16 August 2008

In defence of Queanbeyan

| Yeboii
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Okay um, to all you QueanbeyanHigh haters. If you have never been to Queanbeyan high beforee why write bad comments? i understand that those who have been or go their have their own opinions, but why believe whats in the papers? i am currentley at queanbeyan high now and it is coming a really long way. yeah we have bad people at our school but there bad people everywhere , at every school.

Our new princible is fantastic his trying to do new wonders for our school. We just built a new trade centre for our senior students to prepare them for the work force. Our teachers are trying there hardest to give us the best education. and all you people are doing is rubbing all this BullSh*t into our faces okay. Honestley qbn high isnt what people think it is. And it isnt more violent then any other school honesltey come to out school see us. then have something to say. dont judge a book by its coverr.

UPDATED: Jodie_2008 has also posted a story with this to say:

    im currently in year 10 at queanbeyan high and i can guarntee you it is not the roughest school in the state. Everyone gets along really well, both teachers and students. i only live about two blocks away from the school and you never hear anything and the students never cause trouble. The article that was posted in the news paper was written from a father who’s student was in a fight. It was a one off thing . Everyone bags the crap out of queanbeyan but its actually like the maddest place to live. Every one will do anythin to help you out so anyone who hasnt been to queanbeyan high and is going to bagg it out get your facts right ..

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hi you may have read my other comment but that was my cousin writing so now its my turn. i go to qbn high and im in yr 7 last yr when the paper wrote that horrible atricle about the school being the worst in the state, i didnt take any notice of it because i knew it wasnt true, i got teased from my so called “friends” because i was going to go there and all my friends were going to campball. after that i was starting to get worried but my 3 cousin who go to qbn high all reassured me that the school was great and they were right, im in my last term of yr 7 and i have loved every bit of it, ive got great teachers and fantastic friends. we do have some kids who just love mucking around but so does every other school, because, hey, nobodys perfect.

“You know you are from Queanbeyan when you let your 14 year old daughter smoke at the table…in front of her kids.”

Wow! I laughed for ages at that one!

But I have to say, I am at Karabar High in Queanbeyan, and I also live here. I think that all the bogans give us a bad name.. but there are some normal people over the border as well!

I am full of the queabeyan jokes, and I just think that we have a.. err.. wider demographic.. to put it nicely.

Oh, and as much as I laughed, I’m 14, living in queanbeyan, don’t smoke and am a virgin!
haha

‘Onya, CharalotteX. Now we all have hope. I’ve had a 2620 postcode for years, had my first job in Qbn, and now have one there again, and I’m more than happy to see evidence that there are successful kids in the schools there. More power to you, we and you know you’ll do well.

The angry kiddies earlier in the thread are members of a tribe, the Qbn High Tribe. It’s not about education or what the school stands for, for them. It’s about belonging to a group. When they leave school, they’ll join another tribe.

charalotteX said :

I am a year 10 student at Queanbeyan, and i think it really is a great school and I am not one of those students that choose not to learn. I respect that everyone has their own opinions and often don’t like a certain school for what ever reason. Queanbeyan High is not a school of bogans and there are far more smart, hardworking, respectable students. It is just that the obnoxious and rude ones make the most noise and attract attention. The stories that the community hear about are only the bad ones, Queanbeyan High is a lot better than most believe it is.

charalotteX – now that’s an opinion I can respect! It’s not a diatribe but a reasoned view.

I am a year 10 student at Queanbeyan, and i think it really is a great school and I am not one of those students that choose not to learn. I respect that everyone has their own opinions and often don’t like a certain school for what ever reason. Queanbeyan High is not a school of bogans and there are far more smart, hardworking, respectable students. It is just that the obnoxious and rude ones make the most noise and attract attention. The stories that the community hear about are only the bad ones, Queanbeyan High is alot better than most believe it is.

Maybe this is an example of a generation of kids who’ve grown up in a world where they do not experience “failure”, where they are never “incorrect”. So normal criticism comes as quite a shock.

Loquaciousness12:45 pm 19 Aug 08

Granny said :

Thanks, guys!

: )

I am glad you are so happy and settled in your school. It is important that the gifts and talents in the students are nurtured, and it sounds like your principal is very innovative and enthusiastic – both of which are very desirable qualities in a leader. He or she has obviously managed to inspire and touch the lives of students such as yourselves.

