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Explain why schools have policies and procedures All schools, as with many other public and private organisations, must have school

policies that are clear and unambiguous. Policies ensure that those who run the

school, from staff to governors, parents to support workers, are able to work from a

set of guidelines that are easy to understand.

Some schools may have a large number of policies but there are some that are

statutory (demanded by law) and the rest will be created because their existence

makes a lot of situations much easier to handle in a standardised way.

The idea behind a policy is that it provides consistent principles to be used within

practice across a school. It does not provide the details of what is expected for every

conceivable incident or event that happens, but to make clear who should be

informed, what limits are set on the way in which a school can deal with a situation,

and the order in which things should be done. Statutory Policies for Schools

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Statutory policies connected with educational legislation include:

Capability of staff

Charging and remissions

School behaviour

Sex education (for secondary schools only)

Special educational needs

Teacher appraisal

Teachers' pay.

Statutory policies that are connected with other legislation include:

Data protection Health and safety.

Non-statutory policies might include things like a homework policy, a PE policy, or an

equality and diversity policy. These types of policy are useful because they can also

provide valuable information to parents who are considering sending their children to

the school, as well as potential employees and governors.

Policies around staff development, performance management, or leave of absence

may give prospective employees an opportunity to decide whether or not they want

to accept a job offer to the school.

Because policies and procedures are generally well-laid-out and quite short, they

provide a snap-shot for a range of people connected with the school, of the

principles by which the school is governed and managed.

Procedures describe how a policy will be actioned within the school. Procedures

tend to outline who will do what, the steps they need to take, and the forms or

documents they should use to record it. Sometimes a procedure might be a list or

some bullet points; sometimes it might take the form of a check-list or a flow chart.

Policies and procedures both list the purpose and aims of the document, and the

responsibilities of staff.

The statutory policies listed on GOV.net do not cover all the policies that a school will

need; sometimes it only becomes clear that a particular policy is needed when there

is some kind of confusion over a specific situation, or when there is significantly

different practice across the school in certain areas. An example of this might be where

in one year a school had so many requests for unpaid leave during term time from

support and other staff that it became clear it needed a staff leave policy.