Narangba Valley State High School

The school is very good and majority of teachers and staff care about the individual students. They are constantly improving and focusing on making it a better and more beneficial learning environment

Started at the school thinking it would be awesome, something to look forward to. Actually went because a friend of mine wanted me to, turned out to be a bully. WHOOPS!!
Skip a few years, where school was pretty good...
THEN GRADE 10 AND 11 HIT HAHA
WHAT A COUPLE OF YEARS
The staff would body search kids for vapes, send them into the bathrooms one at a time.... one. At. A. Time. Over 2000 kids in that school, and only ONE AT A TIME WITH ONLY ONE BATHROOM OPEN OUT OF 5!!
It was ridiculous.
It was actually disgusting.
One of the head of houses decided to pull kids aside on the way to the bathroom and tell girls to lift their shirts and skirts and search boys pants.
This, I'll have you know, is harassment at it's finest. It is bullying, it can be a form of child abuse and could have been triggering for some.
This time at school had made everyone stressed. No one felt safe to go to the bathroom by themselves. No one felt like they were at a school but rather some kind of boot camp. And no one had hated being there more than that year. Good old 2021-2022.
Some of the teachers in general, were rude to students, would preach their ideals and beliefs onto those who opposed them, and would treat students like absolute crap.
The admin ladies need an attitude check and I can only hope that one day the staff can pull their heads out of their arses and wake up to reality.
At the end of the day, the kids in this school need time to grow up, experience being teenagers, not dragged through the mud because the school can't pull themselves together. Can't organise things, make things stressful and let alone look down on a lot of families of students who go to the school.
They have no regard for personal problems, for the well-being of students and the situations at home for some.
They have ridiculous protocols that don't make sense and make everyone's day twice as difficult.
Just to make it even more interesting.
In the middle of grade 10, I had expressed my interest in changing subjects halfway through the year, having seen what I wanted to do in the future and that I wanted to go to the trade centre, they tried to disregard what I loved doing (which is art) and what I wanted to change to.
As the next year rolled around they tried to take me out of music and art and into manufacturing since I was in trade centre, after a long battle, I managed to stay in both subjects and still do trade centre.
I also later on found out, as the only girl in trade centre, I hadn't taken a test like the rest of the guys.
Talking about being a more "equal" and "growing" school then why didn't they just let me continue my cert through tafe instead of convincing me to downgrade to the trade centre for apparent benefit.
And when I say downgrade, I mean outdated tools and supplies. The cars had been there since the trade centre started up. Majority of the tools were rusted and/or missing. There was a lack of supply or outdated tools, like multimeters, check lights, battery starters etc.
They had a lack of equipment and stuff for us to be able to learn on so we could only repeat what we had done the previous week as our teacher had to bring in stuff for us to learn on from his other campus...
I left at the end of grade 11 and feel a much better support from the staff at my new school than this one, and I am happy to say that I will be graduating a happier student now, and feeling as tho I can safely and smoothly transfer into full time work as an apprentice mechanic.

This school overall does not care. I'm not even just saying that to be like, "I'm a little teenager who hates learning, so I'm going to hate this school for no reason!". No. Genuinely, there are so many things wrong with this school.

First of all, the teachers. Whilst there are a handful of genuinely lovely and helpful teachers, the bad ones outweigh the good (I would name a few especially, but, I don't want to call them out. I'm sure that any other students/people familiar with the school will know exactly who I'm talking about, though). I have some teachers that are literally HoDs who just sit on their phones all lesson and leave us to figure stuff out. Teachers are overly strict, mean, or overall useless at teaching (which, considering that's their entire job... not a great look, guys). That being said, there are some that are lovely; I'm sorry to make such a vague statement.

In recent years, too, the school has started putting more and more focus on students falling behind. There is no problem with this: that's an amazing thing to do! The only issue is, they seem to be taking resources from their academies and gifted programs in order to do this. Academies have been cancelled, entire subjects have been removed... for a school that was so well-known for its academies and extra-curricular programs, this is disgusting. Students (and even teachers) weren't even told that their subjects/academies would be discontinued until later dates, and when many parents and students complained about it, the deputies sent angry emails back and even visited classes to lecture students.

