Code of conduct for your school council

School councils, also called school representative bodies or school boards, has a code of conduct.

The code of conduct sets out how you'll work as a team and how you'll treat each other.

It talks about:

• confidentiality – discretion around discussions
• respect – speak and act politely, welcome everyone, no rude comments
• transparency – everyone is given enough information to make good decisions
• democracy – everyone has a fair say.

As a member, you should contribute to creating your code of conduct.

All school council members must sign and follow their code of conduct.

Your principal will give you the code of conduct, but it's a good idea to check it from time to time to ensure it still meets your needs.

Creating your code of conduct

When developing the code of conduct, follow these steps:

Step 1. Draft

You must use the code of conduct template for school councils DOCX (34.8 KB).

Talk as a group about how you expect everyone to behave and agree to the proposed code of conduct.

Step 2. Submit for department approval

The Department of Education must approve the code of conduct. This makes sure it meets the rules.

Email your draft to schoolgovernance@education.nt.gov.au.

Step 3. Sign off

Once it's approved by the department, the school council meets again to sign off on the final version.

You must record and keep the minutes of the meeting.

Step 4. Send to department

You must email the signed code of conduct to schoolgovernance@education.nt.gov.au.

This makes sure the department can keep a copy on file as per government record keeping rules.

Code of conduct for other adults at the school

Parents, visitors, volunteers, service providers and staff of school councils are expected to be respectful when they visit education sites like schools.

Everyone at a school is expected to work together to keep kids safe.

Schools must develop a code of conduct for adults on school grounds.

To find out more about this code of conduct, go to the Department of Education website.