To ask if this is/shoud be standard recruitment practise

[InsomniacVampire]

Came across this as a recommended article and don't know what to think

schoolsweek.co.uk/teaching-hopefuls-asked-for-details-of-any-website-youre-named-on/

To sum up if you dont want to click, some schools ask prospective candidates to give up their social media handles (as well as sites they are mentioned on) info and do background search on candidates.

"An application form for Chesham Grammar School, in Buckinghamshire, asks teacher candidates to provide account names and handles for “all of your” social media accounts, including any under a nickname or pseudonym."

On the one thing, obviously recruiting a teacher who has a twitter account praising racism/homophobia/revealing them to be an Andrew Tate wannabe etc would not be great, I can't see it as anything other than another invasion into private life (also knowing teachers among other few professions seem to be held to higher standards than many other professions).

What are people experiences with this? Is it something already going on a lot outside teaching? Would you/Did you hand over your social media information to a prospective employer?

I have an incredibly silly blog I write for with a friend, a super locked personal FB I don't use my real name for and and two IG accounts, one where I put photos from travels and one of a hobby I do- none having my name/face/person on it. While admittedly I would not like anyone irl to ever read the blog as I would die of shame (super guilty pleasure stupid stuff), I would actually not like an employer to have access to any of the above even if they are harmless and there is nothing dodgy on them- they dont need to what I do in my free time. I'm a teacher, not an Mi5 agent.

lso, funnily enough, why is there such an emphasis on teachers having to be bulletproof, rather than an onus on students being taught it is wrong to spy on and misuse information on schoool stuff?
Because we are the adults as teachers and we are in a position of trust. We don't have to be bulletproof though.

Placing the responsibility on children not to search a teacher online over placing responsibility for the teacher to make sure their online conduct is appropriate for the job would be the wrong way round.

I wouldn't expect anyone to have to share their anonymous blogs on application, but would strongly advise that if their anonymous blogs are doing anything that could appear to break the teacher standards they have a very close look at their privacy settings.

I understand drunk nights out on an open profile. I don't understand wanting social handles for knitting accounts or even expressing political views if not linked to name of the applicant but a random nickname.

Apparently a few key strokes can show up all your online presence, even with a seemingly anonymous username.
A poster on TT said she had had a job offer withdrawn due to this & a tech guy stitched her video and explained how easily it’s done.

@LolaSmiles Yes, and no, the amount of abuse that teachers face these days on social media (I know of someone who had their photos secretly taken in a shopping mall and then made into memes on a social media account ridiculing them) is unprecedented.
We talk a lot of teacher conduct (rightfully, although I think some people are a bit too rigorous with what should'should not be allowed), but there is zero emphasise on schools protecting their staff against abuse and bullying, it's often just left to- oh well, kids will be kids, deal with it.
There should be some sort of balance between normal curiosty and vile bullying. WHat you put under your name is on you, but I think teachers like anyone else should be allowed to have a private life that is not scrutinised by the schools/local authorities etc.

Online I prefer to be a ghost either way, although depending on the organisation, they could monitor your internet usage and see what you click on, watch via YouTube, ect all track and traced.

In lots of roles, you need to be security cleared - to a greater or lesser degree of intrusiveness depending on the level of clearance required. Having your social media scrutinised is on the milder end of those kind of checks.

The problem for teachers is that the parents will look them up and be really weird about anything. Teacher training programmes at university tend to cover the need to lock down your social media - even as a student teacher.

No it's terrible....

Anything's that's out there in my real name is "fair game" and easily fair game.

The websites and communities I'm members of, using a pseudonym, are my safe spaces to be myself.

^This. My school can search for me and look through my FB feed as much as they like. Or my Instagram posts (exclusively about knitting!). My MN posting history though... nope. I have expressed views about schools and teaching, and other potentially controversial topics which, while there is nothing at all illegal or dodgy about them, I wouldn't necessarily want to share with employers.

It's all part of the online searches that are required by KCSIE 2022. The actual government guidance states that we 'should' (as opposed to 'must') carry out online searches on shortlisted candidates but there is no guidance about how deep these searches need to go and what precisely you should do if you find something. Schools and MATS are applying their own interpretation. I feel for people who have common names eg John Smith who could unwittingly be discriminated against for something they didn't do.

My understanding of it is that there could be stuff like details of a candidates arrest or similar online which hasn't resulted in a criminal charge and wouldn't appear on a DBS. It's a hot topic at the moment.

