Human Rights
The human rights movement was initially spurred on by the determination to avoid the atrocities of that war. Since then the conventions and law promoted by the European Community across Europe have widened into a whole raft of rights that have been pursued in national courts and the European Court of Human Rights.
The most significant rights in the Human Rights Act 1998 affecting schools are:
- the right not to be detained;
- the right to affair hearing;
- the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
- the right to freedom of expression.
The right to education is not in this list. It was added as Article 2 of the 1st Protocol, which said that - no person is to be denied education, and States must also respect the right of parents to ensure that such education conforms with their religious and philosophical convictions.
In schools the effect of these rights is seen in a number of diverse areas, such as:
- admission to schools;
- bullying;
- imposing sanctions
- restraining pupils;
- wearing school uniform.
Each right has to be balanced with other people's rights and duties. This brings difficulties as in the case of R (Begum) v the Headteacher and Governing Body of Denbigh H.S. 2005, where the High Court reached the decision that the banning of a particular Muslim dress by a school was reasonable in the circumstances only for the Appeal Court to decide the opposite, and finally the House of Lords reverting to the original decision in favour of the school.
Punishing children could be an offence against a child's right but the law has expressly allowed schools to impose disciplinary penalties where a pupil’s conduct falls below the standard which could be reasonably expected. Punishment must be ‘reasonable’ and ‘proportionate’.
Managing Teacher Performance for Effective Learning
Revised performance management regulations came into effect in England from 1 September 2007 (in Wales, the School Teacher Appraisal Regulations 2002 continue to apply). The regulations cover, the principles, procedures and practices set out in the regulations. The accompanying guidance and model performance management policy issued by the Rewards and Incentives Group (RIG) are applicable to schools in the maintained and independent sectors.
The performance review comprises two components:
a review of overall performance of the previous academic year;
planning which encompasses the objectives set/agreed, the success criteria for those objectives, including evidence on which judgements will be based, and any support to be provided during the cycle for the next academic year.
The revised process is intended to produce fairer and more consistent assessments of performance and to ensure that there are no surprises at the planning and review meeting by clarifying what is expected at the outset and providing moderation to ensure quality assurance.
Objectives/targets should focus on priorities and be reasonable in number. As it is not possible to set objectives covering the whole of a teacher’s job description and responsibilities within ‘priorities’, it should be assumed that all aspects not covered by the objectives are being performed at a satisfactory level. If this assumption is proved erroneous during the cycle, a mid-year meeting should be held to discuss the concerns that have been raised and a revised statement should be produced. The suggested framework of success criteria, evidence to be used (including the source) and support to be provided should be applied to every objective.
Lesson observation should be carried out in accordance with the provisions of the school’s performance management policy. In order to achieve greater consistency of judgement it is recommended that all observations are based on areas identified in the presentation.