St Clare’s Catholic Primary School, Truganina | Fees, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

This school is the first and only school I ever experienced favouritism. What disgusts me is that the favouritism increased more when I reached year six. I noticed how some of the senior teachers showed that they didn’t really care for the year sixes. I can only think of two teachers that didn’t show that they cared towards the year sixes last year. Surprising how the other teachers that treated everyone fairly and with respect, also started mistreating the year sixes.

I was in year five when all the favouriting happened in front of me. The year sixes I was with, all got punished for nothing! They never did anything wrong. If they did it was only a certain group of people. That’s another thing that disgusts me. They say “We know it’s not all of you, it’s the majority of you that make the wrong choices” I find that hard to believe if you punish everyone for the “majority” of the group’s wrong choices.

One thing about this school that also puts me off is the fences. The fences on the oval are easy to climb and are also really short. Recently, last year a kid in year four apparently ran away from school. How else would they have left the school if the fences were that easy to climb or if they were stupid enough the leave the gates open. Also recently in 2022 there were stalkers that circled the school. During breaktime one of them actually got out of the car and offered candy to little girls and also took their photos.

Even in 2019-2021 the speakers were stolen. I was a little suspicious about that because what would people want to do with speakers without wiring? I realised that the school fences that are apparently “guarding” the school are easy to climb and are VERY short.

Last year the rules that were changed affected me and maybe a lot of other students or parents. Home-time safety rule is very useless. Who in their right mind wouldn’t cross carefully like they’ve been doing for the past 1-7 years? The drive through rules also pissed me off. Sure it’s safe but what’s wrong with getting off from the back when there’s another staff member at the gate that can supervise those getting off at the back. It’s easier getting off the back as well because when you’re almost late you don’t have to wait for traffic to pass and then get in between the area you’re supposed to get off from.

The teachers also paid attention to the “well behaved” people. That’s another way the teachers show favouritism. Everyone else is behaving and doing the right thing while certain teachers pay attention to those who are always recognised and acknowledged. Every day it’s always “Look at ____. They’re doing the right thing, try and be like ____.” Like no, there are other students doing the right thing and the students that get acknowledged could be doing the wrong thing and they still say they’re doing the right thing. Open your eyes! It’s not that hard to tell them off for talking or doing the wrong thing, don’t just say they’re doing the right thing when you can clearly see they aren’t. They don’t even acknowledge the fact that it’s not just one person. Acknowledge those who are actually doing the right thing and not trying to seem like goody two shoes. There’s only one teacher I can think of who did this so many times last year, and they should know who they are.

If rating this school a zero was a thing I would’ve done it. The one star is only for the staff that treated everyone fairly and understood what we were going through and from my classroom teachers last year. I’m only thinking of 4 teachers and the other 3 shouldn’t get their hopes up. Even other teachers who treated my brother last year I appreciate them and even 3 of my specialist teachers and other staff from different grades.

Positive things about this school-
Ben had good discipline and disciplined those who misbehaved really well. The school has great security (yard duty not fences). They do their jobs properly and make sure children don’t go where they’re not supposed to.

THIS EMAIL ISNT AN ATTACK, MY OPINION.
If reviews matter to you then u can read it idk
And as you can see, only the old reviews were a 5
I attended this school for all years, and it started off well I was excited to go and all. Then once year 4 ended it felt like we were over worked, but it wasn’t so bad and went by quickly. Then it reached year 6 and I had never felt so discriminated by some teachers. It seemed all the ones that I actually thought were good just leave out of nowhere. The first term wasn’t so bad then after they started splitting Grade 5 and 6 the teachers seemed to keep praising grade 5’s, thanks what a big help to keep us confident! I don’t recommend doing this it just puts the other group down .The only thing making me want to go to this school were my friends, And the thing that shocked me the most was when our old principal left who actually kept this school good and a new one came, nothing wrong with it since he added fun events but one of our teachers got upset and started saying stuff like “This principal is way better than your old principal was” That is your opinion, we all got different thoughts on that statement “Girls are, whats the word? Biatches” We knew the word you said you only added an a. I probably wouldn’t forget that because I’ve never seen a teacher behave like this. At the ending days of our school we had big day out, I was pretty upset that all other year 6s got a big place and we got a golf place and barely any of us knew how to play but still enjoyed the quality time with friends (don’t be ungrateful..) after that yr 6’s got put into two separate rooms and one was called “the better room” and they got put with their friends and in the other ones we got put with people we never talk to, It didn’t feel good because we were leaving and got barely anytime with our friends… I also found some students being favourited, it was pretty obvious. And some were targeted, Not saying any names but one kept getting in trouble and sometimes there was no valid reason. And I can only remember one good teacher that I would actually run up to before they walked into the staff room.
AND I WONT EVER EVER FORGET HOW WE HAD TO WRITE A WHOLE PARAGRAPH ON WHERE WE WANTED TO GO ON BDO AND IT GOT COMPLETELY IGNORED..
No attack was intended but the school is slowly getting a bit messy, Plans changed like every week way too fast changing how we have been doing school for 7 years. Not many people followed one of them no offence