I reckon I have been judged most of my life one way or another. It never really stops hurting, but it can make you very strong. In the end, you really can’t please everybody. You can only do what you think is right at the time. If someone wants to be critical they will always find something. After it has happened for long enough you find yourself just kind of going, “Oh, this again …” and shrugging it off.

Public education is so important. When I was in Russia I had a taste of what illiteracy is like, as I could not read or write anything at all, and very few people spoke English.

As a woman, I think of my right to an education in a similar way as my right to vote. It is very seldom that I cast my vote without pausing to remember the women that fought and died for me to be granted this privilege, and I have always approached education the same way.

Somebody actually had to fight for my right to be educated (I understand that the unions were fabulous in this regard). So it is really such a precious thing. It is the most wonderful gift.

It is a good idea to make the most of the opportunity, because it only comes around once. After that you can always study as a mature age student, but it is far more difficult and involves a lot of sacrifices.

Just remember to keep your eye on your vision, not the obstacles, and you will do just fine.

Take care and do good things!

Well said, Granny. I’ll drink to that!

L

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:26 am 19 Aug 08

I have watched this thread with interest, as I grew up in Queanbo and did all my primary and secondary education there. My advice to the kids defending their high school is to stop acting like victims. You may love your school, but trust me, the world doesn’t care. As Nyssa alluded to, people are starting to dislike generation ‘me’ – you aren’t the first people to go through this you know!

So… have your dreams and make your choices, but don’t expect to change the world with them. If you really want to change the world, action is all that counts. You want to know why you think people ‘judge you’ and don’t ‘respect you’? Because you haven’t earnt it yet.

It’s 15 years since I finished year 12, and I’m sure we didn’t carry on like this. Perhaps it was because that we were taught (sometimes the hard way) that respect was earned, and not a ‘right’. Carrying on like this perpetuates Queanbeyan stereotypes, when, in reality, there are a lot of smart and educated people who live there.

mdme workalot9:02 am 19 Aug 08

I’ve got to say to all the people criticising these two for their spelling – I am yet to come across anyone from the younger generation who is able to spell the majority of their words correctly. I think it is a problem not confined to public schooling, but is occurring across the board because the people teaching are not fantastic spellers. I think it’s a bit harsh when the majority of posters on here (including those currently flaming these two) consistently make grammatical and spelling errors. To demonstrate:

“You do realize, your not the only kids on here you know…sorry to burst your giant ego’s bubble there..”
Bubzie, the word you are looking for is ‘you’re’ as opposed to ‘your’. Please note – traditionally, an apostrophe appearing within a word denotes that a letter is missing. In it’s, the word missing is ‘i’ as it’s is an abbreviation of it is. Similar mistakes occur when using their, there and they’re.

I don’t profess to be perfect, because everyone makes mistakes sometimes. However, I generally do not make a point of picking on spelling because of this. Ease up people, and at least have a bit of respect for the argument the kids are bringing forth.

Bitchmonster4:26 am 19 Aug 08

What a sad reflection on the life of teachers! Online at 4am – sheesh!

Bitchmonster4:22 am 19 Aug 08

As a TAFE teacher I get to see some of the best and worst students from both sides of the border. As far as I am concerned, it is the quality of the person – and their desire to learn – that makes me give up my time to nurture them. Sure, spell checkers are a useful tool, but so is an involved parent – someone who takes the time to read over what their son or daughter has written and offer constructive suggestions for improvement -spelling and grammar included.

Putting down Queanbeyan is a recognised sport for Canberrans, and that’s their choice. We who live in Queanbeyan do so as our choice, and I am quite content with my decision.

If we want to have a dig, let’s look at the stats from the last census – freely available from the ABS website – that show the ACT as having a population of 340,000 with 11,000 public housing dwellings. Queanbeyan has 694 public housing dwellings to a population of 35,000. Even multiplying Qbn’s population and housing by 10 to compare directly to the ACT’s numbers would give the ACT nearly twice as many so-called ‘bogan’ dwellings than Queanbeyan.

I agree that the rustbucket that accommodates the NSW gov’t offices is disgusting, and the architect’s vision is lost on me, but Canberra has the Northbourne Avenue flats as its introduction, so I think we have image problems on both sides of the border!

