14yo odd quiz at school- do I complain

[Cornecopia]

My ds came home yesterday and said that he had to fill in an online form ( not just him the whole of his year) and the questions were- what is your sexual orientation, are you comfortable in your gender, have you had sexual experiences, have you ever sent or received inappropriate pictures.
I understand some questions are safeguarding views. But bloody hell the sexual orientation etc why on earth is that relevant to my sons schooling?? I just feel his privacy has been really invaded and he doesn’t know himself whether he’s is straight/gay or whatever- I did ask him if there was. ‘Prefer not to say’ option and he said yes but the teacher said not to use that!
I just don’t really know what to think about it all

It's about tackling suicide rates? What other questions do they ask? Do they include social media use, time spent outside, number of hours their parents work etc etc?

My child has been asked to answer a questionnaire like this recently, but is a younger age group. We had the choice to opt out. We did, not because of the questions, but because every time they do something like this at school re mental health I find my child's mental health dips. Rest of the time they are fine.

I think the problem is that in our case child tends to think too hard about the answers and then starts to doubt whether they are happy, have good friendships etc.

I'd be really interested if they ever add a section to something like this asking the participants how completing the questions has made them feel.

Talk freely or not? You misogynistic reference to ‘Karen’ suggests you only think certain attitudes are allowed to talk freely….

There is a huge amount of speculation on this post - from the information provided by the OP, nobody knows if it was an NHS survey, if it was anonymous, if the child misunderstood the wording of the teacher, etc.

OP in order to know what to do next, you need this information, and nobody on here can give it to you. So contact the school and ask what the survey was, what information the students were given about how their data will be used, and whether it was compulsory. Then use their responses to decide if there’s anything there you’re unhappy with.

No. The teacher told them this. If the teacher told them to meet them after school is it the child's fault if they did because they technically had the option not to? You can't excuse the teachers behaviour because the pupils had the opportunity to dissent. Very strange response

Would you say the same if they were encouraged to ignore other answer options?

Bloody hell! Invasion of privacy! Complain! Find other parents who are unhappy and complain together, write to your MP, don't be quiet.
All this shit happens because people put up with it.
The other day I am going to my bank to withdraw cash, a decent amount. A teller says I have to fill the form (!!!!!!) - after I paid taxes on it - it is none of their business. 'What are you planning to spend the money on?' I filled it in 'on sex workers and dope, to have a good time'.
Don't be timid, no point. Tell your child to fill in 'invasion of privacy'.

I seem to remember doing something similar but paper based back in the late 80s /early 90s. All I can say is the results would not have been worth the paper they were written on, as no self respecting teenager was going to admit to being anything other than chain smoking, drug using, swingers. I imagine this is something very similar. It will be used to inform hand wringing policy over the next few years. Worrying he has been told to not to use prefer not to say option though. That is his right.

Make not too much fuss about it.
And remind your child that they are free to use UNSURE as long as they've thought about the answer deeply.

How many of you commenting have actually seen this questionnaire ?

Remind your child, they do not need to think about the answer deeply, they can opt out of the whole survey or put ‘prefer not to answer’ without even reading the question if they want to.

How is that relevant?

@Littoralzone pretty bloody obvious, as those of us who work in safeguarding know exactly what is asked and how the data is used. So much misinformation in this post

@Littoralzone have you seen it ?

@Littoralzone "Would you say the same if they were encouraged to ignore other answer options?"

I don't understand. I see nothing wrong with saying "Try to answer every question- the more data the survey gets the better"After all, we do want to tackle young people's mental health and bullying, don't we?

All I'm saying is it's always important to check what was actually said.

It is not relevant what the survey says because the same principles hold true regardless of the questions.

Those of you who work in safeguarding should know that you should not be coercing children to share intimate details about themselves they are not comfortable sharing. That they are entitled to say ‘no’ and telling them otherwise is a safeguarding breach in itself.

Hello Mr President, have you not got other things to do?

No, it’s only one facet of who they are. And while some know from a very young age they’re gay, others take a lot longer to figure it out. He’s 14! I know I didn’t have my sexuality figured out a that age.

Be grateful that it wasn't the Scottish government's 1 as that asks about sex, sexual acts and rape and sexual abuse with no care or counselling for traumatised children who are expected to disclose the csa that they've endured in class and then get straight back to work

The reason why ‘prefer not to say’ is in the survey are it is required in order for the survey to be ethical. To let young people know they do not need to share information they might be uncomfortable sharing. Telling them they must through emotional manipulation (suggesting they are responsible for bullying and mental health) is bullying and undermines their mental health as well as the survey itself.

"Go Karen" ... Oh dear.

I assume you are being sarcastic with this post?

You don't seem to know very much about it and given all you have is your child's version of events why not call school and ask for their version of events. Then you can consider both sides and then decided if you want to complain...

It's likely the My Health My School survey,which is a national data capture and anonymous. It supports funding and allocation of resources. There are 'prefer not to say' options.

Parents should be informed and have the option to withdraw. There's a parent info section on the website.

Very relevant. People are getting worked up over something they do not know anything about. They’re just imagining stuff.