NCEA Duke's Secondary School

Ex student, where to begin. To start with what the school actually cares about, student wellbeing and attainment is not exactly the forefront of their priorities. In terms of wellbeing, every time I ever communicated anything serious to head of years I was asked if I was due my period and was brushed aside. The focus is on badly behaved children, (not that the behaviour system works), and students struggling with mental health were severely swept aside. Every student has their issues, but this school didn't do anything to improve it. The priority was attendance to lessons, not actual progress or wellbeing. As for uniform, this was a major priority of the school for whatever reason, with female students being told they were making themselves targets of sexual crime because of the length of their skirts, I wish I was joking.

I was supposed to attend the sixth form, to which I received a pathetic phone call from the head of the school letting parents know that the sixth form would no longer be put forward. The worst part being this was the DAY AFTER RESULTS DAY. The day we finalised our A-level subjects, the day we were told we were welcome back in September. The head teacher showed little to no empathy for students and gave half-arsed replies to unhappy students and parents. 4 business days until the academic year began, our futures were severely changed and potentially disadvantaged due to this quick decision, however I wholeheartedly believe this was for the greater good.

Finally, the actual classroom environment. Lessons are barely planned, with teachers spending a lot of time outside of the classroom because they simply can't control the class or can't be bothered to. Very unprofessional, students are given below the bare minimum of education, particularly the vile science department, (we will save that for another day).

Send your kids here if you want them to hate their lives, because I and many others can vouch that this school is an utter waste of time.

p.s French teacher and Pizzinis at lunch were possibly the singular good thing at this school, give the dinner nannies a raise pls x

My sister was getting badly bullied and they did nothing about it because it was too short of a time period as it went on for 2 days so and apparently they have a bullying policy which is non existent.Also the receptionist wouldn't deliver my brother's Chromebook until after school as they didn't have the time and teachers aren't allowed to go to the reception to drop of stuff.

Terrible school has serious bullying issues school only cares about trying to make itself look good. A child ended there own life due to bullying and the school denies this and lies says it was not. They do not care about students mental health only care about attendance of the student even after circumstances of students being assaulted by groups of other students.
Education is very poor too the students learn nothing and come out with poor grades majority of them.
Look up there ofsted reports it tells you everything you need to know

The school is disgraceful. Teachers are unsupportive. More concerned about getting good words from sending us away to university then caring about what actually makes us happy. I wanted to do art and I was pushed out of it from this school because it wouldn’t look good for them. Teachers are bullies. Getting told continuously you are going to fail when you are in the top of class. They are disgusting. They claim to be supportive but are nothing of the sort. My experience in this school has made me feel sorry for anyone that has to go there. They don’t care about you. They care about the funding they get from you. I was heavily bullied throughout this school and they did nothing until it looked bad for their school. Teachers having affairs in school time, or teachers grooming children and engaging in sexual conduct with students. Do not send your kids here if you care about them please.

i have been a student of this school for a while,was bullied for months and didnt get. any attention or help but was told it would stop.would cry to the teachers telling them of my issues and would be told something would happen nothing did happen.i was bullied that bad i turned to self harm. teachers noticed this and only once my parents found out didn't anything change.parents came into school and teachers claimed they didn't know anything about it . was not giving any support and the school couldnt care

I am a grandparent of a girl at this school,my granddaughter has been bullied and, punched, the teachers don't care at all now, my granddaughter has started to stand up for herself because teachers don't help protect kids from bullies ,they don't like my granddaughter looking after herself so they alway seem to have it in for her ,yes when she's done wrong she will say so ,but back off teachers your more to blame than the kids ,you might need to either retire, or go get more training as your traing is rubbish and needs redoing .

Genuinely horrendous teaching, poor learning environment