run poorly. Punishments went over the line, when someone didn’t follow the rules. Weather it was purposeful or someone forgot. The punishments went too far. For example; earrings. You are bound to forget that u have earrings in. I have a personal experience with a higher member of staff come up to me and say “do you think you’re special?” She said it without context so I had 0 clue what she was on about. “You think you’re cooler than ur friends. Take those earrings out”. Bruh there’s no need for this ‘extra’ performance that u have going on. U expect us to give u respect because ur a teacher. But from the way I was treated and many other students were treated when it came down to breaking rules, They were overly harsh. If u were perhaps nicer and more understanding of ur students, then u wouldn’t be getting this complaint. Get more councillors too!! People need it here!!! It’s not good enough. The wait list for a councillor is too long. And we shouldn’t have to wait for a long period of time to talk to someone when we are in need. Just do better bro.

There are teachers here that do too much on low pay. I get that you're passionate about your job and all but you don't need to be up our butts 24/7, especially when it isn't even that serious/deep. The teachers stress students out with things that are not even that important. The teachers are so two faced, it's very noticeable. First, they would be all so welcoming, but as soon as you make a mistake they would not let that go. They would glare at you from time to time, pick on you, and humiliate you. However, there are teachers here that I adore. I wish there were more teachers like them who actually consider how the students feel and what they think. School should be a safe place for us students, not a place that students dread. I wish school was like back in the primary days where we were happy to learn because the teachers were happy to teach us. Teachers, do better!

mentally draining, staff are unassertive when comes to teaching, they do not follow NCEA criteria all students have to meet they’re personally needs which is ridiculous, they are all inconsiderate of students home life and life they have outside of school. They’re only answer for mental health issues is go see a school councillor as if that’s gonna solve the problem, back to back detentions for stupid reasons.

mags is actual shit, uniform sucks fr & tbh cs bathrooms are everyone’s hoon break meet up spot so don’t use those toilets if you actually need to take a shit or a piss. (Girls cs bathroom anyways) so many people bruh not even funny ??. tbh it’s like a wannabe private school anyways yeah it’s a shit school.

I personally being going here. They spend all there money on the wrong things, they spent like 800 THOUSAND dollars on a SECOND lounge for the teachers (MEN ONLY) instead of actually putting money towards the fact that there are rooms with carpets a hundred years old with holes, no heaters and could be considered to look abandand. The teachers care more about our uniforms than the actual mental health of the students, they remove any ACTUAL good things with the school that provides comfort like the ability to use devices at lunch of get food from the tuck shop, they give the students only FIVE minutes to get to their class otherwise they will get a detention, if you are leading a club and miss your detention they will take you to their office and call you a unreliable student and they always force us to be grateful because they think it should be an honour to be at this school. The chairs in the hall make your back hurt and during the assemblies you are not allowed to go bathroom. Lots of the time if a student is being attacked they will do NOTHING about it.

They care more about uniforms than bullying

Most teachers are nice. Upper management is garbage. Lots of rules are dumb.

