David Snashall talks about three real situations from the calls received through the ASCL hotline all to do with social media – an issue that some school and college leaders are inexperienced with.

Leaders' surgery

Anti-social issues

Q: I am a deputy head and I was on Twitter over the weekend and found tweets from students about the school. I am concerned that some of them were actually being sent from within lessons, and were not complimentary, and that this could affect our recruitment of students.

A: You are right to be concerned. As far as students go, you need to deal with them under the behaviour code of the school – they have presented you with good written evidence and you should pursue this. Depending on what your behaviour policy says, they may have committed an offence of using their phones/tablets/ computers inappropriately in class. However, the principle of a tweet being a ‘publication’ means that this is a more serious event with serious sanctions for students involved, and you should treat it as if the same comments were made in the printed press. If you decide to use the tweet as a complaint of bad teaching practice then you should investigate in the usual way (as if the allegation had arrived by post) – you cannot ignore it.

Counting the cost of inappropriate posting

Q: I am a business manager and my daughter, who is in the sixth form, has said to me that a couple of lads are social media ‘friends’ with one of our young female staff. That staff member has posted some photos from a party she was at over the weekend, which are embarrassing, and worse show other staff obviously drunk and misbehaving – and it’s all the talk of the sixth form this morning! What should I do?

A: There are serious issues here. Your IT policy should say that no staff should be social media ‘friends’ with students – action against the member of staff should be straightforward if this is the case. The publication of photos of other staff will possibly create bad relationships within the staff room, and it is probably best to get the posts rapidly removed by the offending member of staff. It may be worth talking with the other staff involved rather than letting them find out ‘by chance’. If all is as reported, it is almost certain that the young member of staff has broken behaviour expectations as stated in part 2 of the Teachers’ Standards – and maybe some of her partying colleagues as well, and this cannot be ignored as we all have a duty to uphold the professional standards. There is now no defence ‘in private’ as social media makes all such things ‘public’. The young member of staff has put her job at risk; such is the power of social media. It would be prudent to follow up this incident with some further social media education for the sixth form to ensure they don’t get themselves into similar problems.

ASCL members concerned about leadership issues should call the hotline on 0116 299 1122 or email hotline@ascl.org.uk

Private? Public? Problem...

Q: I am an assistant headteacher and I use a social media platform for communicating with my friends and have done so for years. I have set the privacy settings, but somehow some of my recent posts have been ‘seen’ by others for whom they were not intended. They include my ‘frustration’ comments about the school and some of my colleagues, and the head has got to know and seen some of the comments. Am I in trouble?

A: In brief – yes! Social media platforms can never be considered as private and all comments should be considered as ‘published’ in terms of their language and content. Despite settings, there are all sorts of ways ‘private’ communication can become public, and while a lack of intent to ‘publish’ may help in mitigation if the school takes disciplinary action, it is still a fact that the comments have been made and this may bring the school into disrepute or undermine your role as a school leader. The same rule applies to emails, where it should be remembered that any reference to individual colleagues or students could mean that they can ask to see what has been written. For private email addresses, recent rulings can deem them as work accounts if used for work-related communications. In short, make sure that with any email or social media post you make, you would be happy for your employer to read it! In this case, we would allocate a caseworker to help our member in the employment difficulty they now find themselves in.

David Snashall is ASCL Hotline Leader

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