Teachers in primary schools fear being investigated after trying to break up fights between students.

Some primary school teachers are refusing to break up fights between students for fear of being investigated.

More than 2000 incidents of teachers restraining primary students have been reported since the new physical restraint laws came into force a year ago – an average of 13 reports a day.

When Amy Cunningham, a teacher at Rowandale School in south Auckland, broke up a fight in her classroom, she was asked to follow protocol and report it to the Ministry of Education.

The thought of her actions going on the record troubled her for weeks until her principal reassured her that it was part of the process.

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Since then, she's decided to never touch a child to break up a fight.

"I would stand in the middle of it so that it's me that would take the hits," she said.

She said in the past, she had intervened to ensure children's safety.

"I held the children's wrists just to separate them because otherwise, they could have fallen over a chair onto a concrete floor."

The physical restraint law states that a teacher or an authorised staff member can use physical restraint when breaking up a fight, stopping a student from moving in with a weapon, stopping a student who is throwing furniture when they or others could be injured, and preventing a student from running onto a road.

Schools are required to notify, monitor, and report on the use of physical restraint.

However, Cunningham said the law had made teachers feel "powerless".

KYMBERLEE FERNANDES/STUFF Amy Cunningham says she would never restrain a child during a fight again.

Rowandale School principal Karl Vasau said the guidelines could be "vague".

Teachers were doing what they thought was right and "that's the important part, but sometimes that's forgotten when they're investigated", he said.

"We've already heard of anecdotal evidence of other schools . . . teachers and principals talking about teachers not wanting to fill these [forms] in, because they don't want to be judged or they don't want to get into trouble.

"They only had the best intentions for the students, but the method wasn't right," he said.

"Here in Manurewa, we're seeing teachers sometimes reluctant to stand in and stop a fight because they don't want to fill out the paperwork, or they're just afraid of what could happen.

"Of course, the children need to be protected, but also we need to protect our teachers.

"For a lot of teachers, they don't restrain anymore, they don't step in, they're too fearful of what could happen to them."

KYMBERLEE FERNANDES/STUFF Karl Vasau is the principal of Rowandale School in Manurewa, south Auckland.

Ministry of Education spokeswoman Katrina Casey said physical restraint should only be used as a last resort when other strategies had been unsuccessful.

"It's important to note that the use of professional judgement is a critical part of the guidelines."

She said the information gathered during the reporting process was used to provide support to the schools and students involved.

"It protects staff and the school by having a written record of the incident that can be referred back to in the case of a complaint or disciplinary action.

"It has helped us to identify schools that need support to manage challenging behaviour."

Casey said the ministry intended to refresh the guidelines and incident reporting forms to incorporate feedback it had received over the past year.