In an age where kids are supposedly selfish and uncaring, I think it’s great to see students standing up for their school – regardless of what one they go to. So there are spelling and grammar errors – so what?! They are trying to get a thought across, and I applaud that.

But, while both towns are populated, this argument will go on . . .

and so at 3am I make a mistake 🙂 that will teach me to be up so early marking (taking a break from it atm).

As a public school teacher, I have all 3 of my children (one in Yr 8 btw) at Government schools.

ehxoh, you have demonstrated, through your postings why people are starting to dislike Generation “me”.

You go to school but you make the ‘choice’ not to learn? Tell me, are you one of those kids who sits there disrupting the lesson because you ‘choose’ to go to school to socialise in class rather than learn?

The NSW Curriculum is far more structured than the ACT one and it contains a more indepth focus on language and sentence structure.

Instead of whinging about the posters ‘picking’ on your, perhaps you need to take this constructive criticism and use it to pay more attention in class.

What Yeboii said.

Yeboii said :

Noooo im actually not!
im a student there.
Currentley in yr 8!
All you Haters say what you want!
you have your right to a freedom of speech.

What Yeboii should have said.

In response to the above comments.
I am currently a year 8 student in Queanbeyan High School.
I enjoy my education and for this reason I disagree with the previously mentioned comments the Queanbeyan is providing a negative learning atmosphere. Please refrain from writing negative comments about my home town.

ehxoh said :

We just choose not too.

Nope i dont choose.

ehxoh: You are talking in circles. If you want credibility then I suggest you make wiser choices. Show the world that any perception they may have of your school is wrong. The stage is yours, go for it. Drums roll, music builds, curtains rise…. you are on !

Most of the really rich ’self-made’ people in the world have no tertiary education whatsoever

Really? You have a source for that claim?

See look at this, you get defensive when i point out something you spelt wrong. But then you think its absolutely fine to point out words i spelt wrong! seriously think before you say.

ehxoh said :

Oh learn to spell ‘actulary’ the proper spelling for that word is ‘actually’ so before your to quick to judge, make sure your own hands are clean!

hey, its the only word that i cant spell. what of it?
least i tried to make an effort..

bubzie said :

ehxoh said :

Blah Blah Blah. We are kids, grow up. Honest to god some people on here are so immature its not even funny. Trying to pick out every little wrong word we write. You have never been to Queanbeyan High so dont even dare to judge it!

You do realize, your not the only kids on here you know…sorry to burst your giant ego’s bubble there..

(And the other kids on here, can type proper english, so no one can actulary tell that they’re kids..you guys on the other hand, geez.)

I’m normally a spelling, grammar and punctuation Nazi, but as this is an informal blog, within reason I switch my mental checker off when reading stuff that’s posted here. That’s not a superiority thing; it’s just putting stuff into context.

But bubzie, if you’re going to hold yourself up as some yard-stick of the abilities of the Queanbeyan posters’ peers, and claim that you ‘can type proper english’ (sic), you might want to check your own stuff first. Yeah, you were taking the Carney in the last para, but there are at least two clangers in your first para

‘People in grass houses…’ and all that.

exhoh and Yeboii, you might have more sympathisers than you think. But you’re not going to win friends and influence people by hitting out at everyone who has a different view to you, or who wants to take the Carney, sorry, I mean everyone who wants to take the p!ss. Us Canberrans are the butt of enough jokes, as are Queanbeyanites.

To borrow a phrase, even at your tender young age, you need to ‘Harden the f$ck up!’

Thanks, guys!

: )

I am glad you are so happy and settled in your school. It is important that the gifts and talents in the students are nurtured, and it sounds like your principal is very innovative and enthusiastic – both of which are very desirable qualities in a leader. He or she has obviously managed to inspire and touch the lives of students such as yourselves.

I reckon I have been judged most of my life one way or another. It never really stops hurting, but it can make you very strong. In the end, you really can’t please everybody. You can only do what you think is right at the time. If someone wants to be critical they will always find something. After it has happened for long enough you find yourself just kind of going, “Oh, this again …” and shrugging it off.

Public education is so important. When I was in Russia I had a taste of what illiteracy is like, as I could not read or write anything at all, and very few people spoke English.

As a woman, I think of my right to an education in a similar way as my right to vote. It is very seldom that I cast my vote without pausing to remember the women that fought and died for me to be granted this privilege, and I have always approached education the same way.

