Kids having to rank their LEAST favourite classmates?

If the teacher is looking at creating work groups then surely s/he needs to know who will work well together and what groupings might create friction. Most teachers would be aware of friction in their class so probably not a subtle way of doing it.

The children were asked which children they least like playing with. Not for a list of children they don't like/hate.

It's really an invaluable resource and I would hate to see another teacher lose this information because it can be so helpful. I suppose I do feel rather strongly about that because it was so helpful to me and some of my students.

Horrible idea. I don't care for the first part, but the second is awful.
If they thought it essential to know which DC hadn't formed relationships then a better question would be "Three people you don't usually play with". Any serious tensions where they felt the need to seperate DC should have already been observed without the need to ask.

I hope the children don't find out who put them as the least favourites, as it likely won't all be trouble makers that are listed last but also the shy children, anyone that maybe looks different etc.

I've just told you why it was done. Those are exact questions from Dreikurs classroom sociogram. When I was a teacher I always had one of the most harmonious classrooms in my school and I'm certain knowledge I gained from the classroom sociogram helped that. It'd be a shame for you to complain about a decades old well researched and designed assessment and for your complaint to ultimately make the classroom environment less harmonious.

Yeah. First playtime after the quiz
Who did you put?
I put a, b, c, who did you put?
I put a, d and f...
Enjoy a playground full of kids comparing notes and deciding who they all hate and finding out how many of their classmates put them.

Anyone who thinks thats not what will happen has not spent enough time around children when they think theres no adults around that will tell them off

Imagine if the school ran a survey of the teachers, where they were asked which three colleagues they most liked working with, and the three with whom they least liked working.

Student Y, who seems joined at the hip to X, wrote ‘please don’t put me in a room with X because they annoy me’. Within another friendship group, several students asked not to be grouped with certain members of that friendship group.

They are 12, so always lots of friendship drama going on, but I was really surprised at some of the responses.

To all those saying it causes issues in the classroom, it really doesn't. There are many questions and you might write that someone you are least likely to play with is also someone you most would want to work on a group project with for example.

While the information might be useful, the very act of doing this is likely to reinforce or even create new feelings that these are children you don't need to include. That there are children it's ok to ostracise. Children are likely to compare lists and some may even tell others if they were in their bottom 3. It's a really terrible idea.

Thats awful. Even the 'write down your 3 favourites' can be fraught with issues. My oldest is liked by and plays with nearly everyone in her class, but rotates around friendship groups as hates drama, so moves on when things get nasty. But this meant she was hardly anyone's top 3, and was so upset.

The bottom 3 is awful though. A better question might have been 'who do you not play with much but would like to get to know better'

Terrible! I would complain.

This is a specific exercise by Rudolf Dreikurs. There are more questions to it than just those. It helps teachers get a sense of the social web of the classroom and can be extremely helpful for a teacher. It's called a classroom sociogram if you want more information about what a teacher may use this information for. It's really primarily about identifying children who lack a sense of social and/or academic belonging.

I cannot see the rationale for this.

If there are kids that really don’t get on to such an extent that they shouldn’t be in a class together, the teacher should already know this surely? Not be dependent on lists written by 7/8 year olds. which could be based on “X annoyed me this morning” rather than any genuine issue.

I agree there is a lot of potential for whispering and hurt feelings.

Like and don't like to play with isn't the same as like and dislike, you might like to play with kids who play football or like to build models and don't like to play with ones who don't share interests.

Why were the results illuminating???

Did the teacher maybe ask them to write down who they played with the most and who they played with the least? That would make more sense than writing down their least favourite person...which would be horrible.

when grouping students for camps/day-long field trips etc., schools sometimes survey students to see who they want to be grouped with. The survey that my students just completed for camp asked them to name one friend they want to be grouped with, and then a ‘do you have any other comments’ question, which gave them the opportunity to say if there was someone they didn’t want to be grouped with. The results were illuminating!

Wording it as ‘three classmates you play with least’ is awkward phrasing and not ideal for year 3. I hope it was anonymous at the very least!

Certainly my sons’ primary school never did this. But when we had a SLT meeting with the large (12 form entry) secondary school before they started there they were asked not if there was anyone from their primary school they did want to be in a form with but they were asked if there was anyone they didn’t want to be in a form with. In those circumstances I thought that was ok - it was to reduce existing clashes or bullying history.

in the circumstances you describe I’d have the same concerns as you. Can you ask the teacher what was the reason for this and what you see as the unintended consequences

Was this done in confidence?

Maybe teacher is looking to see if there is any child in particular who is unpopular.
Maybe with the intent of integrating them into the class a bit better or keeping an eye out for bullying.

I guess in the past teachers figured this stuff out by watching for who was always last to be picked at teams etc