Responsibilities

Context:

Code of Ethics

A professional code of ethics outlines teachers' primary responsibilities to their students and defines their role in a student's life. Educators must demonstrate impartiality, integrity, and ethical behaviour in the classroom, whether virtual or in-person and in their conduct with parents and co-workers. Working alongside several teachers, it is important to always follow the code of ethics of teaching.

Duty of Care

It is vital to act upon duty of care expectations as well. Duty of care is a legal obligation that requires schools to take reasonable steps to reduce the risk of reasonably foreseeable harm. As part of that duty, I am required to supervise student health adequately. As teachers, we are required to manage the roll every day, follow up unexplained absences, and report any suspicious action that may be happening inside or outside of school such as abuse and neglect.

Annotation/Action:

Code of Ethics

I participated in a Code of Ethics online Professional Development program. The Code clearly articulates the behaviours that are expected of all employees and outlines the public sector values alongside the professional conduct standards. As a teacher, I was expected to familiarise myself with the content and conduct myself in a manner consistent with the values and standards of professional conduct set out in the Code.

Duty of Care

Every morning it is my responsibility to take the roll and follow up any consistent absences or unexplained absences. It is a requirement for families to provide us with an explanation of a students absence. At my current school, it is the teacher's responsibility to chase up any unexplained absences. In the past two years, I have had multiple students not attend school without reasoning. When this happens, I often send a note home, email and for several absences, call the carers and participate in meetings with the leadership team. There have been two students in particular the past two years who have had poor absences consistently and with no reasoning. From this, I sent home a note, emailed and called the carers of that student. I noted down and kept a record of this and had emails/meetings with leadership staff to approach it carefully with a clear goal of having these students attend school. Further, one of these students shows signs of abuse and neglect happening at home. As my duty of care as their teacher, I place in multiple mandatory reports to ensure the student is safe and requires the attention needed.

Results:

In the result of taking on these responsibilities, it not only recognises the importance of following the code of teaching, but to also strive for students to attend school to reach their full potential. Unfortunately, through the extents that myself and leadership have gone to, to try and get these students to attend school have not had the outcome that we have overall hoped for as the students attendance has not improved. However, the communication between myself and leadership and the support that we provide each other has made us consistent with this process. Due to no reciprocation from the family, we are constantly chasing up and encouraging meetings to stay on top of this, not only for student attendance but also safety of the child.

Evaluation:

This has overall, been a process that has opened my eyes as a teacher. It has taught me about a side of teaching that I was unaware of when at university. I understand thoroughly my responsibilities and have found it effective to work alongside leadership staff to ensure students in my classroom are reaching their potential and receiving the education that they deserve. I believe the process we use at my current site is effective, and persistence is the key to reach the overall outcome that we intend.

Standards:

7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities

7.2 Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements