Guest Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Hi everyone, After a tutorial for E115 last saturday, we were asked about our 'no touch ' policy. I admitted my school hasnt got one, just wondered if anyone else has, or is it a new bit of the safeguarding policy. Thanks Gill x
Guest Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 hi gillie5, sorry can't help with the 'no touch' policy but would be very interested to read one!!! mrsW.x
Guest Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Not necessarily a help to you but I know that a school local to me has a no touch policy, though I'm not sure it is written as such. It does cause issues sometimes when children move from our preschool to the school nursery and they are very used to climbing on a staff member's knee for a cuddle or a story, and suddenly the adult is very hands off. I can sort of understand the school's policy as they decided they needed to draw a kine to prevent accusation of inappropriate touch by older more knowing pupils. However I don't think personally I would have drawn the line at the front door, but rather at the start of KS 1.
Guest Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Gosh how sad and surely totally unnecessary? See here: www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/12187/ACFD89B.pdf Page 14 gives very useful guidance. (The rest of it is helpful as well for dealing with confrontational children.) When I taught in Portugal it was common place for children to hug their teachers. What a sad world we live in where a no touch policy is deemed necessary.
Guest Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Thanks for your replies, dont get me wrong, i dont agree with no touch policies, i can see they have their place, maybe with older children, but i am under the impression from my tutor, if you dont have a no touch policy, you have to have a policy showing how and where you are allowed to touch children. I all for comforting uset three year olds and the eyfs even states that the relationships with key workers are important to the childs development, you just have to be careful thats all. Gill x ps, still think its going over board though
Guest Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Think I'm going to rewrite all our policies to say: "Use your common sense."
AnonyMouse_8466 Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Ah, but you'd need to start with a definition of what common sense is and how it should be deployed most effectively!
AnonyMouse_18183 Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 (edited) My school has a 'no touch' policy but we do have some children who initiate a hug when they are upset and sometimes children just hug staff when they want to. Our staff do not 'freeze' but acknowledge the child initiated contact. I am comfortable with this approach and don't feel that our children are being deprived of necessary attention when they need it. My school had outstanding for safeguarding so I am assuming 'we' are doing something right. P.S I work in the early years Edited March 9, 2010 by sienna
AnonyMouse_3139 Posted March 9, 2010 Posted March 9, 2010 Here you go Maz, ... Later the term loses any special meaning, coming to refer just to the sturdy good judgement, uncontaminated by too much theory and unmoved by scepticism, that is supposed to belong to persons before they become too philosophical. http://www.answers.com/topic/common-sense
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