I've seen links to teachers' SM with photos of them (male, of course) with really sexualized content, even if under a pseudonym children will find them.

What happened to 'invasion of privacy' being a thing?

InsomniacVampire
Of course bullying from students is unacceptable. There should be zero tolerance on the sort of behaviour you describe. The fact it is tolerated is a problem.

That's different from placing the onus on students to not Google their teachers though.

I didn't say there should be onus on students not googling teachers, but that people (including some school leaders) seem to think teachers should not have any sort of life outside school because a student or a parent may find it and manipulate it.

OP you’re obviously either a student or very young. Or maybe a student having a thing with a teacher?
grammar is a basic skill for a teacher.

I've had cvs in with social media handles on them, no need to ask! I did have a nose but none of the accounts were anything to do with the roles, or a side hustle they were proud of. Thought it was ott to include but maybe they had been asked in other roles so being proactive.

This would be a terrible invasion of privacy, and a total thought policing state, and we have clearly seen how perfectly reasonable opinions nowadays is labelled unwrongly as hate speech. Not to mention you can have whatever personal views you like and still be an excellent teacher. What's next, asking to read your personal diary in case ypu wrote some wrongthoughts down? The thought makes me shudder.

This would be a terrible invasion of privacy,

How? People are being asked to own up to what they publish in public. If your SM account are all locked down to F&F ( as they probably should be if you are a public facing professional ) nobody is asked what goes on in private.

What's next, asking to read your personal diary

If your personal diary is kept private in your home, nobody has the right to read it, if however you print it out and pin it to the front door of the Town Hall, they probably are.....

In the past two years I've witnessed two apparently sensible professionals, one a teacher, dismissed for unbelievable public SM postings that reflected badly on their employers. I can sort of see the employers point of view.

OMG!!! How did you know?????? I did have a thinkg with another teacher. But we were in our thirties and ended up married, please don't report us.

Also, 'grammar' in your sentence should be written with capital G as it's a first word in the sentence. Ponctuation is also a cool skill to have, in any job.

This is what I am worried about. That, at the end of the day, teachers (or anyone else) should be able to hold political views etc. I can see potential discrimination, if let's say a school decided not to appoint someone who is actively pro unions on their account. And it's not like schools/employers will admit that was the case. At the end of the day, you can give someone any bs excuse not to employ them, so that's just another thing that can be used against people in general.

Posting as a headteacher.

We've always done a search to see what is in the public domain, although we've never gone as far as individual's facebook pages etc. We found one applicant who had been rescued by the fire brigade from a rather embarrassing situation while seriously drunk, appeared in the national press, and from her comments in the piece thought the whole thing was hysterical. This was very recent to the application, not from years ago. It did reveal something about the candidate's level of maturity.

However, it is not normal for the panel to have access to the equalities info about someone's sexuality, race, religion, disabilities, etc in case of unconscious bias. Having a good look at someone's facebook page can be very revealing and if schools are going down this road now, it should really do be done by an administrator who is checking for any significant information rather than the panel being nosey!

What a load of shit. And no I won't be telling any prospective employer my eBay login, Mn username, my Sainsbury’s receipts or what size pants 🩲 and tights I order from M&S either.

Pseudonym or not, there will be students who can track you down, the digitally literate clever little buggers! 😁 Set everything identifiable to private, and make sure there are no digital links between named and pseudonymed sites. And if you don't want a student to read out your spicey stories in class or share photos of you in swimwear then don't put them on public social media whatever name you publish them under.

None of those, apart from MN, would be considered social media. And I'd argue, in false naivety, that MN is an 'online forum' and therefore not covered in the request. But I would use different emails for mn and fb, if the latter was public cos of those pesky kids. 😁

Playing a devil's advocate here...

I once had a mate who worked for a big bank.Every Friday he would get out, get totally drunk (and kept on drinking until Sunday), probably did a lot of irresponsible things. But would then turn up to work on Monday and wild weekend partying did not affect his work at all, that persona was switched off on Sunday evening and Mon-Friday afternoon he was super efficient, focused and excellent at what he did.

I would argue that whatever people get up to in their free time should be a separate thing altogether, social media aside, although I can see how recruiters would prefer someone who is more 'predictable' and sm are just a risk people take if they post anything on them.

This is incredibly common even outside of teaching. And has been for years.

Most companies will check your name online anyway, this just makes it easier for them. So don’t assume a workplace not asking isn’t checking anyway