They then hand over the responsibility for their child’s care and educational development to trained teachers and administrators and return to their busy family and work schedules.

Whilst it is hectic and often stressful it is one of the most rewarding phases of our lives.

In a perfect world our children would return home from school to share their day’s experience with excited and interested parents.

In an imperfect world many of them will fall victim to some form of bullying in any school year. Experts tell us that up to 10 percent of students will be bullied each week with physical threats and abuse, verbal gossip and relationship intimidation

Extreme cases lead to a loss of self-esteem, depression and even self-harm or retaliatory attacks.

The answers to this problem are complex. Our Federal and State Parliaments have a responsibility to ensure there is adequate legislation to address the problem. This legislation should be developed and monitored in partnership with teacher and parent bodies and should involve pre-emptive and remedial measures.

An important issue that needs to be addressed in NSW is the gender balance of teachers in our public schools. The lack of male teachers entering the profession is a major concern. Male role models are important for male students. Unfortunately the restrictive nature of child protection legislation and the inability of teachers to discipline students in our public school system limits their options in dealing with the perpetrators of bullying in our schoolyards.

During a recent Parliamentary inquiry into our public school system it was revealed that a child who injured themselves while running through a schoolyard would have to look after themselves. A male teacher standing nearby would be forbidden to physically touch the child. Is it any wonder that young males are bypassing the teaching profession with this level of political correctness in our schools?

Teachers themselves are often victims of threats and intimidation by bullying students who are well aware of their ‘rights’ in today’s politically correct environment. It is time that they were made aware of their ‘responsibilities’ as well.

We have a responsibility to ensure the dream of nurturing our students through their formative years is not turned into a nightmare for victims of school bullies.