Don't even get me started on the jewellery/uniform policy. Look, I understand that dangly earrings, necklaces, and bracelets can all be a health hazard, but it's ridiculous. What's wrong with multiple piercings? What's wrong with having unnatural hair colours? It's not a health hazard, so why can't it happen? I know these are questions that students have asked many times, yet there is never a clear answer given. There's also a certain deputy that will stop at nothing to find out if you're wearing jewellery against the policies. I understand that deputies need to enforce the rules, but it gets out of hand. For example, recently, this deputy was suspended for forcing girls to pull their shirts down, just in case they were hiding necklaces. I didn't think I'd need to spell this out, but: you can't look down girls' shirts? The fact that a literal school deputy didn't know this is ridiculous. That's a crime?

Behaviour issues in this school are also ridiculous. Teachers seem unable to keep many classes under control, and nothing seems to be happening to stop ongoing problems. Specifically, the vaping. It's almost impossible to walk into a toilet block without having flavoured air blown into your face. The school is very well aware of this, as there are almost DAILY reports that go into the office about students vaping. What do they do about this? They just close most of the toilet blocks, and leave teachers to monitor everyone going in and out of the block. What was previously a five-minute trip to go to the bathroom in class now takes half an hour. You can't go to your nearest toilet block, because they're not open: instead, you walk halfway across the school to find one that's actually open. Then, you wait in line, empty out your pockets to the teachers, sign your name... it seriously takes up half the lesson. It's absolutely ridiculous. Last time I checked, schools were actually meant for learning: having to miss out on half of the lesson just to go to the bathroom doesn't really leave much time for that, hmm?

The school also has little to no regard for students' mental health. They're constantly changing Guidance Officers (which isn't really the school's fault, but is still inconvenient). Even if you did feel comfortable enough to talk to a Guidance Officer, they're gone soon enough, so there's no point. I've never really engaged with the Chaplains or Guidance Officers, so I can't comment on how nice they are; some people who AREN'T nice, though, are the Student Services workers. They always speak to you as if you're inconveniencing them, which, like, I'm sorry? I don't know what you expect me to do, this is your job? I had an allergic reaction, one time, so went down there, and they just yelled at me for having my medication on me instead of offering actual support. Sorry, guys, my mistake: I'll make sure to not have my medication with me, next time, and simply die while waiting in line for Student Services instead <3

Perhaps the most pressing issue with this school is the discrimination. Kids throw around racism, xenophobia, ableism, and homophobia like it's nothing. You're probably thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, it's a bunch of teenagers together, what do you expect?". I have a PoC friend with a name unique to his culture, and literal teachers REFUSE to call him by his name, simply because it's "too hard to pronounce". I hear multiple derogatory slurs thrown around on a daily basis. When an assembly was held and there was a brief mention of Wear it Purple Day (for context, Wear it Purple Day is a holiday where one wears something purple to show support for the LGBTQ+ community), there was a huge chorus of "boo"s immediately after the announcement. Nothing was said or done about this. On that day, when I wore purple, I had a glass bottle thrown at me. "Oh, that's nothing! At least you weren't [insert something bad here]!". I am aware that a glass bottle isn't as bad as a lot of the other things that could've happened, but, it shouldn't be happening at all. How can students be expected to go to school when they don't even feel safe?

That being said, there are a few teachers who do really try, and I respect that. The school is also pretty good at helping students achieve their career goals (even if sometimes they put a little TOO much pressure on students to make decisions early on, and don't really care about you if you aren't on an ATAR pathway). There are always activities on at lunch, and they do try their best to keep students entertained. I'm really trying my hardest to think of good things, here, but this school is overall going downhill reeeally quickly.

TL;DR: Mostly useless staff, cancelling all their gifted programs, jewellery policy is too strict, vaping is out of control (and, instead of fixing it, they just close all the bathrooms), no regard for mental health, an absolute MOUNTAIN of discrimination, too much pressure to choose a career early on, and no respect for non-ATAR students.

Was in hospital for some time and they bumped me up to the next grade with no additional support and I was falling behind. Reported a crime that one of the other students did to me and they told me “you can get sued for defamation, forget that it happened”. In my experience, they had horrible “support” for kids who have mental health issues. The school nurse and Mr Ashton were ONLY positive experiences I had.