VCE school students at an elite Melbourne school have taken to social media, putting down pupils attending state schools by calling them “povo” and putting down women.

Xavier College students used a popular VCE Facebook forum to harass and belittle the public school kids on the eve of the final VCE English exam in Victoria, News Corp reported.

One post by a school boy from the Kew-based Catholic boys’ college wrote that state school students were: “povo f**ks”. That post returned more than 400 likes in 11 minutes.

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The online forum – which is run by students and former students – has almost 34,000 members and offers support and advice to VCE students.

According to News Corp, one student who wrote the most offensive post on Tuesday night, also said he was relieved that his parents sent him to a private school instead of a “poverty stricken s**thole in Pakenham”.

“Just remember your parents work for mine, so don’t go complaining to them.”

He ended his post by saying: “Remember to say ‘hi’ to me when I’m your boss one day.”

But another forum user hit back saying the college was teaching students that it was: “acceptable to behave like violent, racist, foul-mouthed misogynists”.

The forum has since been removed.

News Corp reported that females who participated in the thread were told to shut up and “let the men handle business”.

“Could all woman (sic) please refrain from expressing there (sic) opinions thank you,” one Xavier student said.

Xavier College school principal, Chris Hayes, said he would take action on the matter.

The student who started the insulting posts later posted an apology on the page.