Mt Aspiring College

MAC has a lot of different subject options so there's a lot of freedom of choice with your education. The teachers are either really good or kinda bad but the senior teachers tend to be better at teaching. There's a lot of outdoor seating and some nice trees but there isn't many indoor seating options (for lunch and interval) and you usually aren't allowed to eat inside unless you use the classroom of a teacher who lets you. The food at the canteen is pretty tasty (usually) but it's super expensive if you want to buy anything (like $1 - $2 more than what you could buy in town, which is a lot when the prices are around $5). There's a lot of sports options you can access through the school like rugby, volleyball, netball, ect and a lot of equipment if you want to play with it at lunch. Overall I'd say that for a school it's pretty good, especially in the academic area which a lot of students do very well with and sport/outdoor activity area (also influenced by the fact there's a lot of sport opportunity in Wanaka) because quite a few students have gone international while attending MAC (Some went to the olympics too! I think). Most (definitely not all though,) of the negative about the school is the students and that's quite hard to control.

This school scarred me it was draining the whole time I was there and we were yelled at constantly there is a huge drug and vaping problem students were being bullied and teachers wouldn't care as long as they didn't have to. bad school.

I left this school due to teachers making things up to get me in trouble, yelling and screaming at me for every reason you could think of including the smallest things. I didn’t learn anything in class due to the fact that I didn’t understand what was being taught and when I would ask I was yelled at for not listening which resulted in me doing absolutely nothing in class. In P.E I was forced to run in the rain in a shirt in the middle of winter because the only jacket I had was a puffer jacket and they’d rather I got sick than wear my jacket for an hour. I missed my bus a few times because of teachers making the class stay behind 10 minutes after the bell. This school has massive bullying and drug problems and was horrible for my mental health. Majority of the teachers are extremely disrespectful towards students and shouldn’t be allowed to teach there. Students have blown things up and light things on fire many times and all they had to do was apologise. This is only touching the surface of all the problems this school has. Please do not send your children to this school it is horrible.

School is shit! students smoke bongs at school, vape in the bathrooms and certain students caused my daughter to leave and harm herself so disgraceful you should be ashamed you are even running this establishment.

I went to this school from Year 7 to Year 13 and saw many changes including online school through lockdown, a new principal and new classrooms. MAC prides itself off of looking like an amazing school with its Pride Pledge, outdoor pursuits and “excellent” education but in reality the school is all talk and no action. This school is a hive for homophobia, racism, ableism, sexism and pretty much every terrible thing under the sun. Not a day went by at MAC where I didn’t hear a student shout the n-word or scream a slur, even the teachers would say them too. I’ve sat in front of students talking about having a “bring a gun to school day” to use on all of the “gays” but when I spoke to the new principal about it they were only given a warning. The Year 9 boy that graffitied MAC with disgusting homophobic phrases wasn’t even expelled for his actions. Students aren’t disciplined here at all. Younger students are influenced by their older peers which has impacted the school significantly. Kids as young as 12 years old can be found at break times vaping in the bathrooms. I’ve missed out on valuable learning time on multiple occasions because someone has set of the fire alarm while vaping in a bathroom stall. Many of the bathrooms are also locked during class time because of this which means that you have to walk around busting for 15 minutes trying to find an unlocked bathroom. Reporting the vaping doesn’t work either, teachers don’t care and simply shrug it off saying: “It’ll be interesting to see how they react when I teach them about the effects of vaping in Health class.” Instead of “upgrading” the high school they should’ve put the money towards an intermediate school in Wānaka so that younger students aren’t influenced by their older peers. I was bullied at MAC during my last year of school and didn’t come to class for an entire term. The school did nothing but say that I had no other option than to go back otherwise I wouldn’t pass the year. I’ve spoken to many students throughout my time at MAC and they all agree that if there was another high school in Wānaka they would go there instead. All MAC has done is provided me with a deep desire to leave the school and this awful community.

MAC has had its share of troubles a few years back, but with the new principal taking charge it has really turned the corner. No state school is perfect, but our experience with our kids has been super positive overall. Excellent communication from the school and if something is not going well, just talk to the teachers. There's the usual dynamics between kids, but that's life ...