Enough is Enough! Principals have to take a stand, but will we?

Its Sunday night, a usual Sunday night, I have spent time working, about 6 hours preparing for the week, mostly checking emails, following up on unfinished work, writing letters and preparing reports, checking on some recruitment information, checking a policy on Social Media. Along with ensuring that the GA replacement has completed his mandatory training, and checked in on a colleague who was the victim of an aggressive Parent. With two weeks to go of the term, it starts to get a little crazier. So as a principal or a president of principals, I have to be ready. Did you hear me, its Sunday, I have worked for 6 hours, on a Sunday, and like last Sunday, and the Sunday before. This is NOT an unusual occurrence, but it is not acceptable. This is what I have done for well over a decade, most weeks working a 60 hour + week. And I would guarantee, over 70% of my colleagues would have done the same. This is not sustainable for the future of our profession.

Today the Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) releases its latest national report. A report which surveys thousands of school leaders across the country, and again it confirms that principal wellbeing is at crisis levels, with unrelenting workloads, mental health challenges, and increasing instances of aggressive parent and community behaviour making the role unsustainable. With 14 years experience as a Secondary Principal, across a range of contexts, city, regional and rural. I have served thousands of young people. Every year when these statistics come out, I shudder, particularly in regard to the levels of occupational violence and aggression, the community complexity and the challenges to prepare young people for a future that is ever changing. However, what is different in this latest survey analysis is the statistical analysis of the job satisfaction and desire to leave.

Not surprisingly, those with low job satisfaction have higher levels of anxiety and depression and a much higher intention to quit (82.3 per cent). 

If you ask any long serving principal about their role as a principal, they will tell you… mostly, I love my job, and they proceed to give you a run down of a young person they have helped, or teacher that is exceptional, the latest music performance that happened in assembly last week. How they see the ‘gold’ in their very challenging, unrelenting role, ‘you would have loved seeing the kids, Denise!’ Yes I would, because, despite the extreme hardness of days in my principalship, I love the role, and I just get on with it. That’s the problem!

We are not communicating what really needs to be addressed, we keep turning up, and like the Frog in the boiling water, we are all slowly being heated. And when the water gets too hot, we are either, forced to jump out or we are cooked alive.

Acknowledgement of the challenges, is commended by the Federal Education Minister Jason Clare with the creation of the Australian Principal’s Advisory Committee, putting forward a number of possible solutions. And genuinely bringing together principals as partners in the solutions, like the 2025 ASPA Summit.

Recent policy discussions at a national level, including the Federal Government’s education roundtables and ‘right to disconnect’ legislation, is a start in the right direction, however much more needs to be done.

The reports goes on to say, or spell out that our levels of depression and anxiety scores among school leaders remain significantly higher than the general population.

I have the saying, the committee of sleep will help work out your problems. However, many of my colleagues struggle with their sleep, finding the pressure and worry of their work, providing sleepless nights or ongoing nights of interrupted sleep. We obediently, drag ourselves to the school gates, and front up again and again. This is not ok. It’s not ok for this generation of principals, nor the next. I fear we will not only lose this generation of principals, but stop a pipeline of potential future leaders preparing to lead our schools.

An alarming 45 per cent of school principals triggered a “red flag” email in 2024, signalling risk of self-harm, occupational health problems, or serious impact on their quality of life 

As the leader of Secondary Principals in NSW, and on the Board of the Australian Secondary Principals Association, this real crisis is front and centre. As our organisations support a growing number of colleagues where the impact of the role has had immeasurable negative impact. However, as we rapple with who has the responsibility, I point not only outward but inward. I put on the table that as a profession we need to stand up and say enough is enough. By taking charge of what we need, the solutions, and being dogged to ensure the role is sustainable, and work wholeheartedly with government toward policy about school leadership that meets the future needs of our schools, across all sectors.

Parents/caregivers as sources of cyber bullying has become high at 87.6 per cent.

and

Bullying (37 per cent), conflicts and quarrels (63.4 per cent) also spiked 

I refer back to the Frog in the water, it is our role to call out the water warming, push back on the things that build the heat, whether it be, no, I do not work on Sunday. And as example, the role of HR must be supported by a designated member of my team, provided by embedded government education policy and budget. That my team is not subjected to aggression and violence because they are supported by community laws that make it illegal to approach a school with the sole purpose to harm or make trouble. That as a principal I am provided with dedicated principal wellbeing programs and access to professional supervision, coaching and mentoring, in the development of future leaders. Such things as professional supervision (Supervision not in the managerial sense, but in the clinical /pastoral tradition) has the potential to provide ongoing support around the relentless challenges. That we are supported in our role, caring for young people and their learning, that enables them to be prepared for a world with an unpredictable future. 

Principals who report high levels of job satisfaction are less likely to leave – as a profession and as a community, we need to harness that trend with looking carefully at the levers of satisfaction.

Finally, the report spells out clearly the strong connection to ‘job satisfaction’ and being committed to stay and continue to do the role. My colleagues and I are statistically, the highest rated group of professionals who love our job. We get a lot of satisfaction for what we do for the community and for our students and schools, and that fact needs to be leveraged.

However, that does not mean we have to put up with the avalanche of work, violence in the workplace, mental health complexities, teacher shortages, without the support, it just isn’t ‘cricket’ !

Communities and young people deserve courageous, clever, committed, experienced and passionate leaders, who have a sense of humour, love their jobs, are respected, and cared for by society. And are healthy and well.

It is time to commit as a community and as profession for the next survey of the 2025 data, to be the beginning of the change. It is possible, as outlined in the recent data of principals in Finland, from the University of Helsinki. They noted, there is light at the end of the tunnel as burnout eases and engagement rebounds.

Time has come! Said the walrus…