Andy England: Darfield High School Principal on the rising number of students disciplined for physical assault

A view school violence is changing, with fewer mass fights, but far more frequent outbursts. 

New data shows 12,300 students were disciplined for physical assault this year – up 49% on 2019. 

Most incidents involved students attacking other students. 

Darfield High School Principal Andy England told Heather du Plessis-Allan increasing neurodiversity in classrooms is likely one factor. 

He says devices are also a problem, with social media trends often sparking more organised assaults. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So new data out shows increasing violence in our schools.
By December the fifth, there had been twelve three hundred
and forty six standdowns, suspensions or expulsions this year for
physical assault and that's up nearly fifty percent on twenty nineteen. Andy,
England is Darfield High School principle Then with US High Andy, Well, no, no, now, Heather,
what is going on here that the kids can't regulate
their emotions?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, that's a big question. But I think we have
to remember that violence has always been with us. It's
not a new phenomenon. There are anecdotically, odsay, I've seen
changes in the nature of it, a few big fights,
more dysregulated sort of tantrums and lashing out.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
And what's causing that.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
There's a known increase in neurodiversity. I can't say that's
all of it, of course, I think society has become
a bit less tolerant, and that's god part of it
as well. Schools are quite tense place at that time.
But the neurodiverse is really interesting one because I certainly
haven't seen the researcher's why it's increasing, but certainly classrooms
would seem to be quite neurodiverse places nowadays.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, I mean, look, is it possible, Andy, that it
is a result of the kind of parenting that we
are increasingly doing at the moment, which is gentle instead
of you know, full of consequences.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
As far as I can tell, that the consequence of
violent behaf parenting is actually more violent kids. So it's
certainly neglecting parenting very much so so parents who leave
kids in front of devices as opposed to engaging with them.
That's very much part of problems that we see. And
then you can't rule out the cliche thing. It seems
like we've blamed all the time, but devices are a problem,

(01:34):
and there are social media trends around violence, and they
would spark some of the more sort of more organized
fights at times and the more organized assaults that we've seen.
But in terms of their actual lashing out type behavior,
you can't rule out exposure to violence and making it
seem acceptable. But yeah, I certainly that the neglect of

(01:54):
kids most most of your nerd neurodiversity in schools is
where kids are struggling to manage their emotions and feelings.
And there are some glimmers of hope, there are some
things we can do about.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
It, like taking the devices away.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, yeah, that helps, but I mean it's not if
you're just take them away in school. That's only sort
of one third of the problem, isn't it. And I'd
fant to say listen to that because most of the
problems happened at one o'clock in the morning, when they're
nowhere near us. No, I mean more things like the
setting a culture in the school of tolerance, number understanding,
but also support having teachers well informed. That The argument
from some I think was a union about having teach

(02:28):
trades and classes. An expensive solution, but a very amazing
solution if we could achieve that. Certainly, there are things
at the other end, like services academies, which we've only
got twenty eight I believe of them in the country.
They're amazing for students who have violent tendencies, removing them
from mainstream classes were given them a very purposeful existence
where their tendencies are to be violent. Dropped down, All right.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Andy, thank you appreciate it. That's Andy England Daffield High
School principle.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
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