The teacher did not demonstrate professional responsibility

Standard 7 of APST states that teachers must ‘engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community,’ relevant sections include; 7.1 and 7.2.

7.1 states that teachers need to ‘meet professional ethics and responsibilities,’ including to ‘understand and apply the key principles described in codes of ethics and conduct for the teaching profession’.

Considering the extent to which Miss Hawkins has violated the codes and ethics of conduct it is unlikely that she is familiar with them. The scenario creates a picture of a graduate teacher that is keen on doing a good job and genuinely trying to build a good rapport with her students, whilst creating an engaging curriculum. It is also clear that in her personal time the teacher enjoys attending parties and going to clubs. All of this is perfectly fine, how Miss Hawkins spends her personal time is just that, private. Where the issue has arisen is that Miss Hawkins has made her private activities public. Given all of the information that we know about the teacher we can assume that if she was properly educated on the principles she would most likely have taken the appropriate steps to avoid this situation.

7.2 states that teachers must ‘comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements’. Every school has policies in place as an attempt to avoid situations such as this. It is unlikely that through agreeing to attend the party, that Miss Hawkins has complied with the policies and requirements set out by the school.