‘Ratty’ and ‘bogan’: School drama class list furore at Top 100 college
A private school is in damage control over an internal list containing some very unflattering descriptions of students. But it’s far from the only recent educational faux pas ...
This week one of Australia’s Top 100 Private Schools – St Michael’s Grammar in Melbourne- was forced to apologise to parents after an internal cast list for a drama production was made public.
The problem was that the list, which was accidentally posted on the school’s online learning platform, had inappropriate descriptions next to students’ names. Such descriptions included “bogan”, “ratty” and “anime eyes” – it’s no wonder the school has been in damage control.
The list for the Addams Family play, revealed by the ABC, also included racial descriptors such as “eastern European” and “Asian”, along with “tall goof”, “bogan” and “always looking in mirror”.
It’s a bad faux pas, but the muddle-headed person who was responsible is by no means the only individual who’s ever made a mistake in a school. Take a look at some other examples.
Victoria
Exam bungle
One of the state’s biggest education bungles involved the accidental leaking of more than 100 exam questions and case studies by the body that was setting the exams. In 2024, some eagle-eyed students discovered that digitally downloaded exam cover sheets contained actual questions that could be uncovered when highlighted and cut and pasted into a word document. The fiasco led to the resignation of the exam body’s CEO and the resetting of thousands of exam questions.
Sexy questions
A couple of years ago, Catholic boys’ school St Kevin’s – another Top 100 lister – hit the headlines when it asked its male students a range of risque questions in a survey. Soon after, the school pulled the survey, which asked students if “men are always ready for sex?” among other questions. The Catholic students were also asked about masculinity, homosexuality, drinking and drug-taking in a survey run by the school’s governing body, Edmund Rice Education Australia. Boys were asked to comment on the following: “Other people think I am good-looking”, “I do not like my parents very much”, “Being gay makes a guy seem like less of a man” and “A guy should use violence to get respect if necessary”. Parents were not amused.
Queensland
Mean-spirited spirit booklet
A further News Corp Top 100 lister, Brisbane Boys’ College, sent a “spirit” booklet internally through the school with nasty descriptions of students, including nicknames, height, bios and hobbies. In the booklet, one boy gave himself the nickname of “Fake Light Skin” while another said he was “7 feet (7’6 on a good day)” and his occupation was “Skibidi Rizzler”. Staff described the booklet as “appalling” after it was mistakenly sent without approval and quickly removed. Another student was also listed with a nickname of Park Ji Sung (in reference to a retired footballer who played for Manchester United) and called a rice farmer.
Book dump
A few years ago, photos emerged of a skip filled with outdated academic textbooks at the Queensland Academy for Science, Maths and Technology in Brisbane. A local politician saw the books and questioned why they were being thrown out. The school then was forced to remove them from the skip bin and package them up to donate to charities.
God hates homophobia
Five years ago, it emerged that Moreton Bay Boys’ College students were being taught from an inflammatory book suggesting ‘God hates homosexuals’ and that being gay could be a result of poor parenting and childhood sexual abuse. Controversial sex education book – The Teen Sex By the Book – was a requirement on the booklist for Year 10 students at the college in Manly West. The book contained alarming content including how LGBTIQA+ youth can “successfully” become heterosexual and describes people with ambiguous genitalia as “freaks”. The school defended use of the book at the time but it was removed from the school curriculum the following year.
NSW
Speling mistakes are atroshus
In another one from the archives, NSW teachers were put to the test and emerged with an F for spelling and grammar in 2019. Despite the ubiquity of spell check programs, public school newsletters riddled with glaring errors were being sent out to parents. Private schools were little better, with elite colleges including Knox Grammar, Presbyterian Ladies College and Loreto Normanhurst filling their websites with misspellings. Knox Grammar wrote in its newsletter about a succesful (sic) team; Loreto Normanhurst referred to the lollypop, rather than lollipop, lady and Presbyterian Ladies College wrote about its fourty (sic) six gymnasts.
Botched exam time
A year later, dozens of Higher School Certificate students were given extra time in their English exam after examiners bungled the test’s finish time. A total of 46 students at Wyndham College in Quakers Hill were told the exam finished at 12.30pm instead of the correct time of 11.30am. The instructions were botched by an exam supervisor who incorrectly wrote 12.30pm as the finish time on the board at the front of the room, a NSW Standards Authority spokeswoman said.
Anzac Day
One NSW primary school’s decision to let students “opt out” of Anzac Day this year was another school mistake from the Premier State. Sherwood Ridge Primary School principal Jody Sullivan sent an email to parents last week saying parents could let teachers know if they didn’t want their children to attend a special Anzac service and assembly on April 10. The move, labelled as an “insult” to families of veterans, was designed to accommodate a small number of Christian students, who don’t “commemorate war”. The school later acknowledged a message sent to the broader school community should have been sent to specific families only.
South Australia
Exam concerns
Recent exam periods in SA haven’t been smooth sailing, with thousands of teachers walking off the job in 2023, striking for better pay and conditions. The same year, students at Top-100 lister Westminster received the wrong ATAR after a technical error prevented their results from being counted. The year before the integrity of online SACE exams were thrown into question after English students were officially allowed to use Grammarly, a commercial app. And in 2021, year 12 students were at serious risk of being awarded “incorrect” grades or receiving results late because so many disgruntled SACE Board workers quit. Here’s hoping 2025 all goes well.
Breakfast blues
A harmless gesture went awry this year when a group of students from Top 100 school St Peter’s College visited their teacher’s house to cook him a surprise breakfast. Although parents were fully informed, the parent of one student who was not involved said it was “deeply troubling”. St Peter’s College leadership launched a review of the incident and reinforced “expectations around professional boundaries” after the event.
Share some other educational bungles in the comments below or email us at education@news.com.au
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Originally published as ‘Ratty’ and ‘bogan’: School drama class list furore at Top 100 college
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