Somebody actually had to fight for my right to be educated (I understand that the unions were fabulous in this regard). So it is really such a precious thing. It is the most wonderful gift.

It is a good idea to make the most of the opportunity, because it only comes around once. After that you can always study as a mature age student, but it is far more difficult and involves a lot of sacrifices.

Just remember to keep your eye on your vision, not the obstacles, and you will do just fine.

Take care and do good things!

Oh learn to spell ‘actulary’ the proper spelling for that word is ‘actually’ so before your to quick to judge, make sure your own hands are clean!

Haha. No.

(this would be perfect timing to say “im a f***ing private school snob!” but i’m clearly not one. i love my public school..)

ehxoh said :

By the way. Yeah at this present time I am having no respect for adults. Sorry but this is a bulletin board and i have my right to state whatever i feel like. why the hell should i have any respect for adults who cant even respect children.
wow grow up all you’s
queanbeyan high all the way :):)

Admittedly I am not fluent in either hillbilly or bogan (however I was born in Parkes but don’t hold that against me) but shouldn’t you’s be spelt youse in your language?

I’ll put it in a sentence. Youse Canberran’s are all fu*&$ked in the head and youse all suck.

Christ I hope things are on the mend for when I move to Qbyn in about 5 months time.

Stuck up much?

ehxoh said :

Blah Blah Blah. We are kids, grow up. Honest to god some people on here are so immature its not even funny. Trying to pick out every little wrong word we write. You have never been to Queanbeyan High so dont even dare to judge it!

You do realize, your not the only kids on here you know…sorry to burst your giant ego’s bubble there..

(And the other kids on here, can type proper english, so no one can actulary tell that they’re kids..you guys on the other hand, geez.)

Thankyou so much. Its people like you that really know how to make people feel happy and good about themselves. I have experienced both the private and public system and really do value the public system so much more. Another problem is spatial inequality some people cant afford the private system therefore they have no choice but to send there children to a public school.
Its amazing how many bright and gifted students you find at Qbn highschool, most of us have hope and dreams & we are willing succeed and give ourselves a happy and bright future.
its just really sad how many people out there who constantly put you down and judge you because of your school
and spelling mistakes.
Once again thank you so much Granny for believing in both of us (ehxoh & Yeboii)
🙂

yeboii and ehxoh, I think it’s great to see such a strong school spirit. I find it really encouraging that you care so much about your community.

Most of the really rich ‘self-made’ people in the world have no tertiary education whatsoever. So I would urge you not to accept other people’s negative judgments, to dream big and to follow your dreams.

My children are grown up now and need to rely heavily on spelling and grammar checkers since spelling, tables and grammar were all removed from the ACT curriculum in the 1980s. They are very bright people, but it does mean that they need to go to extra lengths to present professionally and be taken seriously.

Good spelling and grammar do open a lot of doors and are useful skills to attain if possible, but they do not define who you are and are not a true measure of a person’s worth.

I wish you both a wonderful future.

Blah Blah Blah. We are kids, grow up. Honest to god some people on here are so immature its not even funny. Trying to pick out every little wrong word we write. You have never been to Queanbeyan High so dont even dare to judge it!

ehxoh said :

The teachers do a great job at teaching us. We just choose not too. Don’t blame the teachers. What do you think that your special or somthing? get help

Choose not to learn?

you wonder WHY your school’s got a bad reputation??

Nope i dont choose. i make mistakes, now thats normal

ehxoh: So you choose to make spelling mistakes. Of course that makes it all OK.

ehxoh said :

Welcome to the 21st Century, spelling mistakes are normal.

Amongst the illiterate, yes. I agree.

The teachers do a great job at teaching us. We just choose not too. Don’t blame the teachers. What do you think that your special or somthing? get help

ehxoh: Any school that teaches people that ‘spelling mistakes are normal’ has to be a worry.

Yeboii wrote a post and debunked her argument in the process. She should not feel special, RA people will take on anyone who makes themselves a big enough target.

ehxoh said :

queanbeyan high all the way :):)

Great, let me know how that works out for you…

I actually have some smypathy for the little tackers defending their town and their school, but that ‘best school ever’ bit was a bit too ‘Richard Scary meets Barney the Dinosaur’ for mine.

