Head girl at my daughter's school is Head Mistress's daughter.

I’m on the PTA and work full time. And aren’t you on here complaining about who gets what?

I was at secondary school with the head’s daughter. She was in my class. We didn’t have head boy/girl but to be honest if we did and it was her she deserved it as much as anyone else. She was a popular all rounder.

Depends how it’s chosen.

if it was decided by other students in a vote then I can’t see much wrong with it

I think this is one of the reasons the students choosing is fabulous.

Teachers choose who who they. If it's to represent the students why not take a risk at what the students want.

After all - that's who they represent. And it gives you an insight into how to meet the mindset of your current students.

That's why I didn't like our recent PM selections. It was who the members wanted. We don't know what the public want but yet they are the ones being represented.

True democracy allows the public to make their decisions - and they have to live by them. So if the class clown proves not to be useful for actual student representation - lesson learnt

I thought this was common at prep schools. The one mine went to had a lot of staff parents and their kids won absolutely everything going. Which did irritate as they also got a massive discount and weren’t known for going above and beyond. More the TA/admin staff though rather than the teachers. It was the only (and still is) the only prep in a large area so bit of a captive market.

This had the result of parents being generally disgruntled so had no time for the pta malarkey or events or being overly generous with their time and money. They tried running a few events for parents and never sold any tickets. It was painful to watch. It also generated a feeling of general unease so there was no sense of fun or togetherness, everyone had a air of pissed offness which did go through parents and kids.

Then if any kid who wasn’t a member of staffs child won anything it was always because the parent had complained about something and everyone knew it. So rather than say to the mum ‘oh well done I heard Dot won the so and so award’ it was ‘oh my gosh I saw what Dot won, what happened?! What did the school do?!’

Shame really. I was told it’s the same everywhere so good learning for the kids that life’s unfair, but nothing to get knickers in a twist over. Teaching was good though.

I don't believe the "student choosing" is a real thing.
My DD was head girl recently in her last year at a very large comprehensive.
Students had a vote, and the feeling was that a couple of the very popular girls would be chosen.
My DD wasn't terribly popular with other students, but staff knew her to have a strong but quiet personality, very kind, calm in a crisis, kept her achievements ( qualified and worked as a dance teacher part time while still at school) to herself.
Some of the popular students ran voting campaigns, my DD didn't even try but decided to go for interview anyway- that was the head, and two of her teachers who knew her well.
My DD became head girl- it didn't feel much like the student vote held any sway at all, just a way of making students feel empowered- when in fact the positions were chosen by staff.

Headmaster/Headmistress is widely used in independent schools. The Head’s children nearly always go to their school as otherwise it’s like saying this school is ok for other people to pay for their children to attend but not mine!

In one independent school I worked in the Head ultimately lost her job because of how favourably she treated her own children. Many children in their classes left because of how favourably her (rather badly behaved) children were treated and the situation was becoming untenable.

If I’d have been the Headmistress in this situation I’d have made it clear that the process had nothing to do with her this year due to potential conflict of interest with her daughter in the running. That said, the daughter would still have an advantage potentially if her mum could help her with her campaign but sometimes it’s all done with the class teacher in the interests of fairness.

People don’t like nepotism it’s like ‘Chair of Governors son gets Head Boy shocker’ I don’t even need to ask who got it because well of course he was always going to get it!

This is a prime example of why you shouldn't be able to teach at the same school your children attend let alone be a headmistress at one.
Total conflict of interest.

Totally agree @lovelyboneslove there is a boy in DD’s school who is absolute horror however as both his mum and dad are teachers at the school nothing ever gets done about it. It really is a conflict of interests and is very unprofessional

So, you really don't know how the decision is made, but you are questioning the decision!! Her being an all rounder sounds perfect. Why do you actually care anyway - she's Head Girl at a primary school, she hasn't landed some high flying executive job!!!

This is a prime example of why you shouldn't be able to teach at the same school your children attend let alone be a headmistress at one.

I grew up in a small town with two primary schools (one Catholic) and one high school - should all the teacher parents of students have travelled out of town to work? Towns are further apart here than they are in much of the UK by the way. It never seemed to be an issue having teachers/children at the same school. The heads also had children at those schools.

It seems to me that it's only an issue because parents who are too involved in their children's school lives feel their precious little darlings might be disadvantaged.

I agree- it isn't so easy.
If you live in a rural community school choice can be effectively non existant. LA will usually only pay for transport at the catchment school, rural public transport is dire in many areas, meaning having to drive long distances to get to school and parents get to work

Yes the teachers should travel

I know 3 teachers and all refuse to work in their local town schools as 1) their kids go there 2) they don’t want to bump into their pupils or parents locally

so they travel 20/30mins

So you aren’t fussed, have no interest in finding out how the decision is made but are convenes about it?

I don’t see why the daughter should be automatically exempt from being head girl because of their parents job.

I would wait until I found out more before forming any opinion.

@Testina
Do people still say “headmistress?”

what else would they say?

Headteacher?

Yes the teachers should travel
I know 3 teachers and all refuse to work in their local town schools as 1) their kids go there 2) they don’t want to bump into their pupils or parents locally
so they travel 20/30mins

The country I live in is much smaller (population-wise) than the UK. I very much doubt they would all get jobs in the nearest towns - there are only two a 20/30 minute drive away, and one of those towns only has one school. It's not as easy as you seem to think - and as I've said, it has never been an issue. We also have only two secondary schools in this area, and while it might be possible for teachers from the small town to teach in the large town there is no way all the teachers from the larger town could work at the small town school. It's quite common here for teachers to work at the school their children attend.

So they could just pick names out of a hat then?

Is she called Josette?

Please don't assume nepotism immediately. It isn't always the case (not saying it isn't...but it might not be 🤷‍♀️)

My girls both came to the school I taught in...and were in my class! They had such a tough time as I was super careful NOT to show any favouritism towards them, that I probably went too far the other way, poor kids! They hardly ever got stickers and never got made school council leaders or anything like that. In my experience most teachers are the same...ultra conservative when teaching their own child...we are very aware that we are being scrutinised are probably even harder on our own children to be fair 🤷‍♀️

In all honesty, her DD seems a nice enough girl but does not outwardly stand out strongly in any particular way
If your dd is in a lower grade, how is it that you know enough about this girl to know this?

I think what has raised eyebrows more..
Absolutely loathe jealous parents bitching and gossiping about CHILDREN 🤬

People saying that teachers shouldn't be able to teach in the same school as their children!! This is ridiculous and not always feasible.

I taught overseas when my two were younger, so it was the ONLY school that my children could go to! There literally was no choice...and this is the case for many teachers. The same would be for teachers in independent schools, where their children get discounts, or in extremely rural areas (where I am currently teaching) and many of our staff have their own children in school, as otherwise they'd never manage to get both themselves and their kids to different places!

Please think outside of your own particular bubble before shouting your mouth off! Dear god! It's not that difficult 🤦‍♀️

The fact you are harder on your own children is another reason you shouldn't be teaching at the same school as them.
It's not fair either way for the children and is a massive conflict of interest.

It's not a ridiculous thing to say. Teaching at the same school as your child is a massive conflict of interest.
If anything can be done to prevent this e.g travelling a bit further then so be it.