Wellington - School Report Question and Answers

We had two very different experiences at this school. One daughter joined a lovely class of girls (invited to 20 birthday parties the first year), made so many good friends, and generally liked school and did well. The other daughter was completely left out all year (invited to 0 parties), mainly ignored by her classmates, had a lovely teacher who left halfway through the year and was replaced by an unkind and rude teacher according to my daughter. This daughter had been doing well, was happy and well-liked in the Virginia public schools all-day gifted program, but basically fell apart here. Anxiety spiraled over the year until she completely refused to go to school. It was dramatic and upsetting, and we ended up having to pull her out and homeschool for the rest of our tour. If you have a child who is really well adjusted, likes rules, and isn't stressed out easily by school or adults--adapts easily, makes friends easily, is an athlete-- s/he will probably do fine at QMC and be happy. If you have a child with any kind of quirks -- gifted, 2e, ADHD -- these are terms that QMC doesn't even hear (this seems to be a NZ-wide problem), and they won't make accommodations or suggestions or try to work with you. In our experience, NZ seems decades behind the US in terms of special needs in the classroom. Talk to the Regional Education Officer and try to see if updates have been made or if any school is leading in approaching different types of learners with flexibility. - Nov 2018