Wakatipu High School

Wakatipu high school was truly one of the most horrific experiences of my life. The education itself is alright, facilities are great, but the horrible way they treated me ruined any chance I had of succeeding. I have several issues I’d like to discuss. I moved to the school at the beginning of year 9 from across the country, and knew nobody in the area. I tried and tried to make friends, but I was bullied at every turn, to the point where I’d leave class sobbing. Teacher’s hardly cared. When I went to the guidance counselor to try and talk about it, I was blamed. She told me, a distraught teenager, that it was MY fault I was being bullied, as ‘Queenstown kids are used to people moving in and out, they don’t want new friends’. That excuse made no sense, and didn’t explain the cruelty I faced. When I tried to call my dad to go home (this was prior to the school phone bans) she SNATCHED it from me, and told me I could not tell him, and sent me back to a class I’d just left due to bullying. The following week, I was forced to sit down with my bullies and ‘talk things out’, after which I was forced to apologise as if it were an argument and I was also to blame. At one point, a boy in my PE class called me a homophobic slur in front of everyone, including the teacher, who told me it was not a big deal. I ran home early at lunch sobbing. All of this happened within the first half of year 9. However, that’s not it.

The way this school treats poorer students, particularly those who are Māori, is HORRIFIC. I’m by no means poor, but my family were financially struggling after the death of a parent. When my father expressed how much of a struggle it was to buy my uniform, the same counselor suggested that ‘Queenstown isn’t for everyone’, despite the school being a PUBLIC ONE, and the only public education available in Queenstown. What about students who truly cannot afford the uniforms, which are priced INSANELY. Teachers would constantly tell me off for wearing my pounamu, yet girls wearing crosses, necklaces etc were fine. I was constantly belittled by the children there for being Māori and not having things such as the newest iPhone, Nike shoes or a MacBook. I’ve never met such vile, entitled, EVIL teenagers as I have at Wakatipu. I’m sure some were okay, but on the whole, they’re selfish, materialistic people who preach kindness publicly, yet look down upon anyone different who doesn’t live the same privileged lives as them. Their parents are the same, as when I’d have meetings with bullies, they would act shocked that their daughters were bullying me, and insisted they were angels. I have since moved several times across the country to different high schools, and well there are issues and bullying, I’ve yet to come across a school with students and staff as horrible as those at Wakatipu.

I got expelled once for smoking with 2-3 other girls im not crazy rich but the other girls were rich so i got expelled and the rich girls got random bag searches and were allowed to stay in school then by law they had to take me back to wakatipu high school because im under 16 but they put me in a thing called offsite about a 5 minute walk away from the highschool at youth trust i did not learn anything the whole time i was in offsite i became depressed and used alcohol to help with the depression so i showed up a bit drunk at school but just grabbed something and left and yeah i got expelled for that too wakatipu high school and Oded Nathan have given me no hope or a chance for a good future

Primarily a white school which is a FANTASTIC THING

Good school, they push a lot for excellence in academics, sometimes to the point that it’s destructive for students. We also need far more education about feminism and gender equality, and not just in history class, young men need to be taught about it.

Only school in its populated area so the halls are astonishingly busy and crowded. The open plan layout isn’t ideal for work and consistently gets annoying with the ruckus that tends to happen from other classes or students walking the hallways. Lots of teachers are great for sure, lots of them do care for the students. The school as a whole, however, only think about the image and statistics of the school. Lots of vaping and such issues, but in all honesty the school can’t do a lot about that when student won’t listen or attempt to quit. The bullying on the other hand is something the school attempts and fails at fixing, But I will mention students can be pricks who will care less about any attempt to stop what they’re doing. Student stress is taken lightly and tends to be whittled down to ‘poor planning’.

Overall this school does offer some good opportunities but really lacks the student engagement and focuses on their academics, rather than them as people.

Some people will hate on WHS but honestly it really helped me with my personal growth and I wouldn’t be who I am today without going there. The racism and homophobia should definitely be looked into more by the teachers and staff.

Could decent teachers principal would rather kids leave than make and changes that don't give them better statistics

Alright school, marginal culture. Inferior to many other schools.