Professional Ethical guidelines from my workplace

Now I attended a campus session during the module in which we discussed ethics, and what we thought ethics were.  At that paricular meeting I started to write my own ethical conduct for my workplace in which I have posted before this blog.  Once I returned I looked at Part 5b and researched in to the professional ethics that are in place in the educational system.  Looking on the world wide web I found some information that does not necessarily stand as direct ethics, but I thought it was relevant to my inquiry.  Whilst I looked for information on actual ethical considerations that are in place in schools, I found an article which made me consider looking at key traits that make a good teacher, key principles being

• Be a good role Model
• Make pupils your key concern
• Promote the education of pupils
• Be open and honest and act with integrity
• Show respect for others

These 5 bullet points published by The General Teaching Council for Scotland, in Driving Forward Professional Standards for teachers, stood out to me.  With these as a base of what a teacher should be it then links to a base on what ethics should be in place within the school environment.  I feel if I had taken these points in to consideration before I had wrote my own 5 ethical considerations to be adhered to. 

Now as I have been taken part in work experience at my local Junior school, and I hope to continue my inquiry whilst there, I have taken key points from there code of conduct that I was instructed to read when I started.  As these are relevant to my exact professional environment at present I felt extracting from these and blogging on them would be  more suitable.  Unfortunately they are provided to me on paper, therefore I cannot link to them. 

So with regards to task 5B here is what I have taken from the code of conduct that is in place to keep the school environment adhering to ethical issues. 

1. We aim to create and maintain a welcoming, caring and safe environment where all relationships are based on mutual respect and to develop a positive self-esteem in each child. 
2. Children are taught what is acceptable behaviour and are made aware of the consequences of breaking the rules. 
3. Class teachers are largely responsible for the behviour of children within class and will agree a set of class rules through agreement and discussion with the children.  These rules form a basis for acceptable behaviour, within the School's overall code of conduct. 
4. Children are positively encouraged to conform to high standards of behaviour showing consideration and respect for other people and their property.  All adults in the school are expected to demonstrate high standards of personal conduct as a positive example to children and to reinforce the shared values both in and out of the classroom. 
5. As a school, we believe strongly that our children should be able to show responsibility, self-control and high standards of personal conduct.  To illustrate our expectation we have a code of conduct for our children to follow which is summarised into the '5 Golden Rules'.  The rules encompass all aspects of desirable behaviour and are phrased in positive terms.  Through discussion in school, children will learn that these rules will guide and support them in their choices of appropriate behaviour. 

I have just blogged the top five key points that I have taken from this code that are relevant to the school and the environment, which of course is where my inquiry will take place so these are relevant to my inquiry. 

I do see quite a big difference from my 5 points I raised and those that are in place.  Mine from task 5A I feel were more specific to the class that I am going to be observing.  However I feel the guidelines that are in place, cover a wide area of ruling that can be linked to all areas of the professional environment.  It is also seen to me that further rules are then divised within the classroom between the pupils and the teachers, which will add to the meeting of all ethical issues.  I also feel developing these in the classroom can be seen as effective with using the childrens input aswell. 

I feel I will need to continue working on the ethical considerations of my inquiry to get them exactly right.  Learning from as I have posted in this blog not to be so specific, but also realising that my study will take place in a classroom and further rules are developed in the classroom environment.