To think the school are inciting disrespect with this approach

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Dd is in year 9. School conducted 'pupil voice' today - where senior teachers ask pupils what they think of the school. It seems to be a 'big' thing lately, however, this time was different from before. She was asked the question 'do you have any complaints about any of your teachers?'. Sounds almost like they are encouraging students to look for complaints where there are none?!

Dd tells me that she felt very uncomfortable, but said she had no problems. However, she tells me that there has been a lot of talk about it among her peers, with people excitedly exchanging stories about who they complained about. In dd's opinion, a lot of these pupils are the source of problems themselves if anything.

Our experience of her school is that it is pretty good. Of course there are some teachers she rates more highly than others, and one in particular who seems to have a lot of behaviour problems, but surely this kind of approach will only make that worse, not help? Dd's main problem is she gets fed-up with the noise levels in some classes and, in her words, this was worse than usual today, with the excitement of who had complained about who.

Teachers - is this normal in schools now? If so, you have my sympathies more than usual today!

I'd like this at my teachers school, alongside mechanisms to address any issues and provide feedback. Most of the teachers that my children have had have been pretty good, but there have been a couple that seem to be pretty unengaged/going through the motions (especially where it's their second subject) and one that we currently have some concerns about as dd says that he is really quite sexist and it obviously bugs her. However she is adamant that she does not wish for us to raise this, and that she is happy to challenge him directly (doesn't seem terribly effective mind). The issues are low level enough that we don't feel we should go to the HoD, but there aren't really any other mechanisms to raise her/our concerns. A survey might work very well though as I know she isn't the only one to feel that way.

if several teachers are having to send out 5-6 children per lesson the school has a discipline problem. Blaming individual teachers yeah right.

and if 12 year olds have more expertise than OFSTED then this explains a lot

I doubt schools are going to take single complaints at face value. Conclusions can be drawn about teachers only from a large sample of pupils' responses.

tobysmum77 - I disagree. I have seen several instances of classes at my DSSs' excellent secondary scho that are disciplined and high-performing but that give one or two weak teachers a terrible time.

I think this is one of the compulsory steps in an independent boarding school inspection.

I experienced 3 and the pupils were all given anonymous (but with a traceable number) feedback forms. They asked fairly open questions and obviously some people took the piss, but in the inspection reports some of the feedback was referenced.

or Bonsoir in more difficult schools a lot of teachers teach for control thus containing the class without them actually learning much?

No one is saying that there are no weak teachers at all, but that's still for the school to properly manage the situation.

There can be many reasons for teachers getting a hard time but it isn't always an issue of pupil discipline or poor management at school level.

So give me an example when it isn't?

I wonder how much this lark contributes to the appalling lack of discipline and respect for teachers in some schools. Stakeholders (really?) being asked to publicly complain about any aspects of their teachers they don't like?
I'd imagine that opens the door to a hell of a lot of piss taking, spite and a general attitude of "you can't tell me what to do; I'll get you back at the next meeting".
Many children are simply not mature enough to use this voice appropriately, and there has always been a way to raise concerns with the school if necessary without this ritual humiliation of teachers, hasn't there?

It sounds like it was very badly handled. There is great value in learning how to complain effectively, such as the technique of compliment, complaint, solution (eg for the OP's daughter 'I really enjoy the classes where we can follow our own inquiry, but sometimes the classes get very loud. If we could have some focussed time where we can work on those topics it would be very valuable to my learning'. It's a very important life skill, but this is not the way to teach them how to do it.

IMHO, education is becoming less and less about education for its own sake, and more and more about preparing children for work. I don't necessarily agree with this. However in that context, yes, children need to learn to give constructive feedback. My old job used 360 feedback and we regularly had to give comments to the boss's boss's boss. It would have been less career-limiting had I understood how to do this!

However asking for 'complaints' isn't good practice and I can see how that would lead to silliness.

^^ and what Midnite says, exactly that.

Even adults are very poor at judging how well they are learning. I wouldn't trust kids to judge it, that's for sure. There will be an inevitable tendency for fun, whizzy

lessons to be praised and anything "boring" to be subjected to criticism--yet the reality is that getting good at any subject involves a certain amount of slog.

They weren't asked how well they were learning though TheNewStatesman, they were asked if they had any complaints.

I have seen many of these pupil voice things but I have never seen a question like that. I doubt that the one to parents says something like do you have any complaints about this school on it. There is nothing wrong with asking the kids about their learning in the school but to encourage them to moan about teachers they don't like is ridiculous and says a lot about the senior management of this school. If I worked there I would be looking around for a new post tbh as I would be monumentally pissed off at being treated like this. There are many ways the management can monitor the quality of teaching, this is not one of them. It is lazy and unprofessional.

I think it's a great idea. We had it at our school and it worked great. Sure there were some idiots who tried it on but they would have done so through other channels anyhow. What it did was create an environment where it was 'safe' to put your views across. It was done privately and confidentially (though some people did tend to talk about it afterwards). I was quite shy when it came to making complaints ect but when asked I was able to express my concerns about one particular teacher who was very unpleasant, sexist, shirt tempered and made us girls feel very uncomfortable whilst he would send the boys out for ridiculous things. What quickly became apparent to the school - when not only the troublemakers but also the hardworking kids were saying the same thing - was that they did have a serious problem. It was investigated he was suspended and a police enquiry started. His home was searched and was later found guilty of having possession of thousands of indecent images of children. He is now in prison.
The point is people had been complaining about this guy for years. But the dots were not connected until other staff saw how universal feeling was and that it wasn't a few troublemakers out for blood.

But the trouble is that a question like that doesn't promote positive feedback as well as giving opportunities to express concern.
I agree with cansu It says a lot about the school's management and none of it positive.
It's the mark of a school management using pupils to hang the teachers out to dry. Of course the opportunity for feedback should be there but not like this.

ilovesooty Given that this was after many previous pupil voice without it, and they finally decided to ask this question. I think it might be quite likely that the management team were not getting the sort of feedback they'd previously expected, and were trying to get a different response.

As fjalladis suggests, complaints are not just about teaching, they're about all sorts of things.

fred there is no indication that the question has been asked in a more appropriate way previously.

ilovesooty Other than the OP saying that it had been done loads of times in the past without asking?

I hesitate to quote, but that's what this part of the Original post says:

"this time was different from before. She was asked the question 'do you have any complaints about any of your teachers?'."

Sorry I interpreted it differently, as it doesn't indicate whether the pupils had previously been asked for specific feedback positive or negative on the learning process in lessons. I suppose there are different ways of interpretation.
I still think asking specifically for complaints is unprofessional.

I am not a teacher but it's been a big factor in lots of other areas that work with young people for years - we HAVE to conduct surveys and get feed back from 'service users' every six months

Young people are regularly asked to rate the support they get and to offer constructive criticism - I find it really useful

If the only question asked was do u have any complaints about your teachers, I would agree with you. But I suspect it was just one of several questions asked. It might be the only question the kids remember afterwards but I'm sure it wasn't the only question. Amongst a range of questions asking for both positive and negative things it's perfectly acceptable.

Ps. Just to clarify the school never asked me specifically do u have a problem with Mr X?, it was a question related to either teachers or teaching generally.