ED2623 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Railways Act 1921
Physical Education - Week 13 - Lecture 13
Legal Responsibilities & Duty of Care in the PE Setting
Duty of Care
- Teachers have a duty of care
- A duty imposed by the law
- The duty owed is not a duty to ensure that no harm will ever occur, but a duty to take reasonable care
to avoid harm being suffered.
- Should a teacher neglect their duty of care then parents may sue the teacher or the school for
negligence
Negligence - (Case 1)
- In order to sue for negligence, three factors must be established:
- There is a duty of care.
- The teacher or the school have breached that duty of care
- An injury has resulted that could have been foreseen
What does Duty of Care entail?
- The duty encompasses a wide range of matters, including (but not limited to)
(a) Provision of adequate supervision;
(b) Ensuring grounds, premises and equipment are safe for use by students;
(c) Implementing strategies to prevent
(d) Rendering medical assistance (if competent to do so) to, or seeking assistance
Foreseeability
- Teachers need to be able to step back from their practices and try and envisage what may occur.
- This is why routines and management techniques are so important. The children know what is expected
form them.
- Constantly make adjustments.
Protocol and Policy
- Use the Education Dept of WA manuals for excursions and water-based activities.
- As a new teacher check what the schools policy is regarding any new activityIf an accident occurs that
the teacher should have foreseen, then they may be negligent.
Safety of Students
1. Developmentally appropriate/open ended questions
- Many negligence claims have been a result of inadequate lead up skills.
- If a teacher asks a child to perform a skill for which they don’t have the pre- requisite skills to perform -
they are being negligent.
- Up to date resources.
2. Supervision
- A supervisor must be in the immediate vicinity
- If required to leave a supervisor must provide an adequate replacement (not student teachers, parent
help etc)
- Appropriate lead up skills
- Pre-requisite skills to perform the skill
- Supervision procedures (SP) must be preplanned
- SP should show the best place for a teacher stand.
- Supervision requires that age, maturity and skill level of students must be considered.
3. Duty to properly instruct (Case 4)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Physical education - week 13 - lecture 13. Legal responsibilities & duty of care in the pe setting. The duty owed is not a duty to ensure that no harm will ever occur, but a duty to take reasonable care to avoid harm being suffered. Should a teacher neglect their duty of care then parents may sue the teacher or the school for negligence. In order to sue for negligence, three factors must be established: The teacher or the school have breached that duty of care. An injury has resulted that could have been foreseen. Teachers need to be able to step back from their practices and try and envisage what may occur. This is why routines and management techniques are so important. The children know what is expected form them. Use the education dept of wa manuals for excursions and water-based activities.
