7.1 Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
7.3 Engage with the parents/carers

In demonstrating my competence against meeting Standard 7 of the APSTs, I have gathered two separate pieces of evidence to elucidate my professional engagement with parents and carers and my understanding of applying the code of ethics to my teaching (7.1, 7.2). Throughout all three of my placements, the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) Code of Ethics laid the foundation for my teacher philosophy, underpinning how I interacted with students, colleagues and parents. 

Throughout my first placement in a Prep-Year 1 class in a small State School, and my following experience in the same rural town at the Catholic School, I was interacting with parents and carers I had known for a very long time as I had grown up in the area. Fellowes & Oakley, (2014) suggests that professional parent-educator partnerships are crucial in best supporting a student and providing opportunities for them to succeed (pp. 590-591). Therefore, it was important that I remain professional and the QCT values of integrity, dignity, responsibility, respect, justice and care, were at the centre of my everyday conduct. These principles are somewhat difficult to validate through evidence. However, as a result of demonstrating APST (7.1) and (7.3), my supervising teacher from the Catholic School commented that, “Susie was engaging and friendly, and interacted positively and professionally with the students, staff, parents and the wider school community at all times.” Furthermore, my supervising teacher from the State School said, “Susie spoke to parents, students and colleagues respectfully and professionally.” I take pride in ensuring that I can understand and apply the key principles of the Code of Ethics to my professional conduct during my final placement and I am passionate about maintaining these standards as a beginning teacher (7.1, 7.3). I recognise that parents and carers require open and honest communication not only in everyday interactions, but also in confidentially recording and reporting on their child’s assessment with sensitivity (Duchesne & McMaugh, 2016). Additionally, in meeting APST (7.3), I designed a ‘meet the teacher’ poster (Artefact 1) at the completion of my recent service-learning placement with a large Year 2 class in a Townsville Catholic Primary School. I look forward to being able to display this on the classroom window throughout my final placement as an effective non-verbal communication tool to let parents and students know a little more about me (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014). As I look to my final professional experience, I acknowledge that I will need to gather more evidence to demonstrate my competence against Standard 7 and focus areas (7.2) and (7.4). In further developing my proficiency to exhibit all APSTs, it is my goal to continuously build upon my current evidence of what I have done and what I plan to do as a beginning teacher. 

References

Churchill, R., Godhino, S., Johnson, N., Keddie, A., Letts, W., Lowe, K., Mackay, J., McGill, M., Moss, J., Nagel, M., Shaw, K., & Rogers, J. (2019). Teaching: Making a Difference (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons Australia. 

Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A. (2019). Educational psychology: For learning and teaching (6th ed.). Cengage Learning Australia. 

Fellowes, J., & Oakley, G. (2014). Language, literacy and early childhood education. (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.  

Queensland College of Teachers. (n.d.). Code of ethics for teachers in Queensland.  https://cdn.qct.edu.au/pdf/CodeOfEthicsPoster20081215.pdf?_ga=2.186058157.584432111.1633848552-1323802209.1632616232