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Name: Jessica Slee

Student ID: 20446283
Tutor: Sarah Bartram

STL2C5 - Maintain relationships with children and young

people
2.1: Explain the term 'professional relationship’:
A professional relationship is a connection between two or more people in a work or
business context. This means that the relationship has been influenced by work culture and
professional expectations. When working in a school or college it is important that you
maintain professional relationships with the children and young people as it allows you and
the children to reach your full potential. In a professional relationship, what you discuss in
the workplace should be kept confidential and must only be shared on a need to know basis.
This indicates that you should not share any personal information with your pupils as it is not
part of your focus when working with children and young people. By maintaining a
relationship with professionalism it ensures that there is a distance between you and your
pupils and it demonstrates that you are the figure of authority.
https://www.reference.com/business-finance/professional-relationship-5d2d62d08b51f875
NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning

2.2: Identify ways that professional relationship can be established and maintained:
When building a relationship in any context, your relationship with the other person should
be dependent on trust and respect. This leads to effective communication and a better
understanding of each other. Although this is very important, with children and young people
you need to make it clear that your relationship is one of teacher to pupil. By keeping and
maintaining a professional relationship with children and young people that you support you
are showing them that you’re the person of authority and that you have set boundaries for
them. Keeping relationships with children and young people on a professional level is
important for a wide variety of reasons such as it shows respect for others, demonstrates
consideration, improves active listening, maintains authority throughout and follows through
on actions, displays a non-judgemental attitude towards differences and remembers
important issues. Also the use of smiling and having a sense of humour can help establish
and maintain professional relationships between teachers and pupils.
Showing respect for others helps to establish and maintain professional relationships
through remembering to be courteous. By showing respect to children and young people you
are demonstrating that you’re acknowledging their views and opinions as well as taking the
time to know them and listen to what they have to say. Being considerate is an important
part of establishing and maintaining professional relationships as it presents you as being
empathetic towards children and young people's feelings. Therefore children and young
people will feel more comfortable when you’re talking to them. Actively listening to your
pupils is another key part of establishing and maintaining professional relationships because
it visualises that you are willing to listen to what the pupil has to say and that you will take it
into account. Also actively listening shows that you want to be able to communicate well with
them. Smiling and using humour helps to establish and maintain professional relationships
as it can help to relax the pupil if they feel anxious and it allows them to calm down and feel
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less apprehensive when they are having a conversation with you. This means that the child
or young person is able to speak more openly and freely with you as they feel more at ease.
Effective communication is crucial when establishing and maintaining professional
relationships because it ensures that you are communicating clearly with your pupils that
way there aren’t any confusions or misunderstandings about what you have asked them. To
communicate effectively with children and young people you must remain in eye contact,
speak at their level and speak at a slower pace so it’s easier for them to hear and
understand what you’re saying. Remembering important issues helps to establish and
maintain professional relationships through the fact that remembering what children and
young people have said to you is important to them. For example, something that they may
be worried about or something that they are very excited about which is due. This enables
you to develop your relationship with them as you are showing them that you’re taking an
interest in their lives. Another key part of establishing and maintaining professional
relationships with children and young people is by demonstrating a non-judgemental attitude
towards differences. This may include a child or young person who is religious or has a
different accent or dialect. Children and young people who come from different cultural
backgrounds and speak other languages should not be judged because they are different to
the majority in fact they should be celebrated. The last essential part of establishing and
maintaining professional relationships with children and young people is through maintaining
authority and following through on actions. This is very important if you want to have
effective relationships with children and young people as it sets out the boundaries for their
behaviour. In addition to this you should ensure that you follow through on what you have
said you will do and this makes sure that the children and young people know that you’re not
making idle threats or promises.
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/teaching/professional-relationships-children-3167.php
NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning

