Parktown Girls' High School

From surface level parktown girls seems like the best school to go to, the education and extra curriculum seems good. However it’s all a facade. As a student a parktown which was an rcl (prefect) for 3 years at parktown high school for girls you start to see the dark truth. The racism, Islamophobic commentary, the bullying, the unkept fish in the fish pond. Teachers are bullying new teachers and making sure their life is difficult. Black students get micro aggression comments spewed at them, not enough to directly show their discrimination but enough to know how they feel. Comment towards black students such as “ you so smart for a black person”, “ why do you keep changing your hairstyle “, and towards Muslim girls during Ramadan when a test fell on the day of Eid Mrs koch was informed to which she replied “ ugh all these issues “ yet they could see it on the calendar they make Muslim girls do pe in ramadan and always put events during Ramadan , the teachers talk horribly about students. Ms Gibbons a house head which many student have complained about always takes her anger out on students and makes it EXTREMELY difficult for people of colour who are sick and needing to go home to leave. The school is not a safe place at all. Teachers favour certain classes and will purposely not teach certain sections of work so that they don’t do as well. Teachers who directly made sexual comments or unacceptable comments remained in the school. This is the reality of parktown girls. The fish pond is extremely green, the fish are always at the surface as they are in need of oxygen, the fish also have lumps on them. Please DONT put your child at parktown. There are many other schools that will treat your child better.

Went for the full 5 years. Very academic focused and many extra murals , however most extra murals clash with each other, leaving one to have the option to do them 2-3 times a week and do 2-3 each term. Also major theft problem (!)

Stressful, some days I would have 4 assessments on the same day. Once a grade tried to petition to move some of the assessments; the grade was gathered and told “no”.

Nevertheless the school has great ground staff, wonderful teachers (for the most part) and will definitely do their best to get you to university.

Parktown girls was horrible. The school does not do anything about bullying (speaking from personal experience and friends who have been seriously bullied) even though having a ‘no bullying’ policy. They have some really good teachers but some are really terrible and often do not know what they are teaching about (one teacher even swears excessively and locks you out the classroom when not answering incorrectly).The current headmistress does nothing when she is approached with a problematic situation. Some good news is that the security guards outside the gates are most of the times, super friendly and will make your day!

This is a school that cares about the safety of every student even teachers. Every student support one another in many different ways like sharing food for students who don't have lunch, having students who are willing to volunteer to tutor other students, etc. Love the school.