Kids having to rank their LEAST favourite classmates?

I think there's certainly the potential for kids to say something mean to each other like "I said i didn't like to play with you." A decent teacher should introduce it in a way that minimizes that risk. Hopefully your child's teacher is decent! But I think in the long run the benefit outweighs the potential harm. For instance, a very shy introverted boy put down he least wanted to play with his supposed best friend. Teachers had put them together for years thinking the more extroverted best friend was a type of security blanket for the introverted boy. But the introverted boy did not like this friend at all and felt totally smothered and trapped in the friendship. I would have never known otherwiseno teacher ever suspected this!and I was able to separate them and frequently pair the introverted boy with another child who included him on his "like to play" list.

Exactly! I'm sure they were all telling each other who they put as their faves and least faves. It must be pretty heartbreaking hearing your name mentioned in the second category no matter what the reasons.

Not necessarily. It could be because the child is shy and doesn't know how to make friends, or perhaps has learning difficulties or, as in the case of a girl at my primary school, was neglected by her parents so always had dirty hair and clothes.

I remember a student teacher doing this when I was in Junior School around 50 plus years ago. I then saw a sort of spider diagram with my class mates names on. I don’t remember being upset by it but a little intrigued. After all this time it’s interesting to find out what it was all about

Ooh… it’s probably good to sometimes split friendship groups

This is awful and I feel so sorry for the children in that class. I think you should definitely speak to the teacher

I see no issue here.
The kids can't sit where they like.
Cant choose who they are grouped with.
Might possibly have someone who follows them around and aggravates the fuck out of them and wont take no for an answer.
Its only for teachers use o they can group or separate and keep everyone happy.
I doubt they displayed the results....

As a former shy bullied child, I can assure you that the kids who nobody wants to play with already know that nobody wants to play with them. They won't be shocked to hear whispering in the playground. This happens every day anyway. Maybe highlighting the problem is a step towards fixing it.

I would be furious about this and would lose faith in any teacher who thought this was a good idea. YWNBU at all to email the school and complain.

Do teachers not see with their own eyes who plays with whom anymore? Do the TA's not see it in class and at break times? Do they not put them into mixed up groups for tasks?

Who cares what social study it is; it's disgraceful. The kids will all have been chattering about it, asking their friends who they wrote down. It's so divisive; it just confirms division and alienation.

Young children won't necessarily have the courage or independence of mind to question (or refuse) to do what they are being instructed to do by a teacher. This is just one angle of this that I really dislike. I hope some left the 'dislike' bit blank.

I would speak to the teacher about it, too, OP. It appears that common sense has left that classroom.

Oh dear this does not bode well, what ever the reasoning.

Of course they'll find out. It'll be the talk of the playground once the teacher is out of earshot.

Asking children who they do and don't like to play with is a remarkably poor way to select well functioning working groups. The teacher should be looking to form groups that take into account personality types, ability, confidence etc and either grouping with similarity in mind (quieter DC altogether so they are not dominated) or a mix for balance. Life isn't about doing everything with people you like best or who are most fun socially, it's about learning to build relationships with all types of people.

I suppose it's to try to make the teachers aware of any kids who are being left out. If one child appears on nearly everyone's list then that is a situation where the teacher might need to subtly intervene. It could yield some unexpected results where it might have flown under the radar that a kid had no friends. It might also be useful to get the class thinking about friendships, perhaps leading to a conversation about kindness and inclusion. I can think of lots of ways it could be useful if handled well.

It's worrying that it seems like people who should know best how children think are the people who show the least understanding of how children think!

Definitely email the school and ask for clarification. It sounds exceptionally bad, but children don’t always report accurately. Rather like your OP where the title is says something different from what you actually meant!

Year 3, the teacher has just inherited the class.
Schools can't put classes together in a 2 class year group based on friendships.

I can imagine the teacher has lots of uses for this information, whos the popular kid, whos the bully, whos just lost there neither popular nor unpopular.

Put groups and teams together based on that.

They are in year 3.
That's not a nuance they will understand.
It's going to be a list of the kids they don't like.

What a terrible idea. I can understand asking children to select a handful of friends who they’d like to be with, so everyone has at least one friend in their class (although why they’d do that a few weeks into the new school year is confusing because friendship dynamics will have changed massively by the summer- and probably by next week!)
But asking them who they don’t like is bound to end in tears. They’re definitely going to discuss it and it’s going to lead to some (probably the most vulnerable) children feeling excluded or disliked. Even asking for their best friends is likely to cause drama when some children pick kids who haven’t picked them, or one child in a friendship group of 6 gets left out.

If it’s to select groups then the teacher should have some idea of who is friends with who, who doesn’t get along, and which children don’t work very well together (the child my son would pick is a terrible influence and although they like each other they’d be a total nightmare together).

Bullies charter. The kids will discuss it.

Sure. I just googled it and the very first thing I found stated that it's highly discouraged in the classroom due to the severe risks to children's mental health. The risks are plainly obvious and massively outweigh any perceived benefit. So yeah, I hope that every teacher loses access to it, because the potential damage to the less popular kids is horrendous. It's like an authorised slam book.

I agree with unbeaten. You have to be very careful with kids as you can be suggestive without intending.

I do think the info would be interesting though from perspective of sen parent.
Because both my dc were ok socially in younger primary but then deteriorated. However the primary are generally crap and dont care or notice, the eldest is audhd. But they denied the adhd on questionnaires despite seeing issues.But she wasnt invited to any parties after y3! Anyway dc2 was older around y4. But from teachers you get - they are lovely - great etc. But imo just not bondong at deeper level with most of the kids. I dont thonk dc2 would appear as disliked list but probably just left out in the middle. Dc1 may have been on some girls lists but definoteoy on every promnary teachers list! We had one teacher encourage kids to tell on her after break as she was making a list of dc1 errors!

Absolutely awful idea !