(that was directed at ehxoh)

Are you taking the piss?

I hope this goes viral at Queanbeyan High. It has the potential to rival the comedy gold in the old Spins Starts Here thread bagging out St Joseph’s boys and their hilarious attempts to flame.

To being the best school ever!

all the way to where?

Alright all you heros that think ‘wow I’m putting Yeboii down for grammar mistakes’ GROW UP. Honestly, Yeboii has spoken her opinion & actually said what is true. The only thing you people are doing is showing us how immature, nasty, selfish, and just how much of a damn right bitch you are. Yes even those adults. Welcome to the 21st Century, spelling mistakes are normal. Where you a freaking picture perfect child?? yeah thats what i thought. People like you make me so angry and i just wish that you’s would all just get a life. Have you got a problem with public schooling & only send your children to private schools. (a bit stuck up i say).
By the way. Yeah at this present time I am having no respect for adults. Sorry but this is a bulletin board and i have my right to state whatever i feel like. why the hell should i have any respect for adults who cant even respect children.
wow grow up all you’s
queanbeyan high all the way :):)

Noooo im actually not!
im a student there.
Currentley in yr 8!
All you Haters say what you want!
you have your right to a freedom of speech.

I rekon Yeboii is actually one of the teaching staff from QHS.

It’s at times like these that I give serious consideration to homeschooling my future children.

hetzjagd1 said :

Its very easy to pick apart someones spelling and grammar abilities rather than address their actual point but the irony here is pretty overwhelming.

Simply, Yeboii – you have done your school no justice here.

+1 – couldn’t have said it better myself.

On another note – new text word of the day – spelling ‘friend’ = fwen. It took me 10 minutes to what it meant when someone messaged me (and before someone asks – no I would never use ‘fwen’ in anything!)

uh..eyeball in a quart jar of snot? what on earth???????

Eyeball In A Quart Jar Of Snot12:10 am 18 Aug 08

Don’t worry people,

In the future the whole town of Queanbeyan will be fenced off and used as a jail.

I’ve seen the plans.

I sat next to someone on the first day of Year 11 that couldn’t read. Awesome.

grunge_hippy said :

dont blame the high school… blame the primary school. thats where the basics of language and literacy are taught…

I went to a primary school where there were no lessons! I wasn’t “taught” anything until year 7. Yet the language was sublimated somehow. I had to teach myself to write properly, mind you, using an old cursive writing workbook someone gave me. That’s how it worked at that school, you pursued things of interest to you.

Didn’t work for maths though. I still add using dots.

grunge_hippy, I will agree with you there.

IMO, the only things the ACT has going for it are
1. the teachers, who do a wonderful job in the face of adversity from the places that should be supportive but make things so hard,

miz, how right you are. I am sick of the shit teachers getting ahead in schools instead of being sacked. Those same teachers are usually the ones who harass the good teachers into leaving.

*rant over*

grunge_hippy6:22 pm 17 Aug 08

dont blame the high school… blame the primary school. thats where the basics of language and literacy are taught…

trouble is, teachers are too busy doing all the things that parents should be doing. they send children to school with zero respect, teachers spend the majority of the time discplining children who feel entitiled to be a complete and utter shit, and when parents are contacted, act as if it is everyone else’s problem but theirs.

so even if the curriculum was supportive in teaching the basic of the english language
(another rant all together), we are too busy doing everything else besides.

snap!!

seriously, if you ever post again (even if you comment on something!) go to microsoft word first, write what you want to say, run it through spell check (and grammar!) and then copy and paste that into here. It works.

As a teacher, I shudder.

As a parent, well I thank God my children can spell and string a sentence together.

I never recommend spell checker as it makes people lazy, but in this case Yeboii please use it should you post again.

oh wow.

im currently at a public school in ACT, and i can safely say, that i have better english speaking/spelling skills than you’se 🙂

shunnnnnnnnnnnn 🙂

This reminds me of the blokes who got their post code tattooed and posted the photo… JB, how about a link to remind us?

I heard that this was going to become compulsory in Queanbeyan so the rest of us in the ACT could actively discriminate with accuracy.

You know you are from Queanbeyan when you let your 14 year old daughter smoke at the table…in front of her kids.

I always enjoy visiting Queanbeyan … but I am pretty naive.

