Parent Code of Conduct

At St George’s Primary School we are very fortunate to have such supportive and friendly parents who work in very close partnership with the school. Our parents recognise that educating children is best achieved through working together in a partnership between parents, class teachers, other school staff and the wider school community. As a partnership, our parents understand the importance of having a good relationship to equip children with the necessary skills for adulthood. For these reasons we continue to welcome and encourage parents/carers to fully participate in the life of our school.

The purpose of this policy is to provide a reminder to all parents, carers and visitors to our school about the expected conduct. This is so we can continue to flourish progress and achieve in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding.

Guidance

We expect parents, carers and visitors to:

Respect the caring ethos of the school.
Understand that both teachers and parents need to work together for the benefit of the children.
Demonstrate that all members of the school community should be treated with respect and therefore set a good example in their own speech and behaviour.
Seek to clarify a child’s version of events with the school’s view in order to bring about a peaceful solution to any issue.
Correct own child’s behaviour especially in public where it could otherwise lead to conflict, aggressive behaviour or unsafe behaviour.
Approach the school to help resolve any issues of concern.
Avoid using staff as threats to admonish children’s behaviour.

In order to support a peaceful and safe school environment the school cannot tolerate parents, carers and visitors exhibiting the following:

Disruptive behaviour which interferes or threatens to interfere with the operation of a classroom, an employee’s office, the office area or any other areas of the school grounds including sports matches.
Using loud or offensive language, swearing, cursing, using profane language or displaying temper.
Threatening to do actual bodily harm to a member of school staff, Governor, visitor, fellow parent/carer or pupil regardless of whether or not the behaviour constitutes a criminal offence.
Damaging or destroying school property.
Abusive or threatening emails or texts, internet posts, voicemail, phone messages or written communication.
Defamatory, offensive or derogatory comments regarding the school or any of the pupils, parent, staff at the school on Facebook or other social network sites. Any concerns you have about the school must be made through the appropriate channels, which includes the School Complaints Procedure. You can speak to the class teacher in the first instance, the Headteacher or the Chair of Governors so they can be dealt with fairly, appropriately and effectively for all concerned. If you are not happy with the outcome, you can also ask for a copy of the Complaints procedure and follow the steps for a formal complaint.
The use of physical aggressive behaviour towards another adult or child. This includes physical punishment against your own child on school premises.
Approaching someone else’s child in order to discuss or chastise them because of the actions of this child towards their own child. (Such an approach to a child may be seen as an assault on that child and may have legal consequences)
Smoking and consumption of alcohol or other drugs whilst on school property.
Dogs being brought on to school premises.

Should any of the above behaviour occur on school premises the school may feel it is necessary to contact the appropriate authorities and if necessary, even ban the offending adult from entering the school grounds.

We trust that parents and carers will assist our school with the implementation of this policy and we thank you for your continuing support of the school.

Appendix 1

Inappropriate use of Social Network Site

Social media websites are used increasingly to fuel campaigns and complaints against schools, Head teachers, school staff and in some cases other parents/children. The Governors of St George’s Primary School consider the use of social media websites being used in this way as unacceptable and not in the best interest of the children or the whole school community. Any concerns you may have must be made through the appropriate channels by speaking to the class teacher, Headteacher or the Chair of Governors, so they can be dealt with fairly, appropriately and effectively for all concerned.

In the event that any pupil or parent/carer of a child/ren at St George’s Primary School is found to be posting libelous or defamatory comments on Facebook or other sites, they will be reported to the appropriate ‘report abuse’ section of the network site. All social network sites have clear rules about the content which can be posted on the site and they provide robust mechanisms to report contact or activity which breaches this. The school will also expect that any parent/carer or pupil remove such comments immediately.

In serious cases the school will also consider its legal options to deal with any misuse of social networking and/or other sites. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly is the issue of cyber bullying and the use by one child or a parent to publicly humiliate another by inappropriate social network entry. We will take and deal with this as a serious incident of school bullying. Thankfully incidents like this are extremely rare.

We would expect that parents would make all persons responsible for collecting children aware of this policy.