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!

parents have got into trouble with the school, CocktailQueen - how does that even work?
Of course no one should be nasty about anyone in public - or even in private. But no one is above criticism.
Re chatting to neighbours, they could potentially put your remarks on social media.

YABU. I agree with the school. It's good practice and many jobs would have the same sort of thing in their contracts.

I completely agree with the schools policy. sorry OP. in the real world you cant go slagging off who you work for without consequences. I think too much goes out on social media personally and some people don't seem to have an off button.

if the 6th formers and anyone else objected to the rally then surely they could have made this view known to the head. adults could have stood outside with banners if they had wanted to. as an anti royalist when a member of the royal family came to our school the head gave plenty of warning, asked who didn't want their children to meet them or be around during the visit and invited those parents that wanted to come to come but it wasn't frowned upon if you said no.

I would cross out "about the school" before allowing my child to sign that.

It is reasonable for the school to expect students to refrain from making derogatory comments about fellow students or getting involved in personal attacks on school staff.

Shutting down reasonable criticism of an institution is not reasonable. (A school does not employ its pupils).

I think there's nothing wrong with this policy by the school. They're basically teaching your DC to keep their counsel on social media. This is a very sensible thing to be modelling for young people, many of whom would otherwise feel free to pepper the internet with juvenile statements which would come back to haunt them in later life.

I agree with the school here.

I think it's a very sensible policy.

OP - I agree this is very problematic. I can see it makes sense to say no negative comments about individuals, especially to prevent bullying. But to try to ban all discussion of the school is taking away the chance to raise important issues about policy, politics etc.

It's not really a home school agreement if they dictate the wording and your get told to sign on the dotted line is it? You could write your own "agreement" and ask them to sign that.

At the end of the day it's a state school which you may or may not have had any choice about your DD attending, and they're not free to pick and chose their pupils either. That's quite a differed setup to an employer/employee relationship where a contract of employment is something you expect to sign up to at the start.

mummymeister, unfortunately no one was told in advance about the Tory rally so no one could make their views known to the head. Word got out on the day of the event and there was a small (adult) protest outside the school. The first thing the pupils knew about it was when they saw a photo (on Twitter) of their school with Tory election posters plastered all over the windows.

One of DD's teachers gave the children a test then made them sit in the class in order of how well they did in the test. He also marked out their places with colours - red being for the ones who did least well. I was pretty shocked by this too. Surely it's inappropriate?

It may well be, but why on earth would anyone raise this on Social Media? It would smack of rabble rousing to me.

If you have a complaint then you deal with it through the appropriate channels. I don't get this obsession with shouting about the slightest non-issue to all & sundry....

Well, yes, I'd imagine it's impossible to enforce.

I think one of the benefits of the clause is that it does allow you to have a conversation with your DCs about the appropriate use of social media, about how public it is and about the legal implications of bullying, posting abuse, etc. The people who have sent abusive tweets and ended up in court or charged, could probably have benefited from a lesson on the real-life impact of actions in the virtual world.

But, realistically, if the school held another political rally and painted David Cameron's face on the front door, everyone would still comment about it. The fact that the pupils have signed a contract, won't actually limit the freedom of speech, but it may make them pause to consider 'is this the most appropriate way to raise my concerns' ie would a letter be better than a tweet? would a petition raise more awareness than a facebook rant?

If the school's intention is to stamp down on criticism then they are wrong in every sense - valid criticism is healthy and necessary; and this clause does not mean they cannot be criticised.

IKnowIAm, no one raised the issue of the children sat in order of how they did in the test on social media. I was just throwing it in here as a supplementary question. Though arguably by doing that I am raising it on social media ...

There are appropriate channels for raising legitimate concerns. In the case of the teaching seating students according to test score, then that is something which should be raised with the head by the parents through official channels. NOT by the student writing 'Mr T is such a dick, he's a total prick who makes students feel like crap'. Children need to learn to use social media in a responsible and appropriate manner and many are not able to regulate their behaviour in a way that is sensible and avoids ill feeling.

Not sure about this. If the school is not an academy, they can't make you sign anything, and none of it is legally enforceable. If a pupil transgresses, the school can't turn round and say you signed the agreement, so here's the door; they still have to go through exactly the same procedures as if the agreement didn't exist.

I remember when such agreements were introduced, to get feral parents to abide by the rules.

I never signed any agreements, smiled and nodded. Ignored.

Amazed some PPs equate a school with an employer.

'not make negative comments about the school or individuals' on social media.

I think its excessive. There is nothing wrong with critical analysis. Or at least they should make some effort to define what is classified as "negative" by their policy, rather than attempting to exclude all comment, some of which might be helpful while critical.

Its not at all like an employer-employee agreement - the school are providing a public service which the LA are required to supply by law, and it is not reciprocal in that sense. The law is also generally against overly restrictive covenants, which are not generally enforceable in court if their terms go over and above what is necessary to protect the business of the employer.

In fact, we are seeing greater protection of whistle-blowers by law in the employment field, and the clause would presumably silence any pupil airing, for example, a health and safety concern or bullying, for which the traditional methods of solving had not worked. So to expect school pupils to adhere to more stringent standards than employees, without the legal protections of, for example, whistle-blowers, is potentially very harmful.

I suspect its not legally enforceable, which in itself would make me uncomfortable.

I also don't see the problem with using social media to air grievances. Obviously no-one wants to see the slagging off type comments that sometimes appear, but life has moved on and many professional associations now encourage the use of social media to publicise events and activities, or twitter feed for customer feedback (sometimes negative, often effective). It is simply a reality of modern day life.

Egosum, don't get me started on the teachers' spelling and punctuation - or rather whoever it is who sends out the school letters, bulletins, forms etc!