The duty of care:

The ‘duty of care’ is an obligation undertaken by all staff and places a specific responsibility on the principal as overall manager of the school to ensure full supervision of all pupils throughout the school day. A policy that has been approved by the Board of Governors, and reviewed/monitored on a regular basis, will be followed by all staff and part of the induction of new staff should include a thorough explanation of supervisory responsibilities. The principal must always be satisfied that the amount of supervision is adequate in both quality and quantity.

A significant part of the teacher/pupil relationship is based on the concept of duty of care and the principle is that the teacher will exercise a standard of care that would be expected of a caring parent.

The employer is responsible for any negligence by employees that results in injury to a pupil.

 

Staff must carry out professional duties related to their supervisory roles. The principal will:

Be responsible for the internal organisation, management and control of the school.

Formulate the overall aims and objectives of the school and policies for their implementation.

Deploy and manage all teaching and non-teaching staff and allocate duties to them, maintaining a reasonable balance for each between work carried out in school and work carried out elsewhere.

Ensure that teachers at school receive information they need in order to carry out their professional duties effectively.

Ensure good order and discipline at all times during the school day when pupils are present on the premises and whenever they are engaged in authorised school activities on/off the premises.

Make arrangements for the security and supervision of the school premises and report any lack of maintenance to the appropriate authority.

 

The employer has a specific obligation to ensure a ‘safe place of work’ is established for all staff and visitors and that adequate supervision of pupils throughout the day is carried out to ensure their health, safety and welfare. They are also obliged to ensure that discrimination does not occur within the work place.

If a claim for negligence is brought against a member of staff, it is important to be able to show that a structured supervision plan operates that is known and understood by all staff members and that adequate care was being exercised at the time of the incident. High standards of supervision must be maintained at all times. When absence of staff has to be covered, stand-ins must be properly notified and instructed with regard to their responsibilities. Temporary risks such as building work on the premises, bad weather and other exceptional situations must also be taken into account in the written plan.

If an incident occurs, it is imperative that, in addition to an official injury/accident report form, an account should be written up for any incident other than the very trivial. These accounts should be kept for future reference for a period of no less than 3 years from the date of the incident.

Responsibility begins when the pupils arrive at school.

Parents should be made aware of the starting/finishing time of the school day and indicating that no arrangements can be made for the supervision of pupils earlier/later than a specific limited period. Such a statement should be included in the school brochure. A timetable will be issued to all staff.

 

7.1 Registration

The responsibility to ensure that a pupil attends school regularly is that of the parents/guardian. Teachers should ensure that contact numbers are available, should a child be absent without notification from parent/guardian. Where, after contacting parents, it becomes clear that the pupil has failed to arrive at school after leaving home; it will be for the parents to take appropriate action. Where an unexplained absence does occur and it proves impossible to make contact with the home, Social Services should be informed immediately.

Pupils should not be allowed off-site during school hours unless there is clear evidence of a request from the parents/guardian. Any letter making such a request should be kept for a reasonable period.

7.2 Errands

No pupil should be sent off-site on a personal errand for a member of staff, teaching or non-teaching.

7.3 Illness

In the case of pupils who are taken ill during school, the principal should ensure that arrangements have been made to contact the parents/guardian, whether at home or work. This information should be kept with the pupil’s personal details. We have two "first-aiders" in school. During class time the adults should send for the medical staff in the event of an illness. At break/lunch the first aid room will be staffed, if required, please remember that an adult must take children to the room.

7.4 Emergency

No class of pupils should be left unsupervised for any reason. Send two pupils for help to the office or first aid room. An adult who leaves a class unattended for any reason will not be covered for insurance purposes and they will deemed to have broken their duty of care in the event of litigation.

7.5 Lesson time

Pupils who have been excused from normal lessons i.e. RE, PE or Assembly, the principal should ensure adequate supervision within available staffing resources. These children will remain with their class or be placed in another class. This process of placing a child in another room under supervision will be organised by the classroom teacher.

Staff have the responsibility for arranging removal of undesirable people from the school premises and all staff should be aware of the need to check strangers on the premises and report to the school office whenever there is concern. All doors must be kept locked during school lessons. The teacher whose room is closest to the outside door must lock the door at the start of lessons or after a break. Access/Entry to outside will only be made via the front door to enable proper use of the security camera.

 

The principal must ensure there is adequate supervision, both indoors and outdoors, through school break times. This requires the staff to actually ‘patrol’ the school, not merely ‘be on call in case of emergencies’.

Factors that should be taken into consideration when deciding on the level of supervision required include:

the number of pupils involved

the age of the pupils and their general behaviour

the time of year

specific environmental hazards

the quality and experience of staff supervisors

Pupils should never be left in classrooms during break times in bad weather unless the principal is satisfied that the overall level of supervision is satisfactory:

it is necessary to go into the room itself to supervise pupils

a teacher/paid supervisor should be present to supervise pupils

the only safe system may be to have one person in each room.

moving from one room to another, supervising two groups is an inadequate process.

Every principal/vice-principal is entitled to a break of reasonable length in the course of each school day and the head should arrange for a suitable person to assume responsibility for the discharge of his/her functions during that break. A time table of cover will be issued to staff.

The supervision of pupils after the normal closure time is, like the period before school, for a limited period only. In organising supervision, the principal will need to have regard to the age of the pupils, the arrangements for transport, the particular hazards of the area and whether or not pupils are being met by their parents/guardian. There is a need to ensure sufficient cover to deal with emergencies such as when a pupil, who is normally met by their parents, is left unattended at school.

All parents, especially those of very young pupils or those who regularly collect their children, should be given notice of any change in the finishing time.

Staff are not responsible for the supervision of pupils travelling to and from school; this is provided by the transport company. However, a principal can discipline pupils who misbehave on transport when travelling to and from school.

Children who are walking home or being collected will be released from the school exits. If an adult has not arrived children must report to the office where they will be wait to be collected.

If a principal or teacher carries out any of these duties, then they must be deemed to do so as a volunteer in the exercise of his/her own discretion. Reasonable care must be shown at all times.

12.1 Physical Education

The same general principles of care apply during PE lessons as to other school activities, but the teacher has to also consider such factors as the safety of apparatus being used, the condition of the floor, the suitability of the pupils’ clothing and whether the exercises and activities are within the capabilities of pupils, as well as being properly taught. Normally children should not be allowed to wear watches and/or jewellery.

Pupils should never be allowed into a gym, or use gym equipment, unless they are properly supervised.

With supervision of sick/injured pupils, all staff should be aware of the availability of first aid equipment and know which staff member is qualified to give first aid treatment.

12.2 Extra curricular activities

The same level of supervision is necessary as for similar activities in normal school time. The principal and staff concerned should ensure that requirements under the authority’s insurance regulations are fully met. Again, adequate notice should be given to parents of pupils who will be late home through participation in after-school activities.

When pupils are taken from school on organised visits, the same duty of care exists whether or not the visit is undertaken voluntarily and out of normal school hours. It covers the duration of the whole visit and should include arrangements for the collection of pupils at the end of the visit.

The various accidents that occur every day make the defining of them very difficult. We must treat every report very seriously.

Staff - Break Supervision