Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Lucy Naylor: Auckland Primary Principals' Association President on the rise in use of physical restraint in schools

Transcript

Lucy Naylor: Auckland Primary Principals' Association President on the rise in use of physical restraint in schools · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right school leader is a warning of an incoming crisis?
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Is the number of students needing restraining rises? Ministry of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Education data shows there's been more than nine thousand incidents
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: of staff restraining students. That's an average of fifteen incidents
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: a day, and your cases are up by one hundreds
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: compared to when records began in twenty eighteen. Auckland Primary
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Principals Association President Lucy Naylor is with us now. Good morning, Lucy,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: thanks for your time, Ahi Madie. How significant of a
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: step is a staff member restraining a student?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Like?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: When is it used?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: It's look, it's only used when absolutely necessary, when to
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: prevent eminent harm, and there is absolutely no other option
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: and the response obviously has to be reasonable and proportional
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: as well. But it is an extreme step and it's
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: not one that any teacher or any school leader would
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: like to use.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Are you seeing an increase of this in your own school?
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? That is, it's not isolated to particular communities. It's very,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: very widespread and it's a nationwide shift and teachers are
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: coming to school every single day furnish sorry, forced to
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: manage these extreme behaviors and children who are actually in
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: crisis and they're doing it despite a lack of resource.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: So it is very, very widespread and the sector has
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: been calling for more support on this for a long time. Now.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get to that in just a moment.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Why is it on the rise? Do we know?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I don't know, to be honest. There's a number of
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: contributing factors, and I think it goes beyond education. It's
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: a social issue as well. Children are just coming to
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: school less able to regulate themselves, less prepared for school,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: less self management skills. And we know we come to
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: school to learn pro social behaviors as well as reading
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and writing, but these behaviors were now saying are quite extreme, Lucie.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: If there is an incident at school and a child
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: is restrained, the parents brought in and explain the situation
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and then a discussion has had about the child. Are
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: parents receptive today?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely. That's part of the restraint training that teachers
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: have to now complete under the new guideline or well
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: not so new guidelines. Now that the parents are brought
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: and there are discussions had and they are told exactly
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: what has happened and what has led to it. So
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: what was the antecede and what happened before, what actually happened,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: and then what the consequence or what the end outcome
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: as those physical restraints also have to be mandatory reporting
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to the ministry as.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Well and in your in your experience, our parents keen
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: to respond and work together with the school to rectify
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: these issues.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Generally, yes, but a lot a lot of the cases
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: are that is quite complex. So it's not just a
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: quick telling off and everything things all right. They're very
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: deep rooted, complex behavioral problems.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: So what kind of pressure is this putting on teachers
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: and school stuff?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: They are teachers are under increasing stress. This is every
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: single day. This is happening in classrooms, and it takes
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: the teacher away from teaching the other students in the classroom.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: And every teacher wants to keep the or has to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: keep the children safe in the classroom, and that includes
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: those children whose behavior is not extreme. So it impacts
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: not just the child with the behavior issues, it impacts
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: the other students in the class and particularly in small schools,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: the whole school community can be impacted as well.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: So is there enough support for schools and teachers dealing
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: with this?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: The short answer is no, absolutely acknowledge the learning support
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: budget of twenty five, but what we're calling out for
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: is boots on the ground. The funding is simply just
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: trickling down and it's just not absorbing the issues that
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: are in the classrooms. It's stretching school budgets beyond their
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: limits just to keep classrooms safe. So we need more
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: learning assistance in the classrooms that have the skills to
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: support children and being a preventative space rather than intervention.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: It feels very much like at the moment we're in
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: a band aid situation where schools are managing as best
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: they can with what they have, and we absolutely absolutely
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: need more support.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So Lucy, the government announced what it called the biggest
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: investment in learning support and generation last year, seven hundred
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: and fifty million going towards resources. I would have expected
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: some of that to go towards in class support. Are
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you seeing that happen?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: No, we are. It's yet to hit schools, to be honest.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Learning support coordinators have been allocated to each school the
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: first time and turned out last year, so that's I
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: think roughly about a third of schools now a learning
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: support coordinator, but that's only one person in a school
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: and what we need is we need teacher rades in
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: every classroom and by doing that, we're going to help
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: help teachers de escalate those behaviors.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: So how are schools managing this? I mean, it's been
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: described as an incoming crisis.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: So they I mean, at the end of the day,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: principles are forced to dip into other pots of their budget.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Some schools are tripling their learning support spending just to
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: keep their heads above water, so they're taking money from
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: other areas of the school to pay for essential teacher aids.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And while again on top of that, the twenty twenty
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: six budget that allow for more resources for curriculum, But
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: we can't use those curriculum resources and meet those curriculum
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: demands if our focus is constantly on keeping students safe
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and managing behaviors. It's just not sustainable or fear on
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: teachers and the students in our communities.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Lucy Nata, thank you so much for your time this
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: morning and talking us through that. That was Auckland Primary
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Principals Association President Lucy Naylo. For more from early edition
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, Listen live to news Talks at b
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,