What the public South Australian school you attended says about you
It’s the question South Aussies love to ask and it’s not exclusive to the elite private system. We’re here to help decipher the public school circuit.
Education
Don't miss out on the headlines from Education. Followed categories will be added to My News.
We know the token Adelaide question – what school did you go to? – isn’t exclusive to the private school kids.
And truly we do feel bad for leaving out the public students when we detailed what your private South Australian school says about you.
Whether you went to the highly decorated Glenunga or Marryatville, spent your final teenage years in Paralowie or Willunga or further afield in Murray Bridge or Mount Gambier, your learning experience defines who you are in the eyes of South Aussies.
Some think of themselves as honorary private school students and others are just happy to walk the same halls as some of the state’s famous names.
No matter which uniform you wore, what suburb you were in, or how long you stayed in school, there are just some things you’ll never forget about the institution you learned in.
With this in mind, and with our tongue firmly planted in our cheek again, we have compiled this lighthearted list* of what your public school says about you.
TELL US WHY IN THE COMMENTS
Henley High School
If you went to Henley High School you’re probably spending your Friday night trying to work out how to make it home from the Ramsgate Hotel.
While there you probably spent the entire night telling people how you went to school with Playboy cover star Gieorgia Kettle, reminiscing on the times you took the H30 bus to West Lakes for an after-school frozen Coke and sports days at Henley Sharks Footy Oval.
You know you went to Henley High when you always craved chilli chicken tenders from the canteen and you were quarantined in the middle school courtyard in Year 8 and 9 until you hit Year 10 and could take your lunch to the oval.
If you were into AFL you probably spent most of your high school career focused on getting drafted but you can’t all be Brodie Smith and Izak Rankine.
Glenunga International High School
Nothing said you were a Glenunga International High student more than the burning desire to beat any private school in any sport or any competition.
You think you’re the Rolls Royce of public schools because you “get the best grades” and won’t let anyone forget it.
You know you went to Glenunga when you constantly think about achieving your “personal best”.
You don’t know half the people in your graduating year because the school is the size of a small town.
Trying to walk down the corridors in-between lessons was oppressive due to the human tsunami.
If you went to Glenunga you’ve been to multiple parties in the Hills and ended up passed out on someone’s farm property at some point.
If you were an IGNITE kid you had a sense of intellectual superiority over your peers only to peak in high school and go on to do an arts degree.
You lived in fear of being told off for your too short skirt or being asked to remove your nail polish and have a nostalgic love for Inspector Rex re-runs years after graduating.
You know you went to Glenunga when you feel a sense of patriotic pride for “the blue wall”.
And on reflection it is a bit strange you used a public oval for sport, lunch and recess …
Urrbrae Agricultural High School
If you went to Urrbrae Agricultural High School you held your breath for the Royal Adelaide Show each year to show off your latest prized calf.
If you’re not a farmer you spend each waking moment wishing you were, unless you’re a tradie.
Urrbrae kids spent a lot of time hanging out at the Cross Roads McDonalds and the Windy Point Lookout.
It was mandatory to go through an emo phase, even in 2024.
You loved screamo music, punk rock and spent all your money on alternative music gigs and festivals.
Unley High School
If you went to Unley High School and didn’t date the same classmate since Year 8 you only dated private school kids.
You know you went to Unley if the idea of interlevel dating sounded like a crime, you made a wooden bird paper holder in woodwork every year, studied tourism and ‘Life Be In It’ still haunts you.
You remember going for a rollie on the soggy couch in Durry Garden or watching any fight down the lane at 3.20pm.
Unley kids were always seen walking to Concordia on Wednesday afternoons, if you know you know.
You know you went to Unley when you made it your job to get your P’s as soon as possible so you could drive to the ‘Life Be In It’ car park to hang out.
You moved benches around the Rose Garden when you moved up a year level and had fruit thrown at you if you moved your bench too early.
There is a sense of pride that the first female Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, attended your high school, even if you have zero interest in politics.
You know you went to Unley when dress lengths to formals were enforced — girls wore short dresses in Year 11 and long dresses in Year 12.
You only wore a short dress to the Year 12 formal if you were in Year 11 and were invited to attend the Year 12 formal by a Year 12 — get it?
Willunga High School
If you went to Willunga High School, you’re probably sick of people bringing up the weekend Farmer’s Market every time you tell them where you learned algebra.
Yes, you learned how to be an adult where they now buy their overpriced organics on the weekend.
But hello! You went to the school wayyyy before Covid and wayyyyy before the council (or whoever it was made) made the call to move the markets from the much more suited area outside the bottom pub.
