Why a Primary School Requires a Duty of Care to Protect Its Students
1 Introduction:
The Department of Education in Western Australia follows government policy to ensure all those who are of school age attend school. There is a general duty of care related to common law that the teacher has to do all that is reasonable to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all those who are associated through the teacher/student relationship during the school day, whilst on the school grounds or during school activities/excursions.
The purpose of this report is to examine the need and application of the duty of care policy within a primary school environment, using three different scenarios duty of care will be explored.
2 Discussion:
The policy
Why write the policy?
Principally the policy covers all aspects of the teacher/student relationship ‘the duty is to take such measures as are reasonable in all the circumstances to protect students from risks of harm that reasonably ought to be foreseen.’ (DETWA, 2007) p3) this statement makes teachers aware of the expectations required of them for the continuing health, safety and welfare of the students.
Although the teacher wants the student to achieve the best education available learning responsibility and autonomy amongst other things, they must use their common sense and ‘professional judgment’ (DETWA, 2007) p3) to weigh up the foreseeable risks of personal injury to any student or other person/people. When leaving the class room the teacher must make a judgement on whether the volunteer or non teaching staff member or external provider is trained or experienced enough to ensure the continued duty of care towards the students. ‘this requires not only protection from known hazards, but also from harm that could foreseeably arise and against which preventive measures can be taken’ (DETWA, 2007) p3)
What sorts of issues does the policy cover?
Reasonable care; the guideline states ‘The duty owed to students is not a duty to ensure that no harm will ever occur, but rather a duty to take
The Department of Education in Western Australia follows government policy to ensure all those who are of school age attend school. There is a general duty of care related to common law that the teacher has to do all that is reasonable to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all those who are associated through the teacher/student relationship during the school day, whilst on the school grounds or during school activities/excursions.
The purpose of this report is to examine the need and application of the duty of care policy within a primary school environment, using three different scenarios duty of care will be explored.
2 Discussion:
The policy
Why write the policy?
Principally the policy covers all aspects of the teacher/student relationship ‘the duty is to take such measures as are reasonable in all the circumstances to protect students from risks of harm that reasonably ought to be foreseen.’ (DETWA, 2007) p3) this statement makes teachers aware of the expectations required of them for the continuing health, safety and welfare of the students.
Although the teacher wants the student to achieve the best education available learning responsibility and autonomy amongst other things, they must use their common sense and ‘professional judgment’ (DETWA, 2007) p3) to weigh up the foreseeable risks of personal injury to any student or other person/people. When leaving the class room the teacher must make a judgement on whether the volunteer or non teaching staff member or external provider is trained or experienced enough to ensure the continued duty of care towards the students. ‘this requires not only protection from known hazards, but also from harm that could foreseeably arise and against which preventive measures can be taken’ (DETWA, 2007) p3)
What sorts of issues does the policy cover?
Reasonable care; the guideline states ‘The duty owed to students is not a duty to ensure that no harm will ever occur, but rather a duty to take