Students going to school terrified: Far North school safety distress levels revealed

Many of the Far North’s biggest schools have seen a shocking increase in the number of students who say they don’t feel safe on school grounds, education department data shows. See the breakdown.

Picture: iStock

Many of the Far North’s biggest schools have seen a dramatic increase in the number of students who say they don’t feel safe on school grounds, education department data shows, as the Queensland Teachers’ Union calls for more behavioural specialists in schools.

At Gordonvale State High School the number of their students who said their school was a safe place dropped from 71 per cent to 49 per cent between 2020 and 2022.

The number of school staff who felt safe at work also dropped from 91 per cent to 77 per cent over the same period.

The number of Atherton State High School students who said they felt safe at school dropped from 75 per cent to 56 per cent over the three year period.

While less than 30 per cent of students and parents feel that student behaviour was not well managed at the school.

There were also sharp drops in perceptions of safety at school among students at Woree State High School, Trinity Bay State High School, Smithfield State High School, Mossman State School and Northern Peninsula Area State College.

Cooktown State School

Just 26 per cent of students at Mossman State School said they felt student behaviour was well managed at the school.

Education department figures also show Bentley Park, Trinity Bay, Smithfield, Kuranda and Gordonvale schools all recorded three-year highs of student suspensions for less than 10 days.

At Bentley Park College the number of suspensions for less than 10 days rose from 296 in 2020 to 446 in 2022.

A total of 84 per cent of students said they felt safe at the school, making it among the highest for perceptions of student safety among students in the Far North along with Innisfail East State School (91 per cent), Cooktown State School (85 per cent), Bloomfield River State School (85 per cent), Lockhart River State School (83 per cent), Cairns West State School (83 per cent), Mareeba State School (77 per cent) and Cairns State School (76 per cent).

Classroom generic, school generic. Picture: Burak Sr

At Trinity Bay State High School where just 48 per cent of students say student behaviour is well managed at school, the number of days lost to suspension rose from 315 to 424.

The number of days lost to suspension jumped from 206 to 399 at Smithfield State High School.

Malanda and Mossman schools also saw three-year highs for suspensions.

In total, 5460 days were lost to suspension across Far North schools in 2022 while 71 students were expelled from school.

While at Noel Pearson’s Cape York Aboriginal Academy, just 24 days were lost to suspension, and 70 per cent of students said they felt safe at school.

However, only 25 per cent of students say student behaviour is well managed there.

Leah Olsson, vice president of the Queensland Teachers’ Union, said part of the problem lay in schools’ lack of flexibility in taking disciplinary action and a shortfall in funding for the rise of fear at schools.

“The overwhelmingly majority of students go to school to learn and positively engage in education, but the one size fits all approach doesn’t work for all students,” she said.

“Our schools need more positive learning centres, more guidance officers, and more behaviour specialists to ensure all students can reach their full potential.”

Ms Olsson said that education funding was at a “critical point”.

“We call on the government to establish and fund a new school resourcing model that supports the increasing complexity and demands of diverse school community needs,” she said.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Education said the department “values the opinions and experiences of students and parents who are part of the school community”.

“There can be many reasons why young people may indicate they do not feel safe at school,” the spokeswoman said.

“Results from the surveys are used in conjunction with other information that schools gather

through their own internal monitoring processes and are considered in the context of their

individual teaching and learning environments.”

Originally published as Students going to school terrified: Far North school safety distress levels revealed