Queensland’s worst behaved primary school students of 2024 revealed

New data reveals Queensland’s worst behaved primary students, with one school of just 330 children recording a staggering 197 disciplinary absences in 2024. THREE YEARS OF DATA, INTERACTIVE MAP

Queensland principals last year handed out almost 1000 more suspensions and expulsions than they did in 2022, while one school of just 330 students recorded almost 200 disciplinary absences.

An exclusive Courier-Mail analysis reveals while disciplinary absences were down last year on 2023 – from 22,430 down to 21,516 – there were more than the 20,590 handed out in 2022.

Upper Coomera State College, which had 1745 enrolled students, handed out the most suspensions and expulsions by a single school – a total of 485, down from 652 in 2023.

But Leichhardt State School, with 199 disciplinary absences and just 330 enrolments, had the highest absence rate of 60.3 per cent.

It was closely followed by Woogaroo Creek School at Augustine Heights with 58.95 per cent, and Oakey State School near Toowoomba with 52.02 per cent.

The suspension rate is the number of suspensions, exclusions and cancellations per 100 students.

Exclusions are down across the state, dropping from 1743 in 2023 to 1568 in 2024.

Queensland Association of State School Principals president Pat Murphy said physical violence and bullying remained one of the main reasons for suspensions and exclusions.

“Queensland has some of the largest primary schools in Australia, and while not all of them suspend every year, when you have larger student populations you will often have more suspensions purely because these schools have more students,” he said.

“We work very hard with school communities to try and address situations before they become problem, you can see that our members do act and we’ve got zero tolerance for severe bullying or violence towards other students or staff.

“We treat suspensions and or an exclusion as a serious consequence and don’t issue them without examining the matter fully, however the public can be assured that our school leaders don’t accept poor behaviour in any of our state schools.”

Originally published as Queensland’s worst behaved primary school students of 2024 revealed