The day to day work of Harlaw Academy is based around 3 simple behaviour statements:
– Respect for People
– Respect for Learning
– Respect for Community
Over September I want to look at each of these in a little more detail – starting with “respect for people’

Under the statement respect for people we have a line which reads:
– we will consider the health, safety and well being of ourselves and others

These are ideas which link equally to all our pupils, parents and staff and in simple terms it includes the following:

For Pupils it is acting in a way which thinks about:
health – what we eat/drink, taking exercise, getting rest/sleep, not smoking, anti drugs
safe – child protection, anti knives, no hitting, no pushing/shoving/tripping, crossing roads, being safe on-line, not texting when walking up/down stairs
well being – anti bullying, sexting etc, being resilient, having opportunities to attain and achieve success, pride/belonging

For Parents it is thinking about:
health – not drink driving, not smoking in presence of children, promoting exercise and rest
safe – giving safety advice to children, taking care if dropping children at school, child protection issues
well being – showing respect for other children (eg at side of football pitch), showing respect for council employees (when communicating with the school, building the confidence/resilience of your child (not knocking them down or putting them under undue pressure), giving your children opportunities

For teachers it is about:
health – promoting positive choices for young people and setting them a good example
safe – child protection, risk assessment, intervening when youngsters put themselves at risk
well being – respecting the views of children/parents, developing resilience of young people (encouraging them to take risks and make mistakes as being keys to future success), providing opportunities for youngsters

The world keeps changing and the risks to health, safety and well being are difficult to pin down. So rather than having a long and ever changing list of ‘rules’ we have the 3 simple behaviour statements. We are all old enough to know when we are thinking about other people and when we are acting from our own self interest. We can all recognise when others are not showing respect towards us. So the simple respect for people statement covers us all and it covers a wide range of things.

I hope this particular blog helps show the value of this statement and its scope.