EDIT:
now I understood why I felt happy in grade 4, we were still young so we mattered. We still did in grade 6, but not as much as we were In 4. Now I have to say there are some good things , but as stated previously, Our new principal is doing well but changed way too many things too fast, The eating times before change I believe were fine because I saw preps crying because they were hungry.

And separating us in eating time, didn’t do any good because most colour groups had their friends, and they snuck out anyway

Punishing the whole class for a small groups doing, This was common in this school in senior years. 5 minutes because they heard a small group talking. Then proceed to pick their favourite students to leave because they did nothing wrong, I didnt either but I got picked last. Just cause I don’t have a badge doesn’t mean I’m a bad kid instantly

Principal was a little aggressive when speaking to us, raises his voice randomly and nobody had an any idea why. He had some fun things planned but it felt like preps mattered more to him.

The education was a bit too repetitive, we read a book in year 4 and had to read it again. The Playlist didn’t teach us much because we had to write about a article with questions.

If you don’t want to read this, ill just shorten it

This school had fun things, all up until we were old and nobody cared about us. Overall the way they treated us and changed too much was the reason I gave this a 2. Id give it a 5 from 4-7 years ago only Andrew kept the school simple and not too forceful.

NO HATE

I started at this school in 2017 as a prep student. All was well until year 3-6.

1. The pandemic
During the pandemic, all we learnt about was Covid-19, and during parent teacher interviews, my parents would ask every time why there is no homework and how do the children who are falling behind get helped. And every single time the teachers would say “Ever since lockdown all students have been falling behind.” If they are falling behind, why don’t you help them? I know pretty well that Covid isn’t the cause of this and it is just an excuse.

2. Troublesome kids
Throughout my 7 years at this school there’s always been kids who muck around and disrespect everyone. And they rarely get punished. Every single time they go to the principals office, they rarely get a punishment, all they get is a long talk about respect. I see how people think it’s better to talk to children instead of punishing them, but the kids don’t take it seriously. At least a small punishment like picking up rubbish at lunch or giving up some of their playtime outside might make them not cause trouble again. And when these kids talk during class, on occasions where there is a punishment, not just the one kid gets punished, the whole class does.

3. Favouritism
In year 5, I didn’t realise how much year 6s get compared to younger grades, but when I actually became a year 6, it hit me. Teachers expect year 6s to act “mature” but we aren’t even teenagers yet! Every single day we hear “The preps do better than you” or “The year 5s are doing great” but we honestly couldn’t care less. Good job on them if they are doing well, but If we aren’t, it our loss. You don’t need to nag or tell us every day. Secondly, it’s always the same kids that get picked on. Like if a quiet kid is talking or being disrespectful during class, the teachers wouldn’t tell them to stop or punish them.

4. New principal, new school
No hate to Ben (The new principal since mid 2023) but he has honestly change the school so much. Obviously there have also been some good changes but this wasn’t the St Clare’s I used to know. Like last year, our last year of primary school, the principal decided 3 WEEKS before the end of the year to separate the seniors (year 5s and 6s) from having class together. I know some kids who are in a different grade than the rest of their friend group, so imagine how they would feel being separated from their friends.

Anyways, that all I have to say, save your money and your kid’s education and choose a different school.

When this school was run by Principal Andrew it was both well run and my kids came home happy even after attending school. Unfortunately, after Andrew retired the new Principal and staff due to high staff turnover led to a school that had constantly changing rules. A regimented approach seemed to be adopted and the School pickup was mayhem. Some staff over-stepped their authority showing clear bias rather than dealing with issues impartially. If my child was not in her senior year I would have moved her to another school.

This was by far the worst school my children went to, my son said he had the same thing every day, note that we are very far away from the school, so our children changed schools for good measures, honestly would give it a 0