Child Protection Act and my teacher

OK, I’m a British teacher, and have done some Child Protection work in the past, but I could be a bit out of date (I left the UK three years ago). For a start, I think that the Child Protection Act is for children under 16, so it doesn’t apply to you any more if I remember rightly. You still have rights, but they are the rights of a young adult, not a child.

If you have something to tell your teacher you can do that - there is nothing in any of the laws which stops you from doing that.

You and she have rights and duties. It is her duty to support you and, if she feels you are in danger, to protect you. So if someone told a teacher that they were being physically or sexually abused, for example, then the teacher would need to pass that information on. I’ve had to do that - you don’t tell everyone, you just tell one person who is a professional who can take the steps needed to keep the student safe.

However, as you’re 16, there are a lot of things you could tell her that she would have no right to pass on. If it’s to do with sexuality or consentual sexual behaviour, then at your age that’s legal and private and you could talk to her about it without her needing to tell anyone else. I think it’s the same for other physical or mental health issues, although she might well encourage you to talk to someone else about it. If it was about something illegal like shoplifting or whatever, then I guess she might have to talk to someone else about it, because once again that’s a legal issue.

I’d say that you should talk to her if you trust her and feel she could give you good advice/support. Nothing in any law says that this breaches the teacher-student relationship.