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!

toby'smum in answer to your question here are a few examples:
I teach a very low ability year ten class. Usually there are no behaviour issues - getting them to actually finish work is a nightmare. They are engaged and enthused when discussing but written work is beyond them. There are two statemented pupils and each of the other 12 has a specific need. I get no TA support. If one if the boys has not taken his ADHD medicine it can be dreadful, if one if the girls has fallen out with someone there can be slanging matches etc. this is not down to discipline of SLT, just children with issues and government cutting of TA support.
Another example - great class but kid turns up stoned after lunch ...
Another - the funny teacher where you do little work, that all pupils love and compare him to those that don't watch YouTube, tell jokes and play games (knowing the subject is not compulsory after ks3)
My year 11 class - top set, high fliers, a/a*. Amazing kids. Apart from one who seems to think he is beyond teaching as so arrogant and rolls his eyes etc as teaching and makes comments.
None of these are discipline or SLT errors - one small thing can disrupt a classroom. Even a wasp can wreck lessons!

Good god!

The day I get observed by a child in my job would be the day I left the profession! What on earth?

Why would anyone think a child would be able to adequately judge an adult's ability to do their job?

And they're not "stakeholders", they're "pupils" for fucks sake...

but pieceofpurple these are 'normal' teaching challenges that every competent teacher faces. No class is 100% perfect and some are more challenging. Most of the time it's fine, with the odd bad lesson.

We were discussing the situation where a teacher consistently struggles with a class and it significantly impacts on learning every lesson. In that case there has to be a problem with behaviour or management (or both). Either the teacher is weak/ inexperienced and needs support and if they won't improve competency or the teacher is competent and there is a behaviour problem that management isn't dealing with. It is also about middle management as I worked in a school where the difference between different departments in relation to behaviour was staggering.

I think if you are confident in your ability you shouldn't be afraid of feedback

you may learn something useful or realise you are doing something you where not aware of

we can all stagnate if no one point out areas for development

Why would anyone think a child would be able to adequately judge an adult's ability to do their job?

why would they NOT you are teaching them - if they are finding it difficult to learn they have every right to say so - their futures depend on it

Online survey in our school.

Agree with ghostys post at 12:17.

Of course they can judge if an adult is a good teacher.

My son, who is very bright and is exceeding age-related expectations by a long margin, hates having the teacher he has once a week whilst his regular teacher has her time to do other things.

She shouts (a lot), doesn't explain things very well and is generally quite bad-tempered feedback. This is all reasonable and valuable feedback and certainly alters the SLT to behaviour that may not occur during teacher monitoring sessions.

And of course they're stakeholders. Who else does it matter more to that their education is a good one?

Is it that straightforward though? Regardless of the specific example the children will generally prefer the teacher they have all the time? Taking over classes for whatever reason is hard because you don't have the same rapport.

I'm not saying it is straightforward. I'm saying a child has the ability to voice concerns when they have them.
If there is a shouty teacher, who doesn't listen and explain things very well, you don't have to have set out to not like them as much as your class teacher, to see that this is a problem and not conducive to a good learning environement.
I also don't think that children necessarily prefer their class teacher regardless tobys Not in our school anyway.
They have one lady under the circumstances mentioned above, another for PSHE (or whatever it's called now) and another for French.

They adore the PSHE lady and aren't keen on the other two, although they loved their previous French teacher.

"Pupil voice" is one of the many wonderful innovative ideas of Mr Gove before he disappeared back into the hole he came from, it now ranks highly in Ofsted inspections - how is the pupil voice heard and do they feel safe to say what their experience of school is? Parental voice is equally valued. So schools are going out of their way to prove that they are listening to their pupils....

... it doesn't always end well.

Haven't had time to rtft but I would say that the issue is in how the question was phrased as it's pretty leading. Better would be asking how things could be improved.

I'm a teacher and when I need to question children I usually revert to Littke Ted: Tell me; Explain to me; Describe to me. No leading.

*Little

Clearly not, as I said it's not straightforward . There's also the time of day issue, for example. If someone covers a class all the time in the afternoon it's also more difficult. After PE is notorious also. I'm not doubting that your ds has a weak ppa cover, but a group of children saying they think miss x is better than miss y isn't always going to be reliable.

It's utterly disgusting. The 'complaints' can, and will, be used against teachers. Decent teachers will be put into hearings, having to defend themselves against fictitious and malicious stories. Careers will be ruined. Schools will lose experienced staff.

Schools will replace the experienced staff with cheap new staff. Students will lose out in the long run.

If one pupil says something negative an otherwise good teacher with good feedback and good OFSTED observations will be sacked???? seriously?

I am surprised people don't want feedback from their pupils - youth workers, social workers and other people working with children and young people get it as a matter of routine

asking kids what helps them learn and to give examples is fine. asking them to air complaints as they did in OP's child's school reminds me of China in the Cultural revolution. How can the SMT then say to their teachers 'thanks for all your hard work this year, we really appreciate you' when they have been actively looking for negative comments from kids?

no I agree Rabbit - I would be very very surprised though if the question was actually put like the one in the OP

I was interviewed by a panel of young people for my job - and then a panel of adults

common practice in many jobs

I don't think feedback should EVER be used to beat people with but I do think it's important to ask the people you are working for if you are doing okay and if there is anything you could change

Perhaps I or some of my peers might have mentioned the PE teacher who kept touching people inappropriately.
OTOH perhaps not faced with a senior teacher. Maybe a written format might be more appropriate. But sometimes things come out when you ask questions that children might not be brave enough to directly go to someone and complain about.

Toby'smum you asked for examples, they were some.

One of my favourite examples of pupil observation is when new teachers come in and do an interview lesson. Pupils fill in a feedback sheet on the lesson. One class of mine all wrote that 'she couldn't stand in her shoes' and nothing else!

I have known it to be phrased like that, and yes, it can lead to sacking by the governors.