Teachers work within a legal framework involving rights and duties. The new professional standards for teaching and leadership have applied to teachers in Wales since September 2017; the Teachers’ Standards have applied to teachers in England since September 2012. Teachers are required to maintain up-to-date knowledge and understanding of and to act within the statutory frameworks which set out their professional duties and responsibilities.
These lecture notes provide information on the legal framework for teachers beginning their careers.
Your first point of contact for advice and support from the union is your workplace representative. If there is no representative in your workplace, for advice and assistance call 0345 811 8111.
The Department for Education (DfE) and the Welsh Government are responsible for education and children’s services in England and Wales. Where Department for Education and Skills (DfES) or Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) statutory and non-statutory guidance is referred to in these lecture notes, it continues to reflect the current legal and policy position.
CONTENTS
- Teachers’ duty of care to pupils
- Teachers’ duty of care and out-of-school activities
- Health and safety at work
- Physical contact with pupils
- Teachers’ power to use reasonable force to restrain
- The role of the education service in protecting children from abuse
- Teachers’ power to discipline
- Detention of pupils on disciplinary grounds
- Searching pupils
- Protection from discrimination – pupils
- Special educational needs (SEN) code of practice
- Protection from discrimination – teachers
- Criminal records and suitability to work with children
- Childcare disqualification
- Legal and professional advice from the union