‘I was assaulted by a 7yo’: Young teacher reveals what it’s really like in the classroom

Just four years into the career she’d dreamt about, Olivia is on the brink of abandoning teaching altogether. Here she reveals the brutal reality of life in the classroom.

An early-career teacher has revealed she’s on the brink of abandoning the profession after being assaulted by a seven-year-old student.

The young woman, who has been a primary school teacher for less than four years, said mass amounts of unpaid overtime along with complex, ever-increasing needs of students and occupational violence have forced her to rethink her future in the career she’d dreamt about.

Olivia, who gave permission for only her first name to be used and did not want her school publicly identified, told how the workplace violence incident had taken a toll on her, requiring treatment for shoulder and back injuries.

“I was assaulted by a seven-year-old in the classroom,” she said.

“They grabbed onto me and threw themselves onto the ground and I went with them.

“You don’t actually believe it is going to happen, until it actually happens.

“I lodged [an incident report] through HR and someone from the school came and talked to me about it, but there was no debrief - I still had to teach for the rest of the day, my whole class saw it happen. I actually took my kids out of the classroom for the rest of the day because I could not be in that room.

“That day, it was basically me asking them [the student] to stop calling out and being disruptive, and I went to call someone to ask for extra help and that just set them off.”

Olivia can’t see herself in the profession for longer than another two years. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Courier-Mail

Olivia said she often heard other teachers saying “remember your why’’ – referencing their reason for becoming teachers – and had seen the recent national recruitment campaign titled ‘Be That Teacher’.

But she believes these inspirational reasons alone are no longer enough, and questions why a decent paycheck or a work-life balance are not in the equation.

Speaking to The Courier-Mail, Olivia stressed she was only speaking for herself and purely based on her own experiences.

She said she cannot see herself remaining in the profession for more than two years longer.

“For the sake of my body and mental health,” she explained.

“It’s just a bit too much with everything that is going on in the classroom.

“I’m having to go to the doctor because I am having chest pains [in my 20s].”

Olivia detailed the other pressures teachers faced, including unpaid overtime.

“If you go on school camp - which you have to go on if your grade goes on school camp - you don’t get more money than teaching a normal day at school, despite being on the job for three days straight,” she said.

“There’s also a lot going on in the inclusion space. But we’re getting these kids with special needs, but no extra time or not much extra support.”

Olivia said she was concerned by the number of other teachers she had seen leave the profession in her relatively short time in the job.

“Why is nobody talking about this? And why is the only solution to ‘remember our why’?” she said.

“I’m hearing how different it is now, compared to how it was when a lot of the senior teachers first started, they’re saying we do a lot of things now that were not part of the teachers’ job 10-15 years ago,” she said.

“Lots of their feedback has been that they are not coping with the amount of work they have to do, but for us [newer teachers] it is all we have ever known.

“Even from my first year to now, there are so many more jobs I have to do now.”

Testimonials from school staff on student behaviour, as highlighted by the Senate Inquiry into the issue of increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms.

Olivia said she also takes pride in her classroom, but is not compensated.

“I can guarantee you every classroom you walk into is privately funded by an individual teacher’s bank account,” she said.

“Things like little displays or decorations, or little classroom libraries because their school library might not have enough.

“I went out and bought material and sewed some curtains for my classroom.

“I also bought some nicer good-quality wooden building materials because I’m really passionate about still letting kids play.

“In my first year, I spent almost $1000 on these things.”

Tales of student behaviour as highlighted by the Senate Inquiry into the issue of increasing disruption in Australian school classrooms.

But Olivia said the camaraderie among her “amazing” fellow teachers and rewarding interactions with students kept her going.

“Last year, I was holding on for dear life and I wasn’t sure whether I could get through to the end of the year. I had all of these people who would come and read a book to my class for five minutes if I needed just a little break to go and get some air,” she said.

“They care so much about you and everyone is in the same boat with everything getting harder, but there is a real sense of camaraderie.

“Sometimes the kids can drive you up the wall, but it is still a really rewarding career.

“When you have those good days, or when a kid finally gets something you have been trying to teach them for ages, or they finally reach a learning goal, or they say something like: ‘Thank you, I was having such a bad day, but you made it better’.

“But you need a lot of that to cancel out what else is going on.”