Key points
- A survey of more than 2,000 Australian directors has discovered alarming rates of aggression and intimidation in schools.
- Around half of respondents have considered leaving the profession.
- Others, however, have reported high levels of job satisfaction despite the challenges.
The directors are being bitten, physically assaulted and witnessing violence in Australian schools at record levels, according to research from the Australian Catholic University (ACU).
More than 1,000 directors surveyed reported to be a victim or witness of physical abuse in 2024, and a similar number was at risk of self -harm, occupational health problems or a serious impact on their quality of life.
The associated professor Paul Kidson of ACU was a researcher of the main 2024 occupational health and well -being survey, which marked the highest level of school violence since the report began in 2011.
“These directors are human beings who are subject to some terrible behaviors,” he told SBS News.
“A director showed me marks to bite in his hand of a Junior elementary student, another had to enter in the middle of a fight between the students in the patio.
“Some people would say: ‘Well, that’s not really significant.’
Almost all physical assault reports in schools were caused by students.
Schools that take legal actions to protect staff
The survey also reported high levels of parents and caregivers who threaten and intimidate the directors.
Bullying, conflicts and disputes, and gossip and slander were at their highest points registered, most of which were committed by parents and guardians.
Parents were also much more likely than the students of cyber school leaders, which has led some schools to take legal measures to protect their staff.
Kidson said this indicates “a significant and serious breakdown of the relationship between the family and the school.”
“A director told me a story in which his department needed to create a cessation and withdrawal letter for a family,” he said.
“There are other directors in non -governmental schools who will really have to take legal measures to prevent these families, parents and caregivers from reaching school property.”
A particularly worrying statistic for researchers was the number of directors and senior leaders who had expressed the intention to quit smoking, which was higher among staff with low job satisfaction.
Half of school directors considered quitting smoking
Kidson said that 53.2 percent of the 2,178 school directors and leaders throughout the Australian school system surveyed in 2024 pointed out the intention of abandoning the profession.
“What we have seen in recent years is a diminishing generosity,” he said.
“The school leadership profession is a very generous group.
“They often take care of the needs of all others before yours, and an increasing number says: I just don’t know if I really have many more years in me now.”
The report marked that experienced school leadership loss could “exacerbate the shortage of existing teachers and create a leadership vacuum throughout the country, exerting greater pressure on an already overloaded educational system.”
Emily Fitzsimons, director of Overnewton Anglican Community College in the northwest of Melbourne, told SBS News that the number of directors who consider leaving their work is “unfortunate.”
“That is worrying because I think what is going to happen if many of those directors throw the towel, where are we going to get the next harvest of directors?”
Incredible job
Fitzsimons is now in his third year as director of Overnewtown and has decades of experience behind her as an educator.
Despite the “really difficult days” throughout his career, he said it is a job he loves.
“People join the teaching profession because they believe inherently in the importance of building human capital,” he said.
“Although there are some really difficult days, there are some really complicated moments and there are really sad moments and there are really stressful days … it is incredible job and I have stayed in it for 30 years and I love it.”
The director of Overnewton Anglican Community College, Emily Fitzsimons loves to be a director, but many others have considered quitting smoking. Credit: Kim Selby Photography
Fitzsimons first became an educator, since he enjoyed taking care and promoting students to see them grow and succeed.
She said that some educators can lose their enthusiasm for their work when they leave the classroom and are in a main position.
“Some directors could cry the loss of that intimate relationship they have with children in a classroom and even parents and associate with families on the learning trip of that child,” he said.
“Now, suddenly you are working in the business, not in the business.”
She believed that this step outside the classroom could be a reason why some directors would consider leaving their job, separated from the levels of aggression or intimidation that they can experience.
School -age children who go through fundamental changes
Clinical psychologist Dr. Frances Doyle of Sydney Macquarie University told SBS News that there are times in the life of a child where aggression is more frequent.
“That is usually in those years of early childhood until the first school years. And then again reaching its maximum point over adolescence,” he said.
“Often, when young people want to find more ways to express themselves and have more opinions about their world, they may still not have emotional regulation skills to do so effectively.”
She said that finding ways to connect with young people is important to have a conversation about aggression or frustration at school.
“If we begin by trying to correct the bad behavior first, we can lose what the young man is thinking and feeling,” he said.
“Then, discover what they are thinking, how they feel and then be able to clearly affirm that the aggression is not well and then discover what the alternatives could be useful.”
What could change in schools?
The report makes several recommendations, including the reduction of the large workload of directors and prioritizing the support of well -being for school leaders.
Fitzsimons said that the challenges that directors can face could be reduced with greater support and focus on well -being.
“Some of those challenges around threats of violence, violence against directors, possible challenges they could face with their demography. They need support for that,” he said.
“You really have to work to support teachers to understand their own well -being and build their own physical and mental aptitude for work.
“I would love to see universities or other organizations that offer mainly solid welfare programs that are based on research and that actually help directors focus on their own well -being.”
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