explain why schools have policies and procedures...1 explain why schools have policies and...
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Explain why schools have policies and procedures All schools, as with many other public and private organisations, must have school
policies that are clear and unambiguous. Policies ensure that those who run the
school, from staff to governors, parents to support workers, are able to work from a
set of guidelines that are easy to understand.
Some schools may have a large number of policies but there are some that are
statutory (demanded by law) and the rest will be created because their existence
makes a lot of situations much easier to handle in a standardised way.
The idea behind a policy is that it provides consistent principles to be used within
practice across a school. It does not provide the details of what is expected for every
conceivable incident or event that happens, but to make clear who should be
informed, what limits are set on the way in which a school can deal with a situation,
and the order in which things should be done. Statutory Policies for Schools
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Statutory policies connected with educational legislation include:
Capability of staff
Charging and remissions
School behaviour
Sex education (for secondary schools only)
Special educational needs
Teacher appraisal
Teachers' pay.
Statutory policies that are connected with other legislation include:
Data protection Health and safety.
Non-statutory policies might include things like a homework policy, a PE policy, or an
equality and diversity policy. These types of policy are useful because they can also
provide valuable information to parents who are considering sending their children to
the school, as well as potential employees and governors.
Policies around staff development, performance management, or leave of absence
may give prospective employees an opportunity to decide whether or not they want
to accept a job offer to the school.
Because policies and procedures are generally well-laid-out and quite short, they
provide a snap-shot for a range of people connected with the school, of the
principles by which the school is governed and managed.
Procedures describe how a policy will be actioned within the school. Procedures
tend to outline who will do what, the steps they need to take, and the forms or
documents they should use to record it. Sometimes a procedure might be a list or
some bullet points; sometimes it might take the form of a check-list or a flow chart.
Policies and procedures both list the purpose and aims of the document, and the
responsibilities of staff.
The statutory policies listed on GOV.net do not cover all the policies that a school will
need; sometimes it only becomes clear that a particular policy is needed when there
is some kind of confusion over a specific situation, or when there is significantly
different practice across the school in certain areas. An example of this might be where
in one year a school had so many requests for unpaid leave during term time from
support and other staff that it became clear it needed a staff leave policy.