Wellington High School and Com Ed Centre

Very good

Bill is best teacher

Wellington high can often be a mixed bag. It offers a unique laid back environment for learning, I found it really enjoyable and during my last few years. Allowing students to leave school grounds from year 11 onwards means I didn't associate school with negative, controlling connotations. On the other hand there's no sense of school unity, there's aspects of nasty and toxic culture and a fair amount of bullying.

Teachers are really nice and you'll feel welcome strait away

If you're being sexually harassed or bullied even for a very extended time the school councellors/mediators/deans won't care and will put off events between the parties in conflict that may help to potentially fix things. Many teachers don't understand how to deal with mentally ill/disabled students despite the school having an inclusivity policy to these types of mental states. The physical aspects of the school are also not great, constant leaks and mold in classes and linkwells along with extremely limited accommodation for students in both the inner and outer areas of the school - including the majority of classrooms being locked during breaks with limited seating anywhere else. Classes are often mixed of year 11/12/13 students all in the same subjects which causes major issues with learning environment for some subjects and works 'ok' at best with others. As mentioned earlier, the councellors are unqualified and generally not nice I'd say, and students get told to leave the councellor's searing area remarkably often despite the area being put forward toward students as a quiet, warm, enviting environment for students to relax if they need it. Teachers also may have multiple duties that they aren't equally qualified to perform in (e.g a mediator who also teaches art and has little to no idea how to be adequate at either). Additionally, the higher-ups of the school ladder often flaunt the statistics shown by comparing the rate if students passing a year successfully when they do/don't take extracurricular courses - despite the stats being that about 69% of year 12 (ncea level 2) students will pass successfully when none of these courses are taken, yet when students take 2-5 extracurricular courses it skyrockets to about 71%; and they act as if this is significant enough to mention at least 10 times a year. There's also the additional (and common) complaint of the general school system - especially how exams work - being severely dysfunctional and perhaps outdated. Relying on students to memorise all the information for an entire year of class learning overnight and then forget it all after the exam is over; however this isn't WHS specific.

So in summary, I'm not particularly enjoying my time here, and most other students I know feel the same way.