5b - Workplace Ethics and Codes of Practice/Regulations

When working in an environment swarmed by codes of practice and regulations I was expecting to discover a lot of different policies and practices when I started to research this area properly, though I didn't expect to find the range, breadth and depth of material that I found whilst searching articles and scholarly sources.  I narrowed my search and focused on my immediate surroundings which enabled me to find relevant material to share here on my blog and to reflect on in relation to my professional practice.

The place that I have chosen to look in this narrowed down search is the Department for Education, more specifically their website and the Statutory Guidance section.  This organisation offers guidance for schools and governing bodies to create their own policies that need to be in place within the school.  I read through the guidance most relevant to my place of work and below are the key points of these areas that I consider to be the most relevant.

• Behaviour Management Policies: One particular area of the behaviour management policy section that stood out to me was the section on misconduct from students beyond the school gates/premises.
• any bad behaviour when the child is:
• taking part in any school-organised or school-related activity
• travelling to or from school
• wearing school uniform
• in some other way identifiable as a pupil at the school.
• or, misbehaviour at any time, whether or not the conditions above apply, that:
• could have repercussions for the orderly running of the school
• poses a threat to another pupil or member of the public
• could adversely affect the reputation of the school. 

On reflection I am finding it so strange that I didn't list a Behaviour Management policy in my first post, 5a.  The Behaviour Management policy is one of the most commonly referred to in my place of work due to the types of students that we have on role within the establishment.  Whilst I have a good understanding of the behaviour management policy at the school that I work at, I had never considered the elements of the policy that are enforced beyond the school gates, when students are displaying negative behaviour off the school site.

• Supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN):  Whilst I touched upon this particular area through the consideration of 'All Students to be Considered as Equal' and 'Differentiation' under the heading of 'Ethics' in my previous post, researching this area as a whole further has really opening my understanding of this vast area.  The main features of the piece of statutory guidance that I read mainly seemed to focus on the SEN provisions taken from the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, which are:
• a stronger right for children with SEN to be educated at a mainstream school
• new duties on LEAs to arrange for parents of children with SEN to be provided with services offering advice and information and a means of resolving disputes
• a new duty on schools and relevant nursery education providers to tell parents when they are making special educational provision for their child
• a new right for schools and relevant nursery education providers to request a statutory assessment of a child
• working in partnership with parents
• pupil participation
• working in partnership with other agencies 

It needs to be considered though, that whilst SEN policies encourage the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs, this policy in not specific to any particular need and is not a generic methodology of how to encourage the inclusion of any student with a particular need, equally, this is not a 'one way' of including all that have been identified as having a Special Educational Need.  The policy that can be created from the these guidelines supplied by the Department of Education encourages the staff within the education establishment to consider those in their care who have been identified as having Special Educational Needs and work to ensure the needs of the individual are 'understood, addressed and acknowledged' throughout the delivery of all lessons.

• Teachers' Pay and Conditions:  Again an area that on reflection should have been one of the ones that was at the forefront of my mind when I was creating my previous post.  It is incredibly vital that every educational establishment has a teachers' pay and conditions statutory policy, all based on the national one processed by the government.  However, with the recent increase of establishments outside of the Local Educational Authority's (LEA's) maintenance, the policy doesn't necessarily have to follow the national one. The aspects that I consider to be key from the guidance published by the Department for Education are:
• entitlement to specific salary and allowances
• leadership pay scales and duties that entitle additional bursary
• application for move through threshold and onto upper pay scale
• detailing of allowances for classroom teachers and Teaching and Learning Responsibilities (TLRs)
• part-time teachers 
• 1265 (Allocation of paid hours within a year)
• contractual framework for teachers
• sickness, long-term sickness and authorised absence pay terms
• non-authorised and strike action pay terms

In a time within the education system where pay and working conditions are moving quickly it is important that staff, leadership and governors have a detailed understanding of their specific establishment's policy.  It is key that the policy is refined and kept up to date in relation to the moves made by the government to ensure all staff understand that the policy that specifically constitutes their workload is inline with the changes that are being fought for.

This task has really opened my eyes to areas of the education system that I thought I had a fairly good idea of.  As stated in my previous posts, as I have recently started my new job at a new school I have been inundated with policies that govern how I am to work, and nine times out of ten flick through them and file them away.  Detailing specific areas of key policies that affect my professional practice has encouraged me to reflect on how much I really understand and know.  With regards to policies, each policy needs to be specific whilst considering its placement within the overall statutory guidance that is given from the overarching authority.