The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTC Scotland) has today published a digital version of the Code of Professionalism and Conduct (COPAC) for teachers.
COPAC presents the ethical and professional standards that teachers must uphold. It is structured in 5 parts:
- Maintaining trust in the profession
- Responsibilities towards learners
- Competence
- Professionalism towards colleagues, parents and carers
- Equality and diversity
Each part contains a series of statements that taken together signify what teaching professionalism looks like, plus commentary to assist users to interpret it according to their particular circumstances.
COPAC should be viewed as a tool to support teachers by providing key principles to follow when faced with any challenges or concerns.
As part of ongoing efforts at GTC Scotland to strengthen our brand and improve customer digital experience, we are updating our content in line with branding and accessibility guidelines. This version of COPAC has been repackaged to meet our latest requirements. While the material content including numbering of sections remains the same, some of the content has been updated to reflect stylistic and other changes associated with how we talk about ourselves and our work.
Speaking about today’s publication, Strategic Director Jennifer Macdonald said:
“The main change we have made is to repurpose COPAC as a digital resource. Although it will still be possible to download or print a copy of COPAC, our aim is that by having it as an active resource on our website, it will be a more prominent feature of our work and easier for users to access.
“We encourage the profession and anyone who refers to COPAC in their work to take this opportunity to refamiliarise themselves with the terms of the Code and how it applies in their own professional context.”
Both the new digital version and the PDF of COPAC are accessible on our website.
