Friday, 6 April 2012

5b - professional ethics

Having looked through the staff handbook's policies, I can see that all of the potential ethics I considered, are there.
Some that I hadn't considered included : Treating pupils with dignity, building relationships rooted in muteral respect, and at all times observing proper boundaries appropriate to a teacher’s professional position, having regard for the need to safeguard pupils’ well-being, in accordance with statutory provisions, not undermining fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and ensuring that personal beliefs are not expressed in ways which exploit pupils’ vulnerability or might lead them to break the law.
The only practice here that I think is a difficult ethic to follow is the one relating to 'not underminding fundamental British values', due to the fact that Britain is such a diverse country with so many different nationalities, cultures and religions. This follows on to say that other faiths and beliefs that may conflict with British values are not to be expressed in a way that may lead to breaking the law, but I think it is difficult to explain this to young people.
Working in a school, I am often scared to say something that may be taken as a negative comment towards that person's religion. I think additional training on school ethics would be very beneficial.

In my school, we tend to communicate through internal emailing. It has become commonplace for us to use a pupil's initials when writing about them rather than their full name. Sometimes there are other pupils in close proximity when we are writing these emails, and to keep the pupil identity confidential, this has become a regular practice.

We also have a letter that is sent out to all pupils in year 7 that their parents sign to give permission for photos and recordings to be taken of their daughters within the school. If a parent objects, they can then choose whether they would like their daughter to not participate in any photos or if they would like the school to ring them for permission on each different occassion, depending on the objective. Some pupils can not have their photo taken for religious reasons and some prefer not to give permission for their own reasons.


1 comment:

  1. Does anyone know what the staff ethics are regarding physical contact with pupils if you are a dance teacher? I know that staff are not meant to have any physical contact with pupils but I seem to remember a dance teacher saying that she was the only member of staff with permission. It would be very hard to try to show some techniques without being able to manipulate the body physically. My dance teachers were always proding and poking me lol!

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