Bombs could be blasting around my ears, bullets could be whizzing and schizzing like poor Hillary under sniper fire in Bosnia, and I would still be blissfully ignorant and happy feeding my ducks in the park or what have you.

I quite like the Rusty Building, but yes the gov’t offices there are a bit unfortunate. There is a different demographic in Queanbeyan, no doubt about it. You’d think they were inbred, if they didn’t live right in the middle of a pretty populous region. OTOH, you can still get a normal hamburger, chicken schnitzel, and normal chips there.

It’s quite handy that they have a trade centre there, knowing how to use a shovel would come in quite handy for trying to dig out of the hole (or dig oneself in deeper, I forget which one).

Sorry I couldn’t help myself hehe

Mary Whitehouse10:04 pm 16 Aug 08

Er… I wasn’ talking about the aesthetic qualities of the rustbucket building (irony seems a little much for Queanbeyan and its defenders). I was laughing at what it contains:

* Public housing offices

* Even more expensive public housing offices (ie prisons)

* Still even more expensive public housing offices (ie prisons for juveniles)

Whoever first called Queanbeyan “Canberra’s Soweto” deserves to have a statue in Civic (we’ll melt down the one of the pushers’ friend Grassby, Mr Stanhope). Given that most of Canberra is bogans wall to wall, it was a brave and brilliant call.

BerraBoy68 said :

I pity Yeboii. He must be asking himself “what have I did”.

Ahahah!

They may beat us, but they won’t defeat us! Cos’ we are Queanbeyan High!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy9:46 pm 16 Aug 08

I grew up in Queanbeyan and went to Karabar high for 6 years. It was a total hole – an abomination in the academic sense. The place revelled in it’s boganism, and was very rough.

I understand, though, that it has been cleaned up a lot since I was there. That said, there’s no way known Young Master Berlina will be going to a Queanbeyan high school.

Queanbeyan is an interesting place. It has some really good things going for it, and had come a long way in the last 10 years.

As much as I am aching to point out the sheer irony of Yeboli’s writing style whilst in defence of his/her school, I can only applaude the loyalty and bravado. Clearly this school is doing something right if they are inspiring students to go to its defence so publicly.

As an aside, a friend of mine spent years 7 – 12 at the hugely expensive Canberra Boys Grammar and came out at the other end spelling coffee with a “y” amongst other interesting word variations.

I pity Yeboii. He must be asking himself “what have I did”.

Mary Whitehouse said :

I love that new rustbucket building the NSW state government has put up

That I can’t defend…. why the hell they made it rusty on purpose is beyond me. Perhaps its to indicate the city is much more extablished than Canberra?

Loquaciousness4:57 pm 16 Aug 08

Adza said :

The Jas said :

that is some shocking grammar and spelling from a high school student.

Haven’t you see the kids these days? One of the problem is SMS on mobile phones… even the telephone companies are encouraging kids to abbreviate and use words that are spelt incorrectly.

Don’t be so sure about that. There’s lots of studies out there that actually prove a *positive* correlation between ‘text speak’ and literacy.

Start here:

2b or not 2b?

Some people dislike texting. Some are bemused by it. But it is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adapt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. There is no disaster pending. We will not see a new generation of adults growing up unable to write proper English. The language as a whole will not decline. In texting what we are seeing, in a small way, is language in evolution.

Also:
Txts r gr8 but not in exams
Children, Texts and English – new research

Not to mention – Google is your friend … Search here

L

“their” little groups….seeing as all these english grammar experts have emerged.

I lived out in Qbn for a almost 2 years while working in Fyshwick and found it quite enjoyable. It’s smaller and there seems to be more of a sense of community and people were less cliquey than Canberra, especially out on the town. I’ve lived in a few places now and still find Canberra people very selective and cliquey in there little groups. You can almost guarantee that if there is a group of people out together they are workmates or school friends and have little regard for anyone else entering the inner circle.

It was a touch rougher in Walsh’s and Royal but no worse than the front of ICBM or Mooseheads. A few of my mates from qld and tassie, plus my brother from melb have all made the same comments at various stages.

Its very easy to pick apart someones spelling and grammar abilities rather than address their actual point but the irony here is pretty overwhelming.

Simply, Yeboii – you have done your school no justice here.

