The safety of students was not considered

Standard 4 of APST states that teachers must ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’. Of particular relevance is section 4.4 ‘Maintain student safety’.

This is the same sort of trust that you as an educator need to uphold. A variety of instances can occur when you are responsible for students. You also have a duty of care to worry about. Think about it this way, if your persona and the way a student perceives you changes, are you going to be able to uphold the professionalism they need to appropriately learn within their educational environment, or will you have breached that image and forever be someone they are trying to impress, just like their peers?

The sub-section “4.4” states that “Maintaining student safety [should include] strategies that support students’ wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements”. This is of interest as it explicitly states that teachers are responsible for making an environment within school safe for students, yet this scenario causes questions for how to interact outside of the school context. However, we still think that it is a relevant standard.

A safe school context or environment is something that is upheld by teachers based on the way that a student perceives them. There is a great level of trust that occurs with students and their teachers. Think about the first time that you walk into a new group of students. They all look at you with wonder about the type of person you are. Are you going to be strict? Are you going to be funny? Mostly, are you going to give them enough agency to be who they are while learning on their independent journey?

As an educator, your main role is to assist a student on their learning journey, and to make sure they feel that they can approach you in a respectable way at all times to gain the assistance that they may need. If you alter this, by attending social parties with students, you may be jeopardising the way that they learn throughout the course of you being their teacher. It is safer if you remain professional at all times, just as standard 1.5 of the Code of Conduct dictates, so that you’re standard 4 of the Australian Professional Standards of Teaching can be maintained.