Owen Holleran never planned to retire. But it’s been three years since the former principal last worked and he doubts he’ll ever set foot in a school again.
Holleran said school leaders had become first responders for a rising number of societal issues, with little support from agencies or the Education Department. “I suspect that the conversation is going to emerge with even more claims, as it did in the US Army,” he said., who were deeply committed but running out of capacity to do their jobs without harm to their wellbeing.
“I am bloody good at my job,” he said. “I had planned to work forever in some capacity. But I have had over two years of my life ruined. I have a psychiatric diagnosis of PTSD with the recommendation that I should not return to my current position or anything similar. Kidson said education ministers had agreed in March to address principal wellbeing, but the process was too slow. “There doesn’t appear yet to be the type of momentum shift that is equivalent to the scale of the need,” he said.
Professor Jane Wilkinson is one of a team of researchers at Monash University conducting a national study of AustralianEighteen months into the three-year project, the researchers have heard from principals dealing with suicides, murders and violence from students and parents. Wilkinson said principals were increasingly describing themselves as first responders to define the kinds of work they were doing every day.