You probably spend your weekends watching or playing the A Grade (or more likely reserves) Willunga Footy Club boys demolish the McLaren Eagles, even though your cousin actually played for the other team so you didn’t actually care who won.
After the games, you probably hit up the middle pub to play pool or beg whoever was sober to be a taxi into the city, only to find yourself stranded in the CBD facing the real possibility of a $120 Uber ride home.
You’re likely quite an arty type – how can you not be after growing up in the tiny little crochet village that is Willunga – and probably wound up spending your time in a band with your mates after you graduated.
Or maybe you surf, or make coffee, take photos for fun or all of the above.
Marryatville High School
Despite the fact you wore a uniform with a large tree as its main emblem, you were surprised to discover most people don’t actually refer to you as one of “the trees” if you went to Marryatville High School.
You’re probably really talented at (or at least your parents wanted you to be good at) anything musical or believed you were going to be the next Lleyton Hewitt.
That or you just lived nearby.
You were weirdly proud of the Forge Theatre, but have no actual memory of any major event – not even a morning assembly – on being hosted on its stage because unlike the gym it couldn’t hold all the students.
You pride yourself on having Adelaide’s first cheese-inspired building, way before SAHMRI on North Tce, but this one is more like a block of cheese than a grater.
For the female students, you often found yourself justifying why Marryatville was better than Loreto, purely because you were actually a bit jealous that your parents couldn’t afford to send you there instead.
And you love telling people Marryatville is really good for a public school, even if Glenunga probably pips you at the post in almost everything – but you’d never admit it out loud.
You finally knew you were the cream of the crop when you got to the exclusive Year 12 only Eden Park.
Adelaide High School
LISTED: SA SCHOOL CONTROVERIES OVER THE YEARS
There are cricketers and then there’s everyone else.
If you were a member of the former group you thought you were too cool for school but now you probably don’t even play anymore.
This is likely due to a career ending injury which you claim stopped you from playing for Australia.
But anyone who went to Adelaide High School still shudders when they remember the strict dress code and private school rules that came without any of the social cred of actually going to a private school.
You take the wins where you can get them if you went to Adelaide High and won’t let people forget that world famous singer-songwriter Sia Furler shared the same halls you did.
You consider it top of the public school social hierarchy for whatever that’s worth.
Murray Bridge High School
If you went to Murray Bridge High School you have fond memories of eating a savoury slice in a flat roll from the canteen at lunchtime – and you take great pride in explaining the local delicacy to outsiders.
You might have been one to sneak out of school and across the road to Southside Village – which is now an OTR, because everything is.
You also embraced the friendly rivalry between MBHS and Unity College and took great pride in beating them in football, netball or cricket.
You remember getting sent home on hot days, as per the school’s policy with limited air conditioning and being loaded up into school buses in the heat of the day.
You also remember the walk down Long Island Rd to the Roper Rd agriculture plots, the days spent tree-planting at the Monarto Zoo and aquatics camp on the mighty River Murray.
If you’re a current student, in a few years you’ll be telling people you went to school with international catwalk model Kane Parker, the 16-year-old Murray Bridge schoolboy making waves in the industry.
While former students remember sharing classes with political commentator and television host Andrew Bolt who graduated from the same halls.
Norwood International High School
If you went to Norwood International High School you may not even realise you did.
For decades Norwood Morialta High School was split into two campuses but following one of the state’s biggest school refurbishments projects Norwood International High School was born.
The only way to tell if you did go to Norwood International High may be if you’d find yourself either on The Parade or at the Trinity Gardens McDonalds rather than in class.
It was a prerequisite for at least one family member, no matter how distant, to be Italian to attend Norwood International/Morialta High School.
The more Italian family members you had the more likely it was for you to be able to hang out in the back car park, otherwise you were shunned to the oval and if you were smart then you were stuck in the library.
Every student seemed to take sports day outfits extremely seriously.
You know you went to Norwood High if you wore your skirt short and only dated guys who drove Commodores and never attended school.
Now, it’s very likely you’re building your empire as a tradie.
Mitcham Girls’ School
Outside THAT video you’ve spent the better part of a decade trying to forget, the first thing people think about when they hear you went to Mitcham Girls’ School is Australia’s first female Prime Minister.
Except you probably cringe when people mention Julia Gillard because she attended Unley High (see above) not Mitcham Girls’.
You also probably hate that we’ve just compared you to Unley High … again.
Anyway, you likely made some really close friends during your school years – you’re now either playing bridesmaids in each others wedding or you’ve cut each other off completely.
You occasionally check in and have a quick Instagram stalk to see what the girl who was like your bestttttt frienddddd through school is up to now.
