Queenwood

I spent my entire schooling experience being educated here from the junior school in kindergarten all the way until year twelve in the senior school. The overall opportunities and facilities available were great, I loved the swimming pool and gym and pursued many sports during my time there. However the general attitudes towards racism, sexism and mental health were extremely detrimental to the wellbeing of their students. I was bullied for many years and found the schools responses were always dependent on the status of the student and their family, rather than responses rooted in empathy and understanding of the children involved. It seemed to me that the school cared much more about appearances (uniform and exam results) than they did about the individual students. Additionally growing up in a culture of ‘who’s parents are the richest’ and ‘who’s got the newest phone and the nicest house’ allowed for the rampant casual homophobia and racism that I saw every day at school, (that was never disciplined by staff). On top of the unsavoury culture, there were many instances of the parents bullying children in the school, and students getting extra privileges purely because their mum was high up on the parent board or was more heavily involved with the school. During my time there I experienced and heard about horrific instances were parents were sending around inappropriate pictures of students, bullying and saying horrible things about them behind their backs and other instances of behaviour like this. Queenwood damaged my trust in systems and made me feel like I couldn’t go to the adults around me for help in these situations, and despite the good qualities the school does have, I don’t think I would send my daughter there if there are the same issues i experienced during my time there.