But it something they plan to embrace after an “eye-opening” experience attending their first White Ribbon Day breakfast.

Over 100 school leaders from across the Hunter declared they would take a stand for the elimination of violence against women after the annual breakfast, held at Wests New Lambton last Friday.

St Francis Xavier’s College school leader Joe Delbridge said he had never been to a breakfast like it but the experience was “was one of the best”.

“I will take a lot away from this,” he said. “There is so much to process.

“I definitely want to do something and I’ll be promoting the messages of this morning to all of the students at school.

“Some of the statistics are quite shocking. I knew domestic violence was out there but I definitely didn’t expect the numbers.”

They were told one in three women will experience a form of domestic violence in their lives.

They were also told 68 women in Australia had lost their lives this year through violence.