Violent kindy kids: find out which schools areas have the highest rates
The number of kindergarten students suspended across the state has jumped by 50 per cent in the last five years. Find out which school areas have the highest rates.
NSW
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The number of kindergarten students suspended across the state has jumped by 50 per cent in the last five years.
The total number of suspended kindergarten students in NSW public schools leapt to 626 students last year from 398 five years ago.
There were 107 excluded from school for aggressive behaviour and 42 for continued disobedience.
The data, which is broken down by Family and Community Services regions across the state, shows the Hunter and New England region had 145 kindergarten students suspended last year
The five FACS regions in Sydney had 205 kindy pupils sent home for violence or “continued disobedience”.
President of the NSW Primary School Principals Association Phil Seymour said the jump comes as parents are increasingly refusing to accept their child was naughty.
“Sometimes the parent won’t (work with the teacher) so you have to do something dramatic to sort of pull them in and say, ‘this is what happens’.”
“It is ‘Johnny can’t do anything wrong, they are only kindergarten, they don’t know what they’re doing’— but yes they do, they know routines, they know how to follow instructions.
He said parents wanted to be “their kids best friend” and give into temper tantrums so children had never been told know or learnt to share.
“The kid knows if ‘I want this I put on a tantrum’, and some parents just give in like that.”
The data obtained by The Daily Telegraph under Freedom of Information Laws said 107 kindergarten students received long term suspension for physical violence and a further 41 received a long suspension for “persistent or serious misbehaviour”.
It shows 76 kindergarten students suspended were from the southwest Sydney and 90 students in Year 1 were suspended last year.
There were 68 kindergarten kids suspended from Western Sydney FACS region while Northern Sydney region had the lowest amount of suspended kids at just 16.
Central Coast P and C President Sharryn Brownlee said the figures showed the Department of Education needed to do better.
“It is a failure of the system when little children have to be suspended,” she said.
“The department is not doing enough early intervention with support to enable those children to transition to school properly.”
She said there must be more suspension centres to stop these suspended students becoming disengaged.
“The child is disconnected from the classroom, they really struggle to reintegrate and they miss out on some learning.”
In regional NSW, 50 kindergarten kids were excluded from school in Western NSW and 59 were suspended from Illawarra Shoalhaven region.
The Department of Education announced a review into the suspension of students and said it would be finished by next year.
“The rate of suspension for our kindergarten students is concerning and the department is working with internal and external stakeholders on a review to look at how we can better support students, including in stage one,” he said.