Apologies for reanimating an old thread, but I felt input from a former Box Hill student might be welcome. I attended from the late 60's to mid 70's.
@SurreyMum73, I would not concern myself with the marketing department being a detriment to everything else. I believe there was a similar department when I was there. It consisted of a mysterious white trailer that I never saw anyone entering or leaving, it was just there doing it's job. In fact, everything connected to either the outside world, or internal administration not directly related to student life, was, as far as the students were concerned, invisible machinery.
Now recalling more, all other non academic staff seemed to share the same detached existence. For example, the kitchen staff had their own separate living quarters. However you never saw anyone leaving or entering that building. You would see the staff in the kitchen during meals, and then they disappeared. Now, in hindsight, this is very strange. At the time it seemed normal.
The only contacts the students had was with each other and the teaching staff. The teachers were also in charge of non academic activities, house masters, and when necessary disciplinaries. They lived on the grounds, sharing and at the same time being part of, the structure of a magical bubble within which the students lived.
I would be a little more concerned about what the boarding boys and girls can get up to, sometimes. For example. we once sneaked into the chemistry building to make gunpowder, and exploded some glass jars in the day student's showers. I don't remember if we swept up the glass on the floor when we were done. I remember admiring the black dots all over the walls, but then I think we just hurried out! Other things I would have difficulty mentioning even 40 years on.
At the time BHS life seemed overly structured. Now I see that there was still plenty of freedom to get yourself into trouble. This freedom now seems likely to have been part of the design. This is when most of the BHS life's magic happened.
As far as academics, at least at that time, it was in my opinion nothing special. We used to have regular Friday meetings between our class and the headmaster, at that time Mr Mcomish. For some reason, the only meeting that I remember was when he flat out told us that academics was not the most important thing at BHS. The school was about who you would become by the time you left.
In hindsight this might be my only criticism of the school. The subordination of academics might have been carried too far.