Montgrove College

I attended Montgrove College for nearly 7 years and my experience was extremely negative. I can confidently say it was one of the most toxic and damaging environments I have experienced. If you’re a catholic parent who wants your daughter raised in an environment where fear replaces support, silence is valued over student voice, and obedience is prioritised over wellbeing, then this school may suit you perfectly. Especially if you’re okay with sacrificing their mental well being in a culture that dismisses mental health, suppresses individuality, and ignores the real harm happening inside its classrooms.

This school consistently failed to protect its students. I was bullied by girls I considered friends, while teachers who were fully aware of what was happening chose to do absolutely nothing. Complaints were repeatedly ignored, minimised, or brushed aside as though student suffering was an inconvenience rather than a serious issue. Even when problems were raised collectively, no effective action was taken. I was miserable.

Staff behaviour was not only unprofessional but often degrading. There was clear favouritism, a lack of accountability, and an apparent indifference to student wellbeing. Struggling students were left to fend for themselves academically and emotionally, and any attempt to speak up was met with dismissal or subtle punishment.

The result was an emotionally toxic environment where anxiety, isolation, and misery became normal. Instead of educating and supporting, this school eroded confidence, damaged self-worth, and created a culture where students learned to stay quiet rather than feel safe.

If you care about your child’s emotional safety, personal development, and right to be respected, I strongly advise you to look elsewhere. No student should have to endure years of feeling trapped, unheard, and broken in a place that claims to care for them.

Hello I used to go to Montgrove college as a year 6 joined in year 5 stayed till year 6 then left because of generally how toxic and horrible it was. The younger kids like k-2 or 3 always got to do all the fun stuff then after that they give you lots of work and not much fun yes there are excursions and such but they weren’t as good as for the younger kids and the year 6 have to take care of the younger kids so the adults can go on lunch break while the children give up their lunch to help, lots of gossip and bullying without teachers knocking or caring, and if one person says something about another to a teacher they are automatically right unfair system, and I learned the same things over 2 years I wasn’t prepared for high school it was definitely not what I expected not many fun days like dress up and such, do not recommend this school maybe try a different one

Excellent school. Well rounded education. Teachers care about the students.

If you are an extremely Catholic parent who wants your daughters to grow up in an environment where they believe they are subservient to men, deserve hell if they are gay, and receive absolutely zero formal sexual education, this is the perfect school for you! (Provided you don’t care for their mental well-being, are okay with a school that allows teachers to bully students and has no system for dealing with these problems, and don’t care if your daughter has a stunted worldview).

With tiny year groups, too bad if your daughter can’t make friends or ends up in a class with a bully problem: that’s the only class in the entire grade! She’ll just have to cope, or change schools, if she wants to avoid her bullies!

And as for the teachers, do not expect any issues with a teacher to be solved whatsoever! Montrgove believes in unquestioning faith in the adults they employ, and will chalk up any concerns their students have to mere childish disrespect. Even if an entire year group gets together and complains to the head of high school! Yes, that’s right! Even parents and students together are not enough to convince Montrgove staff that they’ve got a bully among them!

It’s always a mixed bag at Montgrove, and it ultimately comes down to luck whether you get put into a class with strong students who want to work hard and get good results, with good teachers to guide them— or a class full of 20 other girls who don’t place such clear importance on their academic goals, with teachers who will not support struggling students, and will put down even those few students who want to try their best.

If you are only considering Montrgove for their academic outcomes, please, do not send your daughter here. At least not with any expectation that she will graduate high school as a well-rounded individual without any strange residue beliefs about her self-worth or identity as a result of having been raised in such a weird environment.

I did well academically at this school, some of the teachers at the time I was there were genuinely great at their jobs. But the damage to my mental health probably could have been avoided if I had have gone to a different school without such intense focus on Catholicism and Opus Dei.

And the variety of subjects taught in senior high school and for the HSC was nonexistent. The school is far too small for you to consider it as a good academic school. It’s bad enough that it isn’t co-ed. Your daughter’s social education will be abysmal.

As a former student, please, do not send your children to this school if you really care about them.