I believe mags is a bad school to attend because of the rules, environment and system. UNIFORM It’s honestly mad how strict the school is on uniform. The only self-identity you’ll have in the uniform is physical appearance. Earrings of any kind (except dramatic earrings like dangley, hoop, big ect(and colours also. Like gold and silver only is reasonable) should be accepted. Nobody looks at peoples earrings and the world isn’t gonna end if it’s not a gold or silver studs. Necklaces, some necklaces are sentimental. I understand not having it openly shown but even if the smallest amount of the necklace is shown, teachers flip out like it’s a weapon. If it’s MOSTLY hidden than it should be fine. The shoes/sandals rules for boys is understandable. It looks weird if you wear sanders with pants and shoes with shorts. But for the girls, it really looks nice either way. I don’t think it should matter whether they wear sandals or shoes. The skirts itself, both short and long skirts look great on all years. It should be an option for everyone. Not just for people who have tattoos, religious reasons, year 13’s. Jackets and scarves in class, I agree it shouldn’t be on in summer especially if it’s cold. But in winter, it should be allowed bc it’s winter and it’s cold and the air conditioner isn’t enough. We get punished for wanting to stay warm? PUNISHMENTS/DETENTIONS/RULES Before the rule change, it was if you get late TO school 3 times in a TERM you get an afterschool detention. This was EXTREMELY REASONABLE. Especially for those who live far and don’t always make it on time. Now it’s if your late you get a lunch detention. This puts more people in detentions for reasons they couldn’t control. Late to class, depends on the teacher whether you get a detention or not but this I don’t have a problem with unless you have to get to class from across the school. If you talk in assemblies, if they can’t pinpoint who did they will give a warning in the general area. If they can identify who did it, they will humiliate those involve. Even the person who didn’t talk it was being spoken to, which is unfair. Like what if they were trying to help the other person understand what the speaker was saying. They should get talked to after the assembly on the situation and MAKE THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE ‘CRIME’. Almost everything is rewarded with detentions. In most classes your not even allowed to drink from a water bottle. It’s like a prison, having to sign a sheet when you need to go to the bathroom, recording your time. Only being allowed in 2nd and 4th period but also being told to wait til break. It’s just terrible system they have going, but who cares about the students right? They punish everyone because of a few people. They think everything we do should be perfect or exceed expectations. Like singing in assembly, not everyone has had a great week or wants to sing. They expect NO mistakes from seniors because they’ve had ‘2 years to know this’ as if mistakes are not inevitable. Before we were allowed on our phones during break and sometimes class. But now it’s a no-phone zone?‍♀️. If you’re having troubles during break, can’t use your phone to call a trusted person or friend to meet up with. It’s not like the school it gonna call because they would need a reason and if they gave you a reason they will send you to the councillors office. Having no phones at school is unreasonable and unrealistic. Students will use them one way or another. The school just keeps finding ways to punish people. And back to the bathrooms thing. Some people get anxious in class, like me. Since the rule of signing the sheet, I’ve just walked out of class. Because if you take too long ‘in the bathroom’ than teachers get suspicious and send you to the deans/get a detention. I go for like 10-15 minutes before I back to class. Your only allowed like 5 minutes max to go to the bathroom so if your taking a dump, gotta do it quick. Awareness The school thinks they know everything but they don’t. Students rarely snitch because everyone knows to mind their own business. The school thinks it’s their system working when really people are just sneaky. I’ve seen many people vape in the bathrooms, outside of class, I’ve even seen students vape IN class. A room with a teacher present. How bold is that? I’ve seen students steal matches and light things on fire on school grounds. One even put a live match in a class paper bin, luckily the fire went out before anything caught on. I’ve heard and seen videos of students getting it on and around school grounds. I believe 5 students last year or the year before off themselves. They only talked about 1 because how would it look to the students and parents if there was 5. In year 9, I’ve heard from students of the school, not the school itself, that multiple students were sa’d or in a sort of conflict on the boardwalk by the school. 1 student went to juvi for aggravated assault. Teachers safe racist and sexiest towards students and when they get called out, the students get the punishment. Teachers always plays favourites. Seniors get to leave at lunch and period 5, unless you know them, juniors sneak out and come back just in time for period 5. They look like seniors and a bunch of them walking, can’t even tell the difference. It’s honestly funny. There has also been fights after school near the trainstation. SPACE/RENOVATION Current there is a new building being built. It took ALOT of space from the students. Once the buildings finish and more students enter the school. There will be LESS space for everyone. They also took down the stands that faced the gym, and the chairs that were there too which would’ve gave students more space to sit down. The school is obsessed with getting more money, the new building proves it. It’s a bad school already and the money should be aimed at other things like the pe equipment, food equipment, science equipment, fund trips ect. But no the school wants more students so they can have more money from uniform, fees ect. Wouldn’t be surprised if they added another story to the boys house. TUCKSHOP Ever since the tuck shop closed down, students had to buy their lunch elsewhere. Which is understandable but they knew the construction was going to take place so why not have a replacement ready. Now(a year later) they have it in a truck at the prices are outrageous. They cost way more than it was and I understand because if inflation (floods and hurricane) but gotta understand the students have gone through it too. ENVIRONMENT Honestly the environment is alright if your in the right crowd. But sometimes it ain’t. I’ve heard MULTIPLE stories on sexist, homophobic, racist, pervy ect teachers in the school. Last week, a girl(year 11-12) I saw was in the back of a truck. In the drivers seat with the window down was a man who looks like 20’s not younger than 19 or older than 23. Me and my friends PERSONALLY witness them making out. We stared in confusion. Don’t know what to make of it or whether to tell. The guy then started recording us but we still didn’t do anything. Of course there are some teachers who are amazing and really helpful but I don’t know if they overpower the opposite. The students are alright, everyone sticks to their groups and if you don’t find friends quickly, you might not make any at all. Smart or athletic students are highly praised while the rest are mostly ignored. If your not smart, athletic, a trouble maker, part of any of these groups, your basically unknown to any of the staff. All these reasons are just off the top of my head. Writing this for like 30 minutes is more than I’ve wrote for my internal that I’ve worked on for 3 hours. But this is my review on the school. If I wasn’t clear, I don’t like it. At all. But my friends and a few others have made it bearable. I don’t recommend this school, you’re better off somewhere else.

terrible school for any queer or neurodiverse students. bullying is handled horrendously bad by staff

Got bullied, was struggling a lot with my mental health and received little to none adequate support. School counselor were awful one of them said that I didn’t have any real problems when I was severely suicidal. She said she would follow up with me and never did.

Mags is a bad school. They make great efforts to seem prestigious with their ancient half that they spend a few thousand each year repainting the names of prefects in gold and all that but to actually be a student in the mags environment is not so prestigious or mentally healthy. So many fellow students in that school suffer from depression, not to mention someone passing away due to poor mental health last year. The class rooms are sad, especially n block. That whole area is made out of pre fabs they never removed. The aesthetic of the entire school is dull but they make sure to groom their $1000000 field all the time and only a select few are ever allowed on it. That was a nit pick but it’s things like that which happen all the time. The toilets are horrid, there is almost no room at intervals because of their huge population, good luck finding anywhere to sit. There are some good staff there and they should be mentioned here but there are also a lot of bad ones. I’ve seen first hand some over the top feminist teachers discriminate against boys around the school and I’m sick of it. Yeah there are worse school but this one isn’t anything special. This school is purely about looking prestigious. Huge rant but there’s a huge amount of issues at this school.

Compared to other Auckland schools, MAGS is a fairly good school - however there are multiple things they could improve on.