You definitely know at least three people who have fallen in the trap of some kind of pyramid selling scam – and you often dodge the “hey girly!” messages from someone trying to sell you Arbonne.
Playford International College
You developed an intense love of boxing after class of 2020 student Callum Peters donned the green and gold at the Paris Olympics.
However, you’ve likely forgotten all about that chapter now and have stopped caring about the sport until the 21-year-old returns for the next Olympics in LA.
You went to Playford International if you enjoyed hanging around Elizabeth Shopping Centre on late night shopping days while waiting for your bus at the interchange.
Security staff were all always on alert when they spied your PIC logo on polo shirts and jumpers.
Adelaide Botanic High School
You’ve just entered the adult world, you’re pursuing your dream career and you might even have moved out of home.
That’s because the oldest students to have completed their whole high school journey at Adelaide Botanic High only recently had their first legal alcoholic beverage.
It’s a new school with a modern attitude and you likely enjoyed the late start to the school day and the lack of school bells telling you when to go to your classes.
If you’ve finished school at Adelaide Botanic you’re also probably jealous you never got to see the new $98m building with a rooftop sports facility after you spent years staring at the construction site and hearing about how good it would be.
Brighton Secondary School
If you went to Brighton Secondary School you’ve likely got some niche interests.
You might be weirdly keen on small fast cars and you’re proud that your school’s main claim to fame is performing particularly well in F1 in Schools on the world stage.
Or perhaps you were into volleyball but those days are long behind you.
You even idolise a motley crew of celebrities who went to your school such as singer Rachael Leahcar or comedian Sam Simmons.
Grant High School
If you went to Grant High School in Mount Gambier, you’re probably used to hearing some pretty weird rumours about things that supposedly happened at your school.
No, that latest thing about the litter box in the bathroom is not true.
Sure there’s been periods of time where the toilet blocks had to be locked by teachers because some students thought it was funny to smear poo on the walls – but every school has something like that happen, and if they say they haven’t they’re lying… right?
Grant’s uniform rules seem laxer than others, so you likely spent your school days decked out in denim jeans or some form of Ghanda or sports-brand track pants that went well with your school issued hoodie or rugby jumper.
As soon as you were old enough to have a free period (or maybe even if you weren’t) you were hitting up Maccas, KFC, or one of the servos for an energy drink.
Getting your Ps meant cutting a lap around the Lakes and your 18th birthday almost absolutely meant your Shadows or Macs Hotel debut.
Paralowie R-12 School
Paralowie R-12 was a place of realising dreams and potential – but no one specified what kind of potential they were talking about.
Some alumni met their future spouses, partners and co-parents within the hallowed halls, though it was likely the relationship didn’t start until long after your graduation certificate was in your hands – more a rekindled bond.
You likely have a tattoo, or more than one, probably done in Bali where it was cheaper and legal to get while still underage.
Those who did graduate at the end of Year 12 may have moved on to university to study international relations, dentistry, laboratory medicine or teaching.
If you didn’t go on to uni or throw yourself into a trade, you might have started your own business – perhaps in multiple ventures – or you joined a small business, which may or may not be part of a multi-level marketing scheme.
Aldinga Payinthi College
If you went to Aldinga Payinthi College, you’re probably still there and using your mum’s iPad to read this story.
You’re definitely also questioning what it’s already doing on a list like this.
Despite it only opening in 2022, this school is known for one of two things – how big and brand new it is, and what its reputation on the Aldinga Community Forum is.
Your family is thinking “thank goodness this school opened” because if you’re an Aldinga local, your parents really didn’t feel like driving allllll the way to Willunga to get you an education.
And if you moved from Aldinga Primary you definitely think this school is an upgrade.
Golden Grove High School
If you graduated from Golden Grove High School in the last couple of years you’ve been through a lot.
You value your privacy a little bit more than others after your former school removed the toilet doors, which led to a student revolt in 2022.
You know you went to Golden Grove if you have mixed feelings about social media, given the numerous controversies which hit your school.
And while other students around Adelaide enjoyed eating fast food after school, you weren’t allowed to because local businesses banned school kids.
If you went to the school during that tumultuous period, you’ll either be relieved or jealous that policies have tightened and results have improved since.
* Our lawyers wanted us to add that anything mentioned in the above list might or might not be factually correct.
‘I’ll slit your f***ing throat’: Parent threatens child in classroom
A parent has been filmed threatening to slit a 12-year-old’s throat at a private school in Adelaide’s northeastern suburbs, with police now investigating the shocking incident.
Teen parliament 2025: Amy’s idea to get schools on board with AI
Year 12 student Amy Wallace advocated for increased understanding of the benefits of AI in the classroom in her application for Teen parliament 2025. Apply here.