The latest Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey of 2000 school leaders has landed, and the shocking findings show that stress, burnout and workload pressures are now reaching critical levels.

Compiled by ACU’s Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, the 2025 report marks the 15th year of the influential study, with researchers flagging a clear escalation in reported offensive behaviours since 2011.

Last year nearly half of school leaders reported physical violence, and more than half reported threats of violence, marking significant increases from 15 years ago.

In total, some 87.2 per cent of principals reported exposure to offensive behaviours, with the estimated annual cost to education of dealing with these found to exceed $200 million.

ACU researcher and former school principal Dr Paul Kidson told EducationHQ that violence has become insidiously normalised in schools.

“I think we are in danger of a number of people normalising it in ways that we do not accept in any other workplace.

“I’m sitting around the corner from a place where I got a coffee earlier this morning, if I behaved [in the way that many parents do] in that café, they’d turf me out and rightly so.

“It just is astounding that there are a collection of parents and caregivers who almost abjectly refuse to participate in reasonable expectations – we’re not talking about extraneously difficult things, we’re just talking about being courteous, being caring.”

In his time as a principal, Kidson says he experienced behaviours and aggression from members in his NSW school community that would be unthinkable and certainly unacceptable in any normal workplace.

“I’ve had people poke my chest, I’ve had people thump my desk, I’ve had people stand over me and my senior staff think I’m going to get punched in the face.

“You know, these are things that just should not occur, and unfortunately the good processes that are in place [to deal with this] are the problem, because there are people who just believe they are not applicable to them – and they are.”

In related research, some horrific accounts emerged from principals who had endured violence at work, Kidson says.

“A participant said that a parent brought a crowbar into the front office and banged it on the reception desk.

“Now, in what universe does anybody think that this is a healthy thing to do?”

As one Victorian principal of a public primary school said in the ACU study, when she took up the job she “didn’t expect to be mired in managing adult behaviour”.

“…I thought it would be about instructional leadership and inspiring educators. I didn’t realise how I would be subject to manipulation and need to respond like a lawyer – with extreme care and explicit language which leaves no room for interpretation,” the principal reflects.

“I did not expect to get this far in what I thought would be a rewarding career, to now be planning an early exit from education.

“I’m tired, and feel slightly embarrassed that I used to think the job took kindness and care, not political acumen and self-protection writ large,” she shared.

Kidson says part of the issue is that a number of parents and caregivers have the wrong idea about how best to advocate for their child.

“If you want to resolve an issue, any principal will welcome you to come in.

“If you say, ‘look I’ve got concerns about something at school, can we sit down and talk about this?’... most principals want to be able to do that.

“It’s not helpful, though, when people come in all guns blazing – it’s not only damaging on the wellbeing of those school leaders, it’s an appalling example to set for the children and young people who are observing the adults behave way.”

According to lead investigator and school wellbeing expert Professor Theresa Dicke, without urgent reform to address workload, safety and mental health support, the sustainability of school leadership in this country is at serious risk.

“Fifteen years of data tell a clear story, the evidence is unequivocal, Australia cannot strengthen its schools without first strengthening the health, safety and wellbeing of those who lead them,” Dicke warns.

“If nearly half of principals are experiencing physical violence and more than half are facing threats, we must ask ourselves in what other profession would this be tolerated as business as usual?”

The longitudinal data shows:

  • Physical violence against principals surged from 27.3 per cent in 2011 to 47.8 per cent in 2025;
  • Threats of violence jumped from 37.9 per cent to 53.7 per cent over the same period; and
  • Some 87.2 per cent of principals now report exposure to offensive behaviour with an estimated annual cost to the education sector exceeding $200 million.

Violence has spiraled in the online realm too, Kidson says.

“You’ve got a whole series of changes that have taken place, not least of which is the rise of anonymity.

“It’s one thing to be able to send an aggressive email, because at least I know who it’s from and I can probably do something about it.

“But then when you start to get into things like Facebook posts, social media posts, the inappropriate use of things like WhatsApp … you get some really hostile things that are said out of anonymity, things that you would never say to another person face to face.”

There’s a deep cowardice here, Kidson says, and the risk is that you can’t control what happens with what is posted.

“I had one instance, in 2013, I was in Spain with my wife and the chair of my council rang me and said ‘I think we have a problem’, because there was a malicious Facebook campaign from some parents going around the community.”

He recalls another ‘landmark experience’ of a school principal in a regional community who was disgracefully and unfairly targeted by a disgruntled parent.

“[They] got photo of the principal and made posters and stuck it around their town saying ‘beware this person, they’re a paedophile’.

“I cannot begin to fathom how a parent sits down and says, ‘I’m not happy, here’s the plan of response that I’m going to make’.”

Principals need to be better trained in safety management, researchers suggest.

“Ensure consistent, sector-wide training in prevention, de-escalation, and safety management,” the report declares. 

More comprehensive reporting and response procedures for threats and violence also need to be prioritised.

Frequent exposure to violence and aggression has a huge impact on school leaders, but it also harms the wider system and the quality of learning in classrooms, researchers warn.

“[It] contributes to trauma, reduces leaders’ sense of safety, and accelerates turnover intention.

“For the system, unsafe workplaces undermine recruitment and retention, disrupt learning environments, and divert resources away from teaching and learning.”

This is the first in a series of articles canvassing findings from the 2025 Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Survey.