Aussie school principals face record number of violent attacks: report

A third of Australia's school principals have experienced violence in the workplace and nearly half have been threatened with violence, according to a health and wellbeing survey released on Thursday.

The Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing survey involved input from 4,300 principals and found that 42 percent of them had been threatened with violence and 36 percent were physically bullied.

Parents were the culprits in 42 percent of bullying cases and 41 percent of cases where threats of violence were made.

"Many of the results are not only of serious concern for the profession as a whole, but also the wider community," said Associate Professor Philip Riley, the author of the report, on Thursday.

"Violence is increasing, domestic violence is increasing in hospitals, and police are reporting worse violence as they are patrolling on Friday and Saturday nights around alcohol. It's also playing out in schools ... so I think this is an Australian cultural thing that we really need to deal with."

Students were responsible for 77 percent of assaults on principals.

But despite those alarming figures, principals said workload and lack of time to focus on teaching and learning were the biggest contributors to workplace stress.

It is the fifth year the report has been released, showing an increase in violent incidents over the time frame.

But it noted, interestingly, that job satisfaction among principals was significantly higher than other careers within the general population.

The report includes seven recommendations, including reducing job demands and increasing resources to deal with taxing workloads. Enditem