Cindy Leckey has six children, and all but one have been educated at the same primary school on Brisbane’s northside.
Like every other parent at Zillmere State School – according to official surveys – she believes behaviour is well managed there.
Leckey knows firsthand what happens when a child is suspended, but it hasn’t made her upset with teachers or admin staff.
“We’ve had a few hard conversations, but it’s been dealt with how it has to be dealt with,” she said.
“[School staff] do have a lot of different things in place, but then sometimes even all of them don’t work.”
Nestled in northern Brisbane suburbia, Zillmere recorded the highest level of agreement from parents that it appropriately handed school behaviour, according to surveys carried out by the Education Department in 2025 and released recently in its annual report.
The 106-student primary school also recorded the highest uptick in suspensions from 2024 to 2025 of any Brisbane state school, with the rate increasing by 19.1 percentage points.
The Australian Catholic University’s Dr Matthew White, who specialises in school inclusion and attendance, said how a school managed behaviour, including disciplinary absences such as suspensions or exclusions, was also a “double-sided sword”.
“One of the balancing acts for schools is parent expectations, and parents have this expectation that any issues in schools will be dealt with appropriately,” he said.
White said a spike in suspensions could be viewed favourably by the bulk of the parent body as a “zero-tolerance” response.
However, that approach could alienate the family of the child if the school overused suspensions as a punitive measure, White said.
In Leckey’s case, she was satisfied with how Zillmere State School managed behaviour because suspensions were firmly a last resort.
The school also offered students multiple in-school options to regulate their behaviour, she said, including speaking with a chaplain or therapy dog once each week and nominating themselves for a time-out with a wristband system.
More than 93 per cent of Zillmere teachers who responded said the school managed behaviour well, as did 84.6 per cent of student respondents.
No Brisbane state school received a 100 per cent satisfaction rate from students.
White said this could come down to students reacting differently to disciplinary action, having different expectations, or seeing more of what happens in the classroom or schoolyard.
Across Brisbane, five schools had 100 per cent of staff agree that behaviour was well-managed at their school, including Kedron, Taigum, Wondall Heights, Northgate, and Darra state schools.
Kedron State School principal Susie Randel-Kneipp said her students often described her school as “the school with no rules”.
“We took away the notion of having a shopping list of micro-behaviours that they shouldn’t engage in, or were framed in a negative light, years and years ago,” she said.
Randel-Kniepp said the school was effectively helping kids guide their own good behaviour from as early as prep.
“The faster we get a young person to recognise they are respected, that they have agency and self-efficacy, and, a voice that’s important, the quicker they are to feel a sense of responsibility as to how they conduct themselves,” she said.
The school had the fourth-highest level of student satisfaction with behaviour management, at 92 per cent.
The highest proportion of students who thought their school managed behaviour well was recorded at Buranda State School, with 93.8 per cent of respondents.
Families, students and teachers were most closely aligned at Greenslopes State School. Among students who responded, 86.4 per cent were satisfied.
Responses varied the greatest at Upper Brookfield State School. Although between 85 and 91 per cent of parents and teachers who responded were satisfied with behaviour management, more than two-thirds of students disagreed the school managed it well.
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