Leven CE (VC) Primary School

What are policies?

A policy is a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome(s). Policy differs from rules or law. While law can compel or prohibit behaviours (e.g. a law requiring the payment of taxes on income) policy guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.

Why do we have policies?

Policies help members of the school community to make decisions based on a shared set of values and understanding. They should eliminate inconsistent and bad decision making. They guide the way in which members of staff undertake their professional duties.

Who monitors our policies?

The Governing body is responsible for adopting and monitoring school policies.

  
Who writes our policies?  

Some policies are Local Authority policies that we adopt. Usually, these are to do with issues such as employment law or child protection. Other policies are written in consultation with relevant groups of stakeholders. For example, our Good Behaviour policy was written in consultation with pupils, staff, governors and parents.

How often are policies reviewed?

This depends on the policy. (All review dates are listed in Policy Vol1,2 & 3 PDF files on the right of this page). The following policies are reviewed by the Governing Body annually;

• Charges and Remissions
• Child Protection
• Curriculum
• Finance
• Freedom of Information
• Governor's Expenses
• Pay Policy
• Prospectus
• Register of Business Interests
• School Profile
• Special Educational Needs
• Target Setting

Other policies are reviewed on a longer cycle.

Policies that are due for major revisions in 2014/15, due to changes in the law, are;

• Child Protection
• Special Educational Needs
• Curriculum

Which policies do we have?

We currently have three files of policies and the naming system for the policies reflects this. For example "220 Good Behaviour" means that the Good Behaviour policy is policy number 20 in policy file 2.