Education: School survey reveals stresses for SA school principals

Almost 62 per cent of SA school principals experienced burnout last year, with reports of violence, cyber bullying and slander from parents and students at shocking rates.

South Australian principals are being subjected to shocking violent attacks and facing burnout, a new survey has revealed.

The Australian Principal Occupational, Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey 2021 shows almost half (46.8 per cent) of the SA school leaders including principals and their deputies had endured physical violence, which is more than 12 times the rate in the general population.

The Australian Catholic University surveyed 2590 school leaders across all states and territories and made 14 recommendations including coherent national policies and practices for training, supply, retention and remuneration of the teaching workforce.

Above all, “the steadily increasing offensive behaviour must stop,” the authors pleaded, while they called on school leaders to “respectfully speak back and take responsibility for their personal work-life balance”.

South Australian principals are feeling burnt out, according to a new survey.

More than one in three SA principals experienced “conflicts and quarrels” (36.7 per cent), and gossip, slander or cyber bullying (30 per cent) was also widespread.

Disturbingly, SA principals reported the most burnout (physical and mental fatigue) at 61.8 per cent and sleeping troubles (49.8 per cent).

President of the SA Primary Principals Association Angela Falkenberg said that while Covid was a source of stress and fatigue, it also reduced exposure to violent parents on campus.

“Some of the violence is actually from students, because the principal or school leader is called in to assist a teacher following an incident,” she said.

”More children are having difficulty self-regulating, so in primary schools that can be an increased risk.”

Some teachers are the victims of student violence, the survey says.

Gossip and slander was often generated by adults in the school community who seemed to find “delicious excitement” in passing on bizarre stories, especially through social media.

Ms Falkenberg said she longed for the day when the latest annual survey showed a decrease in offensive behaviour, rather than an increase.

SA Branch president of the Australian Education Union, Andrew Gohl, said angry parents who front up demanding to see the principal created an unsafe workplace.

He suggested the governing councils, elected by parents, could work harder to make clear what constituted appropriate, respectful behaviour and then communicate that to parents.

The excessive number of hours worked each week was “unhealthy” and exacerbated by administrative reporting tasks, Mr Gohl said.

Sacred Heart College principal Steve Byrne (centre) with students James Ganley and Tate Patterson

Sacred Heart College principal Steve Byrne, who completed the survey, agreed that reporting requirements of funding bodies including governments were “almost crippling”.

He said many schools created specialist roles for staff to perform those administrative tasks. Managing Covid was clearly a source of frustration.

“There’s also the view from many principals that the authorities aren’t listening to us,” Mr Byrne said. “Health obviously has a priority … but we know our schools and it’s a bit like no-one wants to hear us, so it’s made it very, very difficult.”

A ‘red flag’ alert is triggered when principals’ responses to the survey show them to be at ‘high’ or ‘very high’ risk in three or more survey categories.