2.3: Identify barriers to building and maintaining professional relationships with

children and young people and ways these can be overcome:
When building and maintaining professional relationships with children and young people
barriers may occur which makes it difficult to communicate. Barriers to professional
relationships with children and young people can take many different forms and they can
vary from simply not getting on with someone and having a disagreement with them to
suddenly having differences which are affecting the relationship. Barriers can either last a
short period of time or a long period of time and you need to make sure that you look out for
them when they occur as they can cause a breakdown in relationships. This way you will be
able to overcome them where possible and you will also be able to best support the needs of
the children and young people more effectively.
One barrier that affects building and maintaining professional relationships with children and
young people is communication differences. Communication barriers can occur with children
and young people who may have sensory or speech, language and communication
impairment or those who have English as an additional language. The way in which to
overcome this barrier would be to work alongside your Special Educational Needs
Coordinator. That way you can develop alternative forms of communication that work best
for that child or young person and when you are talking to them you should use clear and
concise language. In addition, always remember to maintain a positive and assertive
attitude.
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Another barrier that affects building and maintaining professional relationships with children
and young people is emotional difficulties. Emotional difficulties may occur due to something
which is happening in the child or young person’s life or something which has occurred
during the day that has affected them. Emotions such as feeling angry, worried, upset,
hungry or tired can affect how to communicate effectively with them as it makes it more
difficult for the person to connect with the child or young person. This means that it is harder
for them to focus on what they are doing and this may affect your relationship with them. In
this situation how you would overcome this barrier would be to provide the child or young
person with an opportunity to talk about how they are feeling or give them some time to calm
themselves down and discuss what has happened to make them upset later on. Also you
should reassure the child or young person that it is okay to talk about what is upsetting them
and that you will listen to them whenever they are ready to talk about.
Cultural differences is another barrier that affects the building and maintaining of
professional relationships with children and young people. Unfortunately sometimes cultural
differences can cause issues when building relationships with children and young people as
differences may exist in the expectations of different cultures or the way in which children
and young people should be required to behave or act towards others based on their cultural
background. They may also occur as a result of the way in which children and young people
communicate due to the fact that most cultures' communication method is verbal whereas
some other cultures' communication method is non-verbal. A way to overcome this barrier is
to be aware of not stereotyping different cultures as this can put a stop to building positive
professional relationships with each other, also always remember to be open minded about
different cultures. Another way to overcome this barrier would be to do some research into
the different cultures that the children and young people come from and you should also
foster the environment you and the children are in with cultural intelligence that way you are
valuing and embracing cultural differences.
Differences in opinion is also a barrier to building and maintaining professional relationships
with children and young people as it can cause a breakdown in communication and therefore
you can no longer communicate and work effectively with each other. In this situation the
way to overcome this would involve finding some common ground and agreeing that you
both have a difference of opinion and not judge each other for it. That way you can continue
to build a positive relationship. Another way to resolve this barrier would be to encourage
open communication so that you can see each other's views and also make sure to be
respectful with each other's disagreements.
Having a lack of communication is a barrier that affects building and maintaining professional
relationships as a lack of communication is where there has been a failed attempt at
interacting and expressing yourself in a way that helps to foster positive professional
relationships with children and young people. This can cause a lot of upset and will affect the
relationship. A way to overcome a lack of communication is to make sure that it is a good
time to talk to the child or young person, use language that they will understand and check
back with them to make sure that they have understood what you have told them. Also make
sure to foster understanding and inclusivity so that the potential for misunderstandings and
confusions is reduced as well as making sure that all children and young people’s voices are
being heard and valued.
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The last barrier that can affect building and maintaining professional relationships with
children and young people is by having our own insecurities. Our own insecurities can
obscure the relationship as sometimes a child or young person may feel as if the teacher
doesn’t like them or doesn’t have any time for the pupil when that isn’t their feeling at all.
This can be caused by the way the teacher presents themself towards the children and
young people. In order to overcome this barrier it is important that you as the teacher
demonstrate to the children and young people that you are all equal with one another.
https://www.brosix.com/blog/cultural-barriers/
https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-overcome-communication-b
arriers
https://www.urbanchallenger.com/blog/how-to-resolve-with-differing-opinions-in-a-team
https://clearinfo.in/blog/ways-to-overcome-barriers-to-communication/
NCFE CACHE Level 2 Certificate in Supporting Teaching and Learning