Okay this is a direct quote from Allegations against Employees in the Area of Child Protection that all NSW schools under the department of education have to follow.

You can read the entire policy at https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/detresour...GSPuJAJdZT.pdf

From page 13....

Assault against a child or young person
Using common law principles, assault in this context must include all three of the following elements:
• it is an act committed on or towards a child or young person,
and
• it involves either the application of force to a child or young person or an act that causes a child or young person to think that immediate force will be used upon them,
and
• it is either hostile or reckless (a reckless act is one where the person foresees the likelihood of inflicting injury or fear, and ignores the risk).

Actual physical harm does not have to occur in order for an assault to have taken place, i.e. the child or young person does not have to be injured.

Physical contact which is an inevitable part of everyday life does not amount to assault. For example, there may be occasions where it is appropriate to intervene in order to protect students. Reasonable action, in these circumstances, would not be deemed to be assault.
And from page 14....

Note. Examples of conduct that would not constitute reportable conduct include touching a child in order to attract a child’s attention, to guide a child or to comfort a distressed child; a school teacher raising their voice in order to attract attention or to restore order in the classroom; and conduct that is established to be accidental.
I hope the above gives some insight into what is regarded as acceptable and not.

As a teacher, I have had to had physical contact with a student at one time or another however it has always been in a way to make the child feel safe, eg. a kindy child was extremely upset after losing all their friends at lunchtime and I gave her a cuddle as she was just heartbroken and it made her feel better. On a not so nice occasion, in fact a darn right scary situation, I had to chase a child with down syndrome from my class and absolutely pull her back as she had one leg and most of her body over the fence and was going to run onto the road and get hit by a car. I grabbed onto her and pulled her back and I never expected to have to have that sort of physical contact with a child. It was scary but I did what I would want anyone to do if my child was about to run on the road as I had to look out for her safety.

In W's case, I think she acted inappropriately if the situation had not escellated to that of needing required force. It is her duty to provide a safe environment for each chil in her class. I feel that she has not done that in this case so it is good the Principal is going to pull her up on this. You definitely did the right hting by going to him.