Code of Conduct for Adults Working With Children in Barnardiston Hall

Barnardiston Hall expects  the highest professional standards to be maintained by all its staff.

 

Staff must ensure that their relationships with pupils reflect the age, gender and maturity of the pupils.

 

All aspects of adults demeanor, language and attitudes must be such that they can not give rise to misunderstanding or misinterpretation by pupils, parents or colleagues.

 

 

Physical Contact

Physical contact may be misconstrued by a pupil, parent or observer.

$1l  Touching pupils, including well-intentioned informal and formal gestures such as putting a hand on the shoulder or arm, can, if repeated regularly, lead to questions being raised.

$1l  Staff must not make gratuitous physical contact with pupils and should avoid attributing ‘touching’ to their teaching style as a way of relating to pupils.

There will be occasions when physical contact may be be acceptable. In general these will fall into one of three categories:

$1l  Action to prevent harm or injury to the pupil or to others.

$1  Use of minimum force and contact necessary to prevent harm or injury is acceptable and defensible.  Such incidents must always be reported to a colleague on duty.

$1l  Comforting a pupil in distress.

$1  Much will depend on the circumstances, the age of the pupil, the extent and cause of the distress and the alternative means of providing comfort.

$1  Adults will need to use their professional judgment and discretion in relation to appropriate behaviour.

$1  Adults should always consider how others might perceive the action, even if no one else is present, and ensure that it does not develop into unnecessary contact. Particular care must be taken in instances which involve the same pupil over a period of time.

$1l  Unavoidable contact (particularly in PE, Sport & Drama)

$1  All teachers must be alert to the possibilities of misinterpreting any contact. To avoid such misunderstanding all planned contact must be demonstrably unavoidable.

$1  Where possible,  alternative methods involving demonstrations by the teacher or a particularly competent pupil may be more appropriate than modifying a pupil's technique by physical contact.

$1  It will generally not be acceptable for physical contact to take place between pupils and teachers.

$1  In cases of doubt or uncertainty staff should seek advice from the Headmaster or Head of Department.

Adults should ensure that their actions recognise the possibility of misinterpretation and are open to the scrutiny of colleagues.

Corporal punishment

Any form of physical punishment is prohibited under disciplinary procedures and is potentially actionable in law. This also applies to any form of physical response to misbehaviour.

 

Private meetings

Teachers and others must plan one-to-one or small group meetings so they are not open to misinterpretation. It is good practice to

$1l  Avoid remote areas of the school

$1l  Ensure that the door is left open or visual contact with others is maintained.

$1l  Under no circumstances should meetings with individual pupils be arranged off the school premises without the prior approval of the Headmaster or Deputy.

$1l  Transporting of individual children in private cars should be discouraged.

Pupils with Special Needs

If pupils require assistance with toileting, it is good practice to arrange for the presence of another adult in the vicinity.

First Aid

The existence of any life threatening or serious condition will determine the suitability and necessity of physical contact. This is part of First Aid Training. Refer to the School's First Aid Policy.

Comments and Discussions with Pupils

$1l  Adults must avoid comments to, or about, pupils which could be taken to have sexual overtones or inappropriately relate to a pupil's dress or appearance.

$1l  It is unacceptable for employees to encourage debate and discussion between groups of students, which could be interpreted as having sexual overtones, which are not justified in the context of the teaching programme.

$1l  Schemes of Work highlight particular areas of risk and sensitivity. The School Nurse is to attend all PHSE work involving discussion of sexual matters. Teachers are to arrange this.

In order to discharge particular pastoral responsibilities, employees may from time to time need to engage in conversation with pupils and students which cover sensitive matters.

$1l  Teachers must be guided by the Child Protection Policy and use professional judgement to ensure that they are not drawn into inappropriate conversations.

$1l  In responding to individual students' distress, employees will need to consider carefully whether they should offer advice, sympathy or counselling if a discussion enters a sensitive area or refer them to a colleague or agency who is better placed to offer appropriate advice. The Child Protection Policy should be strictly adhered to. It is good practice to discuss all such meetings with  a Form or Senior Teacher, who may have more insight into the child's situation. 

$1l  The persistent and hurtful use of sarcastic, demeaning or insensitive comments towards young people and adults will be regarded as a form of abuse.

Infatuations and Crushes

$1l  need to be handled sensitively. Careless and insensitive reactions have been known to provoke false accusations.

$1  It is in the interest of all parties to avoid adding to the pupil's problems by encouraging the crush or making jokes about the situation.

$1  Seek the advice of a senior colleague

$1  Other members of staff should discretely alert a colleague to the possibility of an infatuation

$1  Whilst the risk of infatuation is not limited to younger members of staff, newly qualified teachers, gap students and work experience students must recognise their particular vulnerability to pre-teen infatuation.

Boarding, Out of School and After-School Activities

Adults should take care when supervising pupils in the less formal atmosphere of a residential setting or after-school activity.

$1l  A more relaxed relationship may promote successful activities but can be misinterpreted by young people and their parents.

$1l  It is extremely important to emphasise that the standards of professional conduct and behaviour expected of adults should be no different to that which applies within school

$1  Adults should be aware of the particular care which should be taken with older, more mature students in these circumstances.

Teaching materials

$1l  The use of books, videos and films of an explicit or sensitive nature, particularly in relation to language or sexual behaviour must be given careful consideration to ensure that its selection is not subsequently misinterpreted. There should always, therefore, be a clear link with the targets of the teacher's programme.

$1l  No video displaying a 12 or above age restriction must be shown to children under 12 years of age.

Reporting Incidents

$1l  Adults must report any concerns they may have following any incident where s/he feels that his/her actions may have been misinterpreted.

$1  As an immediate follow-up to the incident make written notes of what was said, what happened, how the incident was left. Sign, date and write the time on these.

$1  Report the incident verbally to the Headmaster or Deputy as soon as possible.

$1  Copy your notes to the Headmaster and keep a copy for yourself. Some recent allegations of abuse have highlighted incidents which happened up to ten years ago. 

$1l  A written record must be made within the day if

$1  any form of restraint has been used against a pupil

$1  whenever a pupil, parent or third party has complained about an action or expressed an intention to complain.

Personal letters and on-line and text communications

It will rarely be appropriate for adults working with children to write personal notes or letters, or to send e-mail, or text messages to individual students.

If an adult working with children believes it to be necessary to write a personal note to a pupil, s/he should discuss the purpose and context with a senior colleague, who should refer to the Headmaster or Child Protection Coordinator if they require further advice.

$1l  A friendly and chatty style committed to e-mail or text messaging  can easily be misconstrued by the recipient. The 'conversation' is effectively private to just two individuals, with all that this implies.

$1l  Teachers should keep passwords secure and ensure that no other person can gain access to their e-mail account and maliciously send messages which appear to have been written by them.

$1l  Ideally, both teachers and pupils should use their school e-mail address, even if they are sending messages while working at home. These services can be monitored, they provide a measure of protection for both parties.

$1l  Adults must report  the receipt of inappropriate e-mail, text or messages from any source, to a Senior member of staff. It is appropriate to copy for the attention of the Headmaster, to be placed on file

The increased availability of Internet 'chat rooms' and similar on-line forums also poses risks for children and teachers. While they are popular among young people and offer many positive experiences, there is widespread concern about their potential abuse by paedophiles attempting to groom new victims.

Teachers should not use unregulated chat rooms for children and should be aware that it is impossible to determine the age of any participant in these environments.

The purpose of this Code of Conduct is to promote the highest standards of care for young people and to protect adults working with children from the potentially devastating consequences of false allegations. Equally, it has to be remembered that many allegations have proved to be with foundation. Our first duty, as adults working with children, is a duty of care.

All adults working in Barnardiston Hall are urged to consider how they can safeguard their own position in the light of this, without giving up important personal principles of care and trust in the promotion of a “family atmosphere” within school.

 

Whenever doubt exists, any adult working with children should seek the advice of the Headmaster or experienced senior colleague(s). The Child Protection policy is to be followed to the letter.

 

Additional notes for teachers

The start of the day

You should be in your classroom to greet the children as they arrive, by 8:20. Greet and register them. You should set work or hear reading from 8:30 onwards. Assembly on Monday and Wednesday begins at 8:40. You should accompany your form to Assembly.

You will be asked to prepare, once a term, a class assembly. 

Dress Code

We insist on children wearing their uniforms correctly and looking smart at all times. It seems only reasonable that staff should set the standard.

$1l  Gentlemen should wear suit or trousers, shirt, tie and jacket when walking around school or in assembly. Jackets may be removed in classrooms for teaching. Top shirt buttons should be done up.

$1l  Ladies should wear suits (trousers or skirt) or combination of smart tops and skirts or tailored trousers.

$1l  Sport staff (Ladies and Gentlemen) may wear the supplied logo Tracksuits on games days. Only the Head of PE should wear tracksuits on other days.

$1l  Academic dress is worn for the Carol Service, Speech Day and School photographs.

Keep your classroom tidy

Leave your classroom, especially if it is shared by others, in a way which you would be proud to show your mother!

 

Duties

Be aware that when you are on duty, you have responsibility for the well being of the children at play.

$1l  You need to be punctual and observant throughout the duty.

$1l  If a child comes to talk to you, position yourself so you can see and be seen.

$1l  If you have to leave your duty, please ask a colleague to cover it for you until you return.

$1l  If you are going to be absent on your duty day, please swap with a colleague so all duties are covered.

End of day

Form teachers shake their pupil's hands and dismiss them. Please make sure that your pupils leave the building properly dressed.

Ensure that your room is left tidy.

You will be expected to be in school for one hour after the official end of the children's school day, during which time you may be asked to run a club, supervise Prep or other necessary duty. Otherwise, it  is a good time toe catch up with administration. 

Staff meetings

Teaching staff are expected to attend academic staff meetings and In Service Training

Extra Curricular Activities

Barnardiston is a busy school and staff are often called upon to work out of school hours, for the benefit of the children we teach.  The school management try to balance the load as much as possible.

The General Teaching Council lists as unacceptable professional conduct

$1l  Demeaning and undermining pupils, parents, carers of colleagues; or acting towards them in a manner which is discriminatory in relation to gender, marital status, religion, belief, colour, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, disability or age.

$1l  Failure to take reasonable care for and supervise pupils with the aim of ensuring safety and welfare

$1l  Failure to comply with the regulatory statutory provisions which support the well being and development of pupils...including where these require cooperation with a range of agencies, as well as teacher colleagues and other adults.

$1l  Failure to observe confidentiality in a manner consistent with legal requirements

 

This document is to be read in conjunction with more recent legislation

$1l  Safeguarding Children (2006),

$1l  Safer Recruiting (2007),

$1l  Bullying: Don't Suffer in Silence (2007)

Much of the above was taken from a combination of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire County Councils' Code of Conduct for Teachers and Employees Working With Young People, which predates the above publications. Where necessary it has been reviewed, made user friendly and updated to reflect more recent changes to statutory requirements.

P K Whittles

Reviewed October 2013