Arthur Phillip High School - Parramatta, New South Wales

Jacob J.

Thoughts from the student that has officially been in APHS for a year now (Part One):

I've been wanting to speak my truth and gather the information about my experiences in this hell you call jail for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

For the students considering going to this school, do not ever consider that! There are so many reasons why I hate this school and here are the reasons why:

1. Uniforms:
The uniforms are so expensive I mean come on, my mum was hurt after buying the 600$+ uniform (for example 50$ just for a shirt) they act like it's a piece of gold and it's the most important thing in the universe when in reality it's just a blue, red and white shirt with no meaning but school. Also, the school checks every classroom to make sure kids are wearing the uniform, so much in fact that it makes it seem like APHS are so much more paranoid of kids not wearing uniform than them getting education which is the whole purpose of school! It's also to the point where you'd get in trouble for not wearing the hard uncomfortable leather shoes and you'd get a detention/negative for that!

2. Lockers:
The lockers are so small, you can't even fit anything in it, I could barely fit my phone into that cramp! The lockers are so bad because 90% of them I see are broken into or rotten food is littered across the lockers, I stopped using the lockers because of the risk of that happening to my belongings and the last time I used them, it got locked on me, I was so lucky I retrieved my phone before that happened otherwise I wouldn't have known how to get it back! I tried asking the Student Services and they did nothing to help they quote unquote "promised me that my locker would be unlocked tomorrow" but when I checked again, it was still locked so meaning they lied to me and did nothing to help. Unsurprisingly, the lockers later got removed when I returned in 2025!

3. Stairs & Elevators:
It honestly isn't fair that only the seniors can take the elevators and everyone else from grade 7 - 10 have to take the stairs, yes it's good exercise but issue is it's extremely tiring to go up and give you stress knowing you have a class coming in a couple of minutes. Yes, you do get like 2 detentions for being late in class if your super unlucky and it's not a negative. Oh if you're wondering about the "LEVEL 9 ACCEPTANCE" THAT'S A COMPLETE UTTER LIE! IT GOES TWO WAYS, EITHER THE SENIORS PUSH ME OUT OF THE ELEVATOR AND GREEDILY TAKE IT OR THE TEACHERS KICK ME OUT EVEN THOUGH I'M ALLOWED, I REMEMBER ME AND MY FRIENDS WENT IN THE ELEVATOR TO LEVEL 9 AND GOT SCOLDED BY A TEACHER BY HER SAYING "YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER BECAUSE ONLY THE SENIORS CAN TAKE THE ELEVATORS" THEN WHY THE HELL DID YOU EVEN INVENT THE LEVEL 9 ACCEPTANCE RULE?! SHE SAID "USE THE STAIRS, IT REDUCES CARBON FOOTPRINT" YEAH MAYBE GO SAY THAT TO THE SENIORS! ALSO ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS ANOTHER ONE OF MY FRIENDS GOT KICKED OUT OF THE ELEVATOR BY THE YEAR ADVISOR EVEN THOUGH HE WAS ALLOWED TO GO THERE!

4. Locker Rooms:
Why did they even dare to invent this rule, most likely to torture the poor students that study in this school everyday till year 12 because it's just so much easier to wear your sports uniform to school instead of restlessly changing into it! I'm glad they did remove the rule for sports but unfortunately IT STILL APPLIES TO P.E, LOOK IT'S JUST SO MUCH EASIER TO WEAR IT TO SCHOOL!

5. Horrible Students (Fights and the favour of seniors):
This is the most infamous part of APHS, the people. They are super rude, it's extremely terrible, I hate the people because they are so rude to me for no reason, I got a guy who attacked me when I did nothing wrong and his friends annoying me. Also the main students do attack the new students, I remember the new student crying on the first day because some prick decided to bully him with a group. Then we have the fighting, there is an extreme frequency of fights in this school, it always happens at the mall nearby or in the school, EVEN THE LIGHT RAIL TRACKS WHERE THEY COULD'VE GOT RAN OVER AND DIED!

Akshay A.

You may think this school isn't capable of achieving a good reputation, but I kid you not, it has the potential to do so. When I first joined this school I felt a lot of loneliness and disruption throughout my junior years. When I shifted to a better class with more academic students I had fostered inclusion within the school community. Currently I'll be going into my senior years and I am more than happy to put in all the work I can possibly put in order to maximise my chances at pursuing a stable degree outside of school. Doing well at this school is my goal and by doing so it will not only help me but give this school one step closer to reaching new academic heights. Arthur Phillip isn't a bad school, there are some students who misbehave and choose to do the wrong thing but other then that it's a fairly good school with very helpful and kind teachers and a nice dynamic learning space for students to strive and achieve great results.

Jon H.

This is the worst school ever, I get physically touched everyday .my teacher for English has not come to school in over 6 weeks and the teachers has one job it is to teach they don't teach us anything they just give us the work and expects us to know what to do. The math teacher is speaking an ancient language that half the class don't know what and the teachers are riding on the smart kids. there is basically fights everyday, there is about 120 gangs in the school. there is a lot of people who do very bad things don't come to this school you will not survive. do not recommend coming to this school ever.

SuperMan Y.

I learn nothing, I enjoy nothing and I love nothing about this school. It drains the absolute life out of me, just don’t come to this school it’s so tiring and draining. It may be a tall school but there’s absolutely nothing to do here and teachers don’t do their job properly ( I don’t blame them) if you’re an introvert this school isn’t for you. I hate it, free me.

A A.

Probably the worst school in the whole of Australia. I was sa’ed 3 times and none of the staff did a thing about it, I was also beaten pretty badly and due to the assistant principal’s weird personal issues with me she actually got angry with me instead of the group of girls who ambushed me. I have been contemplating taking my story to current affair for years now.

Estela A.

Very bad school, lots of bullying and the teacher don't care about the students. That is why, I had to change my boy to another school. The government should close this school 😡

Chernor J.

This school is absolutely amazing, we average a 99.9 HSC score and have a wonderful enviroment for all kids despite age, colour of skin and religion. We have little to no fights and we have very respectful and high quality students, nobody in this school associates with any sort of gang activity or any sort. If your reading this COME JOIN ARTHUR PHILLIP we embrace succsess

Vetri T.

This school is so nasty. Who runs this place? (definetly not the teachers yall) Speaking from many years of experience this is not good if you wanna go to uni. The only thing that pisses off the teachers more than school uniform is gum. This "RULE" is clearly not enforced as almost every surface of the school is full of gum and whoever knows what! Please focus on removing the bad behavourial students instead of punishing the good students for either simply talking or wearing the wrong shoes. mean, seriously, do they even care about our education here? It's like they prioritize enforcing ridiculous rules over actually teaching us anything useful. It's ridiculous how much time and energy is wasted on nitpicking trivial things instead of supporting and encouraging students to succeed. And don't even get me started on the lack of resources and extracurricular opportunities. It's like they want us to just scrape by instead of thriving. This place is a joke.