Heads of school.

[maggie01]

Does a head of a school have the right to ask questions of a semi serious nature to a junior pupil without having another member of staff present and also should he/she be allowed to take the matter further without anyone else questioning the child. I am sorry I can't go into the matter too much as it is still ongoing.

[nannon]

if its a semi serious matter with pupil of junior school surely parents would have to be present?? is there no more info you can give us at all?

[JudgeJ]

I should say that it is the Head�s responsibility to get to the bottom of matters of concern to the school. Children (and their parents) must learn that, from an early age, they have obligations and responsibilities and that, occasionally it may be necessary for them to be spoken to or questioned by various people.

Heads must be allowed to use their discretion in these matters as they are best placed to know how to handle them. They do not get appointed to their posts unless they are able to do this and they should not be hidebound by pettifogging regulations.

[MrsJo49155]

Not sure whether the semi-serious nature you are referring to is connected to family issues or school issues but Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 (which came into force in 2004) introduced for the first time an explicit duty on local authorities and governing bodies of schools to make arrangements to ensure that they exercise their functions with a view to safeguarding children.

New guidance on safeguarding children was issued to schools and local authorities in September 2004. It requires all schools to appoint a designated senior person for child protection (not necessarily a teacher) to take lead responsibility for child protection issues and liaise with other agencies. It may well be that the Head Teacher is the designated Child Protection Officer.