to think my DD should not have to sign an agreement promising not to criticise the school on social media?

[cinnamontoast]

The Home-School agreement now includes a clause saying they should 'not make negative comments about the school or individuals' on social media. My feeling is that this a) infringes their freedom of speech, b) demonstrates a draconian attitude and an astonishing lack of confidence on the part of the school, and c) makes them more, rather than less, likely to go on Facebook and slag off the school.
But perhaps I'm overreacting? Thoughts, please!

So what would you do as a governor, bigmouth, if a teacher who was criticised unreasonably on FB replied with the truth? Especially if that truth showed the parent to be lying...

Long held "facts" put forward by forms of social media over the years.

"Those that can do, those that can't teach, those that can't teach teach teachers."
"Teachers are paid for the summer holidays"
"Teachers work form 9 till 3"
"Those that go in to teaching start from school are rubbish because they have never had a "real job""
"Teaching isn't a real job"

All of these are "facts" put forward on twitter, comment pages, forums, and fb pages.

Where is the 'legitimate discussion' that surrounds them. All they are used for is to silence discussion and goad people.

Many forms of social media are not suitable for 'legitimate discussion'

RustyBear
"So what would you do as a governor, bigmouth, if a teacher who was criticised unreasonably on FB replied with the truth? Especially if that truth showed the parent to be lying..."

The governor/school would do what they had to do.
Fire the teacher for breach of contract and confidentiality.

"That's been around way before social media. Way before the internet."

Social media isn't just the internet.

Sorry that should be

Social media isn't just about the internet.

Expanding on that

It is about the influences that it has external to that.

Egosumquisum

When its posted apparently all the 'whiny', 'nobody works harder than us' teachers post

Egosumquisum

When its posted apparently all the 'whiny', 'nobody works harder than us' teachers post

State education is a service it is important it is central to the lives of parents and children it has guiding principles and a rich history - just like the health service. The staff are professionals with a role that should be respected just like health service professionals. But they have to respect the people who use the service they provide, teachers are not beyond reproach.

If an individual teacher is slandered or libelled the law is there to protect them and they have unions, school management team and the governing body to advocate for them, if the get involved in a discussion on social media then if they break their professional code of conduct they will also have to answer to that, it will depend on the circumstances and what was said.

The school as an institution should be open to discussion with parents and children about their concerns, too often a school will request parents support the school without making sure they respond to emails or requests for meetings promptly. If the channels for communication are effective then criticism will be dealt with before it gets to FB rant level. But a school can respond on a thread if they have access to say "we are happy to discuss your concerns at school" instead of knee jerk censorship. This is not North Korea.

Why would a teacher volunteer to take a child out of the school setting if they knew that they were opening themselves up to criticism from parents with form?

Best keep the kids in school, where it's safer for the teachers. The routines and expectations are established there, and senior back-up is available.

Teachers need to protect themselves.

Freedom of speech includes the right to make a dick of one's self on the internet - otherwise I would be censored all the time. So people write rants about individuals, schools, the government, the latest Windows update, reality tv shows... whatever they want. Some people are very stupid, but you cannot legislate for that. So schools like everyone have to accept that the genie is out of the bottle, there are infinite forums for complaining publicly - they have to deal with it. Telling people not to do something they have no authority to enforce is pointless.

Children should be given a code of conduct regarding safe and responsible use of the internet, enforceable in school and out, including no cyber bullying, but that does not cover criticism of the school, just individuals.

It really depends what "personal and insu

One unnamed parent said it was "worse than being in the North Korean army."

Blimey

Yeah, the school seems to have taken it a bit far, but I can see what the HT is passive aggressively saying "You slag us off for doing X with your child, so why would you trust us to do Y with your child" or "If you don't like the way we do X then surely you won't like the way we do Y, so I'll save you the bother of having to moan about it afterwards"

Hmm it depends if the personal and insulting comments include names and identifying detail, I would be interested to see what legal advice the Leeds school took regarding this decision.

Well looking as some of the comments made about the teachers at that school, I can see why they took this stance

'Small tits'
'Got a blowy from miss lyle'
'I fuckin love that immigrint'

uk.ratemyteachers.com/morley-high-school/21024-s

(I'm quite shocked. I've never heard of rate my teacher before. It's eye opening )

Looking at the article the implication is the insults are personal if they are involving the police, but it is still heavy handed to exclude children due to issues with parents. Must be a serious communications breakdown. Neither side look good.