Parkside Primary School Natal

Where to start with this school. They operate like a cult. The principal behaves more like a spaza shop owner than the head of an educational institution. The guy loves listening to himself speak and brag about the school and how gangster he was in dealing with irate parents and all this at Orientation and Awards day functions.
They claim to have zero tolerance for bullying and plastered the school with "no bullying"!signs, but their handling of bullies and bullying is an absolute joke. Bullies get off with little to no repercussions while the victim and parents have to bare the brunt of the trauma. As if that's not bad enough, the school then have the audacity to blame the victim children and state that the child is a problem and must be sent for assessments, OT, and MUST be put onto medication. If you don't comply, then the teachers target and isolate your child, turning other children against your child. They load children with homework and get parents to complete class work that is not done during class time. There are unnecessary cake sales, more paid civvies days than is normal. The amount that is collected for debs balls is obscene but, it doesn't translate to proper usage in school. An independent audit should be done.The SGB is useless. There seems to be a trend to hire a specific ethnic and cultural profile of teacher within a race group. These teachers target children and exclude these kids if they are not from the same ethnic background. Teachers should be educational specialists with specific attention and knowledge of dealing with children, that is clearly not the case in this school. This is evident by the amount of petty complaints sent home by teachers. Upon investigation, one realises the sloppiness and favouritism by the lazy teachers. Some kids are so clearly targeted and victimised by teachers that even other kids see this and take advantage of those kids because they know the teachers have an agenda against certain kids. When teachers are approached about this, naturally it becomes about the greater class and teachers word against your childs. They then target that your child and reprimand them for telling their parents. These kids are also flagged and passed around to other teachers for discipline. The principal insists on communication through a homework book, which is archaic when you think about the years we've been using electronic communication. The reason for this is that the school can monitor "problem" parents and target those kids. The school disabled the reviews on Google because parents have seen through the hogwash in this school. The 5 star reviews are from teachers, and students who were coerced to say good things. Save your child and save your peace of mind, look at other schools. This is a terrible school.

This school is over rated. Always doing cake sales and making the kids buy the same cakes and goodies that they sponsored. The money should go towards their classrooms. The offices are in immaculate condition, but the classrooms are average and nothing much has been done to the upkeep. Reception is racist or just plain down arrogant by nature. Even when people complain about her, nothing is done. Classrooms are overpopulated like 30 plus students per class in certain grades. Uniform goes missing constantly after P.E. or other activities and the children most of the time never recover it. Toilets are dirty. They only keep it extra clean when there's parents meetings but many children don't like using it because of the state it's always in. The homework is ridiculous. They think all the kids have to become scientists and therefore they shove so much of homework onto them. It makes you wonder what are the teachers doing if the kids are doing this much of homework. Don't be fooled by the drone footage they show you to impress you and the robotics lab etc. I was also taken aback but then I started seeing right through the surface of what they want you to see.

Where to start. Firstly this school is the best in the Chatsworth and Queensburgh districts.

They have rules set in places which all parents and children have to follow and this makes for better discipline and easy communication.

My child loves loves his school. They outdoor facilities is exceptional. Pool area grade A standards and field is so well kept. The neatness and cleanliness is exemplary. They have separate play areas for foundation phase and senior phase and each grade has their space for playtime. Bullying is a serious offense and is taken extremely seriously at Parkside. No situation big or small goes unattended by the principle.

He is a hands on principal never just sitting in his office. When there is a parent meeting he comes out and interacts with the parents on a one on one basis. And knows almost every child by name.

The teachers, principals and HoDs are very welcoming and handle every situation with utmost importance. Every child is shown attention and taught excellently. Their classrooms are well kept and up to date with technology even have touch activity boards for kids to step up and be interactive during the lesson.

Their extracurricular activities after school is for all grades and they encourage kids to partake.

Honestly I can't imagine my child in any other school. PPS is really the best in the Chatsworth and Queensburgh districts.