The School Code of Behaviour
Last updated: Tue, Jan 24th, 2017 12:13:36 pm
The Board of Management is charged, under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, with the responsibility of ensuring that a Code of Behaviour is drawn up, applied in the school and reviewed from time to time. The Code must conform to the NEWB (TUSLA) Guidelines for Developing a Code of Behaviour for Schools. The task of drafting the Code should be delegated to the Principal in consultation with teachers, parents and students.
The Code of Behaviour should take account of the ethos and the environment of the school, should encompass rules, sanctions, rewards, incentives and procedures and, having been approved by the Board of Management, should be submitted to the Trustees for ratification. It must be available in the school for inspection by Inspectors of the Department of Education and Skills, and a copy must be forwarded to the Department if requested. It is essential that arrangements are in place to ensure that parents are made fully aware of the school Code of Behaviour rules and procedures.
Pastoral Care
Pastoral Care is a core function in all our schools. In January 2013 the Department of Education and Skills published, Well-Being in Post Primary Schools, Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention. These guidelines state:
"Schools play a vital role in the promotion of positive mental health in young people. Schools can also provide a safe and supportive environment for building life skills and resilience and a strong sense of connectedness to school. The fostering of healthy relationships with peers, teachers and school staff are essential to a young person's positive experience of school and their cognitive and emotional development".
ACCS has given the following guidance on establishing Student Support Teams:
Pastoral/student care:
This is defined in Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion “Well-Being in Post-Primary Schools” as:
Student Support Structures. Student SS are activated through the work of ‘student support teams’ or ‘care teams’.
When these structures are in place the students will feel safe and cared-for and will be able to engage fully in learning.
It’s the system that relates to student welfare, early intervention and identification of difficulties, behaviour management, SPHE and RSE programmes, child protection procedures and a critical incident policy.
Part of anti bullying strategy
Restorative justice
See pages 23 & 24 of guidelines
The ACCS Newsletter 4 of 2012 2013 addresses this issue as well as Anti Bullying Procedures, guidelines for which were published by the Department in September 2013.
School Rules
In her report to the Minister for Education on Discipline in Schools, 1997, Dr. Maeve Martin recommends that: "Rules should be
Few and fair
Simple and positively stated
Enforceable and enforced
Developed and owned by all the partners
Discussed and, if necessary and appropriate, taught like academic content"
The age, range of abilities and level of aspirations of the students should be taken into account when rules are formulated. They should be kept to a minimum, and should emphasise personal responsibility, safety and respect for persons and property as fundamental requirements.
School Uniform
The wearing of a school uniform by students may be prescribed and incorporated in the School Code of Behaviour taking due account of the requirements of the Equality Acts 2000 – 2004. It may be enforced on the grounds that parents, in enrolling their child in the school, have implicitly or explicitly accepted the Code of Behaviour.
The enforcement of a school uniform rule should not bring about unnecessary conflict or give rise to undue cost implications for parents. The Department of Education and Skills is currently engaged in a national survey of parents to ascertain their view of uniform regulations and its cost implications (2014). Boards of Management are expected to encourage parents to participate in this exercise.
Rewards and Incentives
It is important that schools should promote positive behaviour among students and have a system of rewards for those students who display such behaviour and attitudes.
Students respond well to praise and encouragement and Boards of Management and Principals are advised to explore and to develop appropriate systems of rewards as a counterbalance to sanctions.
Many schools have worthwhile award systems in place, and ACCS will be happy to provide further information.
Sanctions
It is accepted that a teacher/school may administer sanctions for misdemeanors and breaches of school rules. However, the sanction must be reasonable and fair in all the circumstances. Its imposition and administration must be without malice or discrimination. Generally, sanctions should have elements of deterrent and opportunities for reform.
Boards of Management should have guidelines for teachers regarding sanctions. Such guidelines could reasonably leave minor sanctions, such as reprimand and minor verbal chastisement, to the discretion of teachers, but there should be clear guidelines regarding detention, suspension, expulsion.
Corporal punishment is explicitly prohibited under the "Non-fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997".
Procedures
In the context of imposing sanctions, Boards of Management should ensure that appropriate procedures are in place, that the rules of natural justice are applied and that the requirements of the Equality Acts of 2000-2004 are fully observed. In general, this requires:
that proper records of misbehaviour and the action taken are maintained by Teachers, Class Tutors, Year Heads, Deputy Principal and Principal as appropriate
that students and parents are informed when instances of misbehaviour are recorded
that parents are involved at an early stage in resolving instances of serious misbehaviour,
that, before sanctions are applied, the pupil, and in serious cases, both pupil and parent(s) have an opportunity to respond.
Parents should be made aware of their right to appeal to a higher authority, such as the Principal or the Board of Management.
The Education Act, 1998, Section 28, makes provision for a Grievance Procedure for the resolution of the grievances of students or their parents. The introduction of such Grievance Procedure will require a consultative process between the Minister for Education and Science and the Education Partners.
Section 29 makes provision for appeals to the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills against decisions of a Board of Management regarding:
Permanent exclusion from a school,
Suspension for a period which would bring the cumulative period of suspension to 20 school days in any one school year, or
Refusal to enrol.
The procedures for the implementation of such appeal are contained in DES CL M48/01.
It is particularly important that proper procedures are followed in cases of detention, suspension, expulsion.
Detention
The school rules should state that detention is an approved sanction for certain breaches of discipline. However detention, like other punishments, should be used reasonably. It should be appropriate to the offence, the child's age, convenience or danger arising from travelling home alone at a later time and the anxiety it may cause parents if they do not have at least twenty-four hours notice of the detention.
Parents/guardians should always be advised in advance of detention and given precise details of when the sanction is to be imposed and for what period.
Suspension
The Board of Management of a recognised school has the authority to suspend a student. Where this authority is delegated to the Principal, the delegation should be done formally at a meeting of the Board of Management and a minute kept of it. The authority delegated should state any limits on that authority, and specify how the Principal is accountable to the Board of Management for his or her use of that authority.
Suspension is a serious sanction and should only be imposed by the Principal in cases where other efforts to resolve a disciplinary situation have failed, or where the nature of the incident dictates that the student be removed from the school immediately. Before suspending a student, the Principal should inform the parents in writing of the reason for the suspension, the period of the suspension and the requirements which must be fulfilled to gain reinstatement. The parents must be fully informed of their right to appeal against the suspension.
When a student is suspended it is important that both the student and his/her parents are dealt with fairly. Careful contemporaneous notes should be kept of meetings and any agreement reached should be recorded. If a suspension extends beyond five school days the Child and Family Agency TUSLA must be informed. It is advisable that all suspensions be reported to the Board of Management for noting and review.
Expulsion
The Board of Management of the school has the authority to expel a student. As a matter of best practice, that authority should be reserved to the
Board of Management and should not be delegated.
Expulsion is the most severe sanction available to a school. It should only be imposed for very serious breaches of school rules or in cases where the rights of a greater number of students are being denied because of the continual disruptive behaviour of an individual.
The school is required by law to follow fair procedures as well as procedures prescribed under the Education (Welfare) Act, 2000, when proposing to expel a student. Where a preliminary assessment of the facts confirms serious misbehaviour that could warrant expulsion, the procedural steps will include:
1. A detailed investigation carried out under the direction of the Principal.
2. A recommendation to expel to the Board of Management by the Principal.
3. Consideration by the Board of Management of the Principal's recommendation; and the holding of a hearing.
4. Board of Management deliberations and actions following the hearing.
5. Consultations arranged by the Educational Welfare Officer.
6. Confirmation of the decision to expel.
The schools Code of Behaviour must include a statement of policy and procedure to be followed in the case of suspension and expulsion. This may be included in the Code of Behaviour or added as a separate addendum to the Code. It is essential that this statement should fully conform to the NEWB (TUSLA) Guidelines on Suspension and Expulsion as contained in its publication Developing a Code of Behaviour: Guidelines for Schools (Chapters 10, 11,12)