To think the school are inciting disrespect with this approach

[yellowsound]

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!

All teachers are observed and evaluated by the children in their class all the time. They just may not have any way to communicate that evaluation. My children are a little older than 12 now, but as parents we ask them about their teachers, the relationship they have with their class, how interesting and engaged they are, whether they give good feedback etc. We put that together with our knowledge of their attitudes, strengths and weaknesses and what we know about their teachers from meeting them, feedback from other sources.

At their school (not UK) there is a fair amount of choice in the timetabling and so when they have chosen their options and been allocated classes they can go and see the scheduling team and get things changed if they want to. This year dd's social studies teacher has been really quite poor (making the French revolution boring is I think quite a feat) and if she gets him again next year she will be changing class. Her high A average is in spite of him and there are much much better teachers at the school, who actually have some interest in history. If enough negative feedback was provided that the school realised he was doing a fairly poor job then maybe he would go back to teaching PE or get some more training or something.

dd would find it incredibly difficult to complain to senior management about this teacher and we don't have enough information as parents. However given a survey which gave her permission to make a complaint and she would happily fill it in.

I used to do lots of surveys in a previous job (health related) and many people find it very difficult to say negative things / overscore or only comment on relatively trivial things, especially where there is a power imbalance. Giving permission to complain might work really well.

I'm quite sad that so many people on this thread think children and young people can't give thoughtful and fair feedback.

I have worked with children and young people for many years, and have found that they are more than able to give insightful and unexpected views about all the different agencies who are involved with them - from teachers and youth workers to health care providers, social services and the city council.

Obviously children and young people are mostly not so mature as adults, and we have to ask questions in ways that are appropriate, but it's downright insulting to say that they are not able to give useful opinions.

"pupil voice" may be a rubbish and ill thought out swanky Gove initiative, but the principle of involving children and young people has been very important since the publication of Every Child Matters in 2003. I have been interviewed by panels of children for various youth work, play work and teaching assistant posts over the last ten years and, while the children can be at least as intimidating as a panel of adults, I think this is a very good thing.

For years, the youth workers I know have had a culture of asking informally about each other - because if children want to give praise or blame, they are often much happier talking to a third party, or giving feedback anonymously.

Maybe the questionnaire was phrased badly in the op's example, but children and young people do have the right to be heard.

nooka that is spot on. When we were at school, of course we had our own opinions of the teachers! from the ones we could skive off in! to the ones we could distract! to the strict ones, to the ones we could learn from.

Now I look back it's actually astonishing that we didn't have some sort of channel for feeding that back (also bear in mind parents really were less bothered 30 years ago).

I still think the question in the Op was very badly phrased, but I don't think the intention of children having a view on their teachers' performance is wrong at all.

Oh FFS, for some reason my iPad is autocorrecting commas to exclamation marks, please pretend you didn't see them...

I think yes, young people can provide valid feedback but it needs to be treated with extreme care.

We have to do the 'child's voice' thing where I work, except our children are aged 3-5 (Surestart Nursery)!

Tbh I'm a bit . about it at that age (I'm support staff so it doesn't affect me beyond the rambling lectures on INSET days), but can see how it would be useful at a secondary school.

There may be pupils that wouldn't feel confident to express their concerns without that context & it's probably a useful way to determine what is important to pupils regarding how they are taught.

I'd hope the school management would be aware enough of potential troublemakers to be able to take and witch hunting/malicious complaints with a pinch of salt.

Some school management will actively collude with troublemakers to use that feedback to put teachers on capability.

I've never worked in a secondary environment.

I'm sure there are some (hopefully few) people that would use the information for nefarious purposes but I'd like to think that in the majority of cases it would be a positive thing and the information used wisely.

Also one has to remember that just because a child has a reputation as a troublemaker, it doesn't necessarily mean that any negative points they make about a member of staff are untrue/irrelevant.

It's a tough call.

Absolutely Quitethewoodsman Spot on.
I've actually been a victim of this so I know it happens. When I returned from an extended absence due to a severe breakdown I was given a very unruly drama group. When I turned up for the first lesson with them it transpired that the curriculum deputy had cooked up and double timetabled the drama room. I was told to share the hall with a PE group which the PE staff understandably found unacceptable. I was then told to take them to a classroom and "make them write or something but keep them quiet".
One of the group then told me the deputy had visited them in an art class to ask them if they had any complaints to make about me "not allowing them to do drama".

If I think back to mine kids at grammar school the two teachers they didn't like in year 7 and 8 were they favourites by years 12 and 13.

ilovesooty, that is awful. I hope it all worked out for you.

Thanks granny
I left teaching as a result of the bullying I underwent but it was a good decision in the end.
It's left me very aware though of those who can be and are targeted in the profession and I think some managers will use this procedure to do so.

Thanks *Quitethewoodsman

I have another career I love and where I don't get treated like this - and our clients are regularly invited to feed back to us.