Rustenburg Girls’ High School

honestly thought it was a banger school. send ur kid here to be skibidi ?! skibidi= 100% afrikaans on your childs report card.

anyways this is actually a really cool school and people and teachers are actually nice and help u with work. students are also respectful and have manners 🤑

I hate to throw shade at the school I’ve spent my whole life at. The school itself is beautiful and it’s definitely great for education but not for metal health. The environment is extremely toxic and the teachers have no care for the students or the problems they are struggling with. The work load is to stress full and gets piled on everyday which causes us students to rebel.I can’t count the amount of times I’ve heard girls crying in the bathroom and complaining about their mental health. All this school focus on is the academics. I used to wake up and dread coming to school. You are not notices in this school unless you’re both an A scholar and an A top achiever in sports. The school uniform is made from an awful metal and is made for people that are skinny and no other body type.

Horrible experience.
the school website might have representation of various students , might have beautiful views and outstanding academic results but as an old girl of RGHS i would never send my daughter there.

Every school has its problems but RGHS has gone far too long to not address these issues. The girls are extremely exclusive and some groups are clearly formed based on your socio-economic circumstances . There’s girls who struggle to get to school in the morning (which the staff know about) but refuse to assist , constantly giving them repercussions for being late.
There’s girls with serious mental health issues and issues at home but the school staff are not equipped to deal with it. During the GBV protests , RGHS staff told students how and when to protest.
they told us to be silent and hold signs . they never let us express ourselves how we get fit to do so. Some grades were forced to write a test despite students crying and expressing their own trauma they have experienced. A FEMALE maths teacher even made the remark “they’re being ridiculous now “.
Schools should encourage students to speak up and have a dialogue. Schools should also understand each student brings their own issues into school every day and are forced to bottle it up and learn.

But aren’t they psychologists to help you? or aren’t they teachers you confide in?
Unless you want your issues known to the whole staff body.. 10/10 wouldn’t recommend.
It’s a well known fact that you cannot approach the school psychologists because nothing is kept personal which is the key thing in order for effective therapy to take place.

During Covid , there was little support for the younger grades and many of us felt extremely isolated.
We felt like nobody was there for us.
Let’s not mention how half of the matrics of 2020 were seen in 2021 re writing papers because of the little academic support and stress they experienced during covid .


As a past student , i highly recommended you don’t send your child to this school.

Although this school is acclaimed to be a “good school” there is really not much more to it and I’m not sure what exactly makes it a “good school” other than having a name that has highly proclaimed connotations connected to it.
My experience with mental health was awful during my time there and my depression was undermined for more than 2 years.
A child will definitely get a high standard of education going there but I’m not sure if it is worth it, given that so many girls have mental health issues.
We have spoken about it amongst ourselves countless times and there is not one particular thing that you can put your finger on to pinpoint the issue, other than the general environment. The RGHS environment breeds anxiety and depression and many mental health issues that come with this. Although one of the counselors is excellent, there are just too many girls and too many school-induced issues to be treated.
It is a beautiful school but I wish the environment when I was there did not drive me to leave in my second last year of school, right before matric.

If you’d like a guaranteed good matric, you’ve come to the right place. But at what cost?

I went to RGHS for 5 years, and not a day went past (especially in matric) that I didn’t hear a girl sobbing in the bathroom.

Our breaks are short, our lessons long, the pressure extremely high. The summer uniforms don’t fit unless you’re skinny, racism is high despite many attempts by the school. Only recently was an extremely racist teacher, who said the N word to girls of colour ‘retired’

We do have lovely counsellors. But, they are our LO teachers as well, making it awkward. You don’t want to express your deepest feelings to your teacher do you? The one who doesn’t teach, is one who doesn’t have the right qualifications, and has no idea of what confidentiality is, and will make girls feel uncomfortable by sharing stories of their friends that were told in private. It’s just inappropriate.

Although, I applaud Rustenburg for I see the efforts they are making. I applaud some of the teachers. Some of them truly care and will make time out of their day to make sure you are okay too. Some teachers are incredible. Really and truly, but sometimes I feel like they balance jobs of therapists and teacher at the same time, which isn’t fair on them.

Some teachers are downright disrespectful. Like talking during exams, eating students food, and not behaving professionally at all.

I also find that the banning of school sports skorts has raised red flags. These skorts were part of our uniform and we were made to purchase them, but later in the year they were banned from wearing to school. The reason being they were “too short” and made “some teachers uncomfortable” this is a SCHOOL. If a teacher is feeling uncomfortable of what a girl is wearing, ban the teacher, not the item of clothing!

On the topic of uniform, grade 8s are influenced to buy the RGHS hoodie. They are lovely hoodies don’t get me wrong, but… of course, we are not allowed to wear them during school time. I don’t see why. They represent the school, ah but I guess god forbid the students wear anything that they are comfortable in.

The strict insane rules of piercings and dyed hair and nail polish is ridiculous. Girls dyeing their hair from natural brown to a natural blond is wrong. They would get in trouble. Girls wearing nail polish or having piercings in is wrong. Why? Is this school so set on banishing any form of individuality and self expression?

This school is like taking a long, long walk during a hurricane and fire at the same time, but the only thing keeping you walking, is the reward at the end. The reward of a perfect matric pass. But is that reward worth it, if you get burnt and shattered at the end?

While the academic achievements of the school are impressive, the regard for the mental health of the students is atrocious. Everything is secondary to academics and had I not been an academically gifted student, I would’ve had an even harder time there. I know for a fact that if I did not have the friends I had, I would not have made it through that school. Racism is alive and well and while I never experienced it, I witnessed it almost every single day. The facade which this school portrays is one of acceptance and excellence, but this is not the experience for so many students.

I am so grateful that I never have to go back to that school which has caused me to have literal nightmares.

i honestly have met very few girls at rustenburg who actually like it. i’m not exactly sure what it is about the school but it is often quite an unsettling environment. the school also claims to be working hard on diversity etc. but they have failed to pull through on a lot of things. the new principal is making quite a few changes that are in a very good direction but still a lot of students don’t feel their efforts are adequate. sport is given little to no recognition at the school and is put at the very end of the list of importance. even though there are some very good teachers, a lot of them are not appropriate for a high school environment (especially in the maths department).

Creating a safe environment during the pandemic has been amazing. Lessons, support, voice notes, assembly just amazing. It has made managing this lockdown easier for us as a family and has kept our daughter in a safe space?

Thank you to the principal, staff and SGB.

I went to Rustenburg from grade 8 to 12. While I sometimes found the girls difficult to be around, I always appreciated and loved the teachers.
The standard of education was extremely high. From grade 8 to matric, the teachers pushed me to be my best. I went from having one A on my report, to having straight As by matric. The teachers always made sure I understood all the work and offered many after school lessons for those who needed them.

If you're a person who gets frustrated easily over inequality, racism, etc., don't come here. There are some teachers who are racist and still view black as incapable or weak. They aren't even afraid to tell a black student that they should've gone to a township school instead of blocking space for a white learner who lives around the corner. Or tell a learner that the corridors aren't a taxi rank just because they think the learner is "too loud". Yes, there is a transformation thing going on, but that won't change how those teachers' views. Even if you report those teachers, no action gets taken. Instead they're protected by questions like "Are you sure they meant it in a racist way?" "Why didn't the individual who experienced this come report it herself?" Otherwise, academically it's good. With the help of a tutor of course.