Mac.Robertson Girls High School

I just graduated in 2022 and over the past 4 years I’ve been compiling all my thoughts and experiences about this school so this will be a long one.
Let’s start positively with the pros.

This school is extremely supportive and there is very little racism and bullying. MacRob is an incredibly diverse community with people of many different backgrounds, genders and sexualities and you’ll feel really welcome there. I also felt like I wasn’t judged and could be myself which was not how I felt when I went to a coed school.

There are some teachers who will go above and beyond for your needs, especially some VCE teachers who will bend over backwards to give you resources, correct your work and give you tons of informative and constructive feedback (English and PE teachers in particular). I also had a French teacher who would say hello to me every single time over 4 years in the hallways when I only had her in year 9.

Students get a voice and a lot of events are student organised or lead, and a lot of things are put to a vote. The leaders really care deeply about the school and I find that really refreshing.

It’s more relaxed than you think. Not everyone is academically competitive and people will be happy for you and cheer you on regardless of how smart you are. No one is really uppity about how many superiors they got or what mark they received.

Many of your friends will be like-minded and you can support each other through common experiences

Teachers are very understanding of public transport delays and are usually pretty lenient on extensions and things like that so that is nice to see. However lots of students abuse this which is unfortunate.


Now onto not so good aspects of MacRob.

The canteen is run by a very lovely person but it’s often overpriced and understaffed and the students often have to volunteer. Also my friends have often missed out of lunch because they ran out of food.

Last year there was a lot of construction and it made it extremely hard to concentrate, especially when it happened during exams and sacs which I think could’ve been avoided.

While the old timetable was much better and easier to follow, the new timetable is confusing to me and other students who are still attending MacRob and I think it’s unnecessary.

While a lot of events are student run or suggested, teachers have more control over learning aspects such as timetabling or ‘Connect’ classes. I’m not sure about other classes but for me throughout my whole MacRob journey I never found form/connect classes to be useful and mostly they were just reminding us of upcoming events to give consent or payment for. My teachers have also been inattentive and just go on their devices during this time and let the form/connect captain handle things. I’m not sure why connect was increased from 10-20 minutes a week to a full 45 minute session or more every week as far as I know, but this time could be used more productively. I cannot speak for this year since I’ve left but I assume it hasn’t changed much.

Assemblies used to sometimes be after school which I think should not happen and I had 7 subjects on a Friday which I thought was ridiculous but probably couldn’t be helped.

It’s really congested! MacRob keeps accepting more and more students when we don’t have the room. It was a nightmare getting from K3 to L2.

Sometimes you have to teach your own content or rely on your friends because teachers are constantly getting pregnant or sick and no subs are organised for 3/4 classes most of the time and it really impacts my learning and many of my friends.

Teachers often take a very long time to return work (chemistry and maths in particular) which is understandable since there are a large number of students taking these subjects. However I think to this day I didn’t get back one of my chem sacs. I do think 3 months is excessive but of course I don’t know how hard they are to mark so this is just a warning to people hoping to take these subjects.

MacRob teachers are very concerned about attendance? But in a way that’s way more extreme than other schools. During an assembly that was after school the gates were locked and teachers were standing at all exits and guarding them like—

This is not about MacRob but just the public transport. Keep in mind often you can miss period one or even two because there are bus replacements, delays and strikes ALL THE TIME. Normally teachers will be understanding though.