[1] The school has departments for teaching English, Mathematics, Science, Languages, Music, HSIE (Human Society and Its Environment), PDHPE (Physical Development, Health, and Physical Education), TAS (Technologies), and Visual Arts, as well as other departments which facilitate student learning, such as 'Careers' and 'Teaching and Learning'.

However, as reported by Doherty & Burke (2003), Preece's successor Michael Glenday declared in 2003 that he had never experienced gang problems since becoming principal in 2000, and by 2003, the school had received "an additional deputy principal, Arabic and Pacific Islander liaison officers, a homework centre and security cameras", and was in the process of receiving $800,000 in extra funding and six extra teachers.

[5][6][7] In 2007, Punchbowl Boys was rife with violence and disrespect among students, according to the new principal established that year, Jihad Dib.

[10] As a result, from 2007 to 2013 enrolments almost doubled, the school's growth rate for numeracy was "among the highest in the country" (Rolfe 2013), and not a single expulsion occurred, with Dib professing that hostility had disappeared from among the students.

[11] In 2017 Griffiths, a convert to Islam, lost his job when he declined to implement an anti religious-radicalisation programme mandated by New South Wales authorities.