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Original poster

Head teacher's attempt to cracking down on social media use by parents

222 replies

TamaraHiddlestoned · 22/09/2016 21:27

Does anyone have experience of a primary HT trying to limit parents' discussion of school standards & behaviour on social media?
Our HT wants to prevent any mention of the school or staff by any parent & in any context.
Aside from the impracticalities of this, and assuming that no laws are broken, does the