One New South Wales school is taking new steps to stem rising violence; posting police inside its gates.

Walgett Community College in north-west NSW has become the first school in the state to have police stationed on its grounds in an attempt to stop violence.

The move comes after reports of escalating violence at the school, including the discovery of disturbing footage of a 13-year-old student being bashed by her peers.

The NSW Education Department’s new Memorandum of Understanding with the Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) will see two police officers operating out of a centre that has been erected next to the school hall.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has called Walgett a “tough school” with a “chequered history”.

“We want police to be across what's happening obviously outside, but also inside the school,” he told the ABC.

“They're not there as a display of authority, they're there to engage with students at the school.”

Opposition's education spokesperson Linda Burney has criticised the move to put cops in classrooms.

“To have the police on site the whole time is going to be counter-productive, it will be seen as a punitive exercise,” she said.

But Acting Superintendant Tony Mureau from the Castlereagh Local Area Command says it is working already.

“Over the past month there've been no incidents,” he said.

Superintendant Mureau said the police would take a role that is “hands on with the kids, building self-esteem and confidence, getting them active, taking their minds off the troubles that were here earlier on”.

“What we'll see is police in the classroom sometimes dealing with kids not necessarily in a negative way, but bringing them into the hall, playing sport. Just engagement strategies.”

Police will soon run anger management courses for the students as well, dubbed "Scream" for girls and "Rage" for boys.

The school gas just 100 students, but its attendance rates are down around two thirds of pupils. They have dropped about 7 per cent lower from the same time last year.

Reports say that in last weeks of the school term, four teachers resigned.

Superintendant Mureau said Walgett students were affected by the very high rate of domestic violence in the area.

“The unfortunate side effect is a lot of kids have either been witness to that or victims of it.

“I'd like to see that violence is never considered an accepted norm especially for kids,” he said.