TRANSCRIPT
Emily FitzSimons has been an educator for decades, and first stepped into the classroom in 1996.
She says she felt a calling to become teacher.
"People join the teaching profession because they inherently believe in the importance of building human capital. They love young people, children and young people, and they love seeing them cared for and nurtured and growing and succeeding. And we go into that with that wonderful optimism about the difference that we're going to be able to make."
Ms Fitzsimons is now the principal at Overnewton Anglican Community College in Melbourne, which has almost 2,200 students from early primary to year 12.
She says it's an amazing job, but some educators can lose their enthusiasm for their work when they step out of the classroom and into a principal position.
"I think sometimes what happens when we get into that principal role, and it's not too dissimilar from other professions where the further into leadership you move, the less of that grassroots work that you do. ... And so you really have to reframe 'where is my sense of meaning coming from now'. Some principals might grieve the loss of that intimate relationship they have with children in a classroom and even with parents and partnering with families on that child's learning journey."
New research from Australian Catholic University has shown a high number of principals and school leaders considered quitting their job last year, citing workplace stress, mental health issues and feeling like their jobs had lost meaning.
The report also showed record high levels of violence and threats of violence taking place in schools.
Associate Professor Paul Kidson, from Australian Catholic University, was an investigator for the latest Principal Occupational Health and Wellbeing survey, which this year flagged the highest level of school-based violence since the report began in 2011.
"It well may be that somebody needs to step into the middle of a scuffle between students out in the yard.. they have to go out into those types of situations and resolve them. There are other instances where they're doing this, I've had this in the last two weeks from somebody who told me and showed me the bite marks on their hand from when a young early infants age, junior primary student, bit them on their hand. And another principal recently told me that they were dealing with somebody who'd been a visitor to the school and they had to interrupt their conversation because a student was throwing a table down the hallway."
Over 1,000 principals reported being a victim or witness of physical abuse in 2024 and a similar number were at risk of self-harm, occupational health problems or serious impact to their quality of life.
Almost all reports of physical assault in schools were caused by students.
Associate Professor Kidson says more than half (53.2 per cent) of the over 2,000 (2,178) principals surveyed in 2024 signalled an intent to leave the profession.
"That was really quite concerning knowing what we have a bit of a supply issue. And so we then went looking this year for, well, what makes people want to stay? And in every measure that we collect, those that had higher satisfaction have a much lower intention to leave. And that leads us to the conclusion that if policy makers and the wider community can contribute to making the job satisfying, it will do two things. Firstly, it will retain those that we already have in the job and secondly, it will make the job a little bit more attractive for those who are yet to come."
The report flagged that loss of experienced school leadership could exacerbate existing teacher shortages and create a nationwide leadership vacuum, placing further strain on an already overburdened education system.
Many principals and school leaders also reported dealing with cyberbullying and harassment from parents and caregivers.
The report makes several recommendations, including reducing the heavy workload of principals and prioritising well-being support for school leaders.