Mary Whitehouse3:46 pm 16 Aug 08

I love that new rustbucket building the NSW state government has put up – shopfronts for public housing, the corrections department and juvenile justice. N-i-c-e. Says more about the demographics of the place than even a trip to Riverside Plaza.

Felix the Cat said :

Last time I checked telephone companies aren’t supposed to be teaching our kids, schools are. I don’t understand how the OP got it so wrong, RA has a built in spell-checker!

Live in the real world. Kids learn more from “alternative” means than school.

I didn’t say telephone companies are SUPPOSED to, I’m saying they actively encourage bad spelling.

Hell even the ACT Government’s road safety signs … what was it “Txt, U B Nxt” or something like that?

Bad punctuation and abysmal spelling.

Honesltey their r spell chekers 4 a reeson.

Felix the Cat3:13 pm 16 Aug 08

Adza said :

Haven’t you see the kids these days? One of the problem is SMS on mobile phones… even the telephone companies are encouraging kids to abbreviate and use words that are spelt incorrectly.

Last time I checked telephone companies aren’t supposed to be teaching our kids, schools are. I don’t understand how the OP got it so wrong, RA has a built in spell-checker!

The Jas said :

that is some shocking grammar and spelling from a high school student.

Haven’t you see the kids these days? One of the problem is SMS on mobile phones… even the telephone companies are encouraging kids to abbreviate and use words that are spelt incorrectly.

OzChick said :

Radcliffe College, where is that school?

near radford….

The thing is this: there is good natured sledging of EVERYWHERE by EVERYWHERE ELSE. Queanbeyan needs to lose the victim syndrome, and perhaps learn to spell and master grammar before mounting a spirited defence of the virtues of the local high school.

I think I missed something… How come this has started?

Yeboii,
Don’t take any notice of what these people say. You stick to your “princibles” ! You’ve certainly showed us an example of what is inside the “coverr” of the book.

I am buying an apt in Qbyn later this year and don’t mind the area and aren’t about to start bashing, but goodness me, that is some shocking grammar and spelling from a high school student.

Most of it is simply because there are a number of Canberra people who visit RiotACT and take great pride in sticking their head up their ass and commenting on what they have no idea about… but hey it doesn’t matter because it’s Queanbeyan bashing and that’s all that Queanbeyan is good for.

And they think Queanbeyan people are bogans!

Radcliffe College, where is that school?

What I-filed said. And of course, some schools keep their, shall we say, ‘dirty laundry’, within their walls so the general community is unaware of the incidents that occur there.

Yeboii – don’t worry, aspirational bogans who think they are a cut above their immediate past family dump on working-class folk out of fear of their own origins. If anyone pulls school snobbery on you, remind them that, for example, Radcliffe College was originally designed to keep the lower-class Belconnen girls away from the snobs at Canberra Church of England Girls Grammar … (I have that from several old girls and teachers from the school).

I’m sorry, am I meant to be convinced? A good wealth of resources isn’t the only thing which determines what is a good school – it has to be a safe and positive environment as well. Queanbeyan High does not deliver on this. That said, a number of public schools within Canberra are not that good either.

Having had kids at public schools in both NSW and ACT, I can verify that NSW beats ACT hands down, despite the rhetoric. So, I am sure Yeboii is correct, and Queanbeyan High is as good, or better, than the majority of ACT high schools.

There has been a massive decline in the ACT since the 1980s, which has caused the ACT’s decline from showpiece to struggling. I was SO disappointed when I came back to Canberra with my children in the early 1990s.

IMO, the only things the ACT has going for it are
1. the teachers, who do a wonderful job in the face of adversity from the places that should be supportive but make things so hard, and
2. the Socio Economic Status (SES) base of its students, which carries the comparative ed levels, as we are starting at a higher base level. So we look better than what we actually deliver to the students. This SES also means a good proportion get tutoring.

So, don’t believe the pollies, who like to crow that ACT’s good ed results are down to their policies!

Oh dear. RiotACT is like the bully holding the victim down, and each comment is another kick in the kidneys.

Pasted as a new story.

The thing I love about this site is I never have to make stuff up.

Did Yeboii post this as a topic, or has it been cut n pasted by Someone Else from the comments on the Qbn High topic?!

Are we allowed to judge it by the English language education level of its students?

(Sorry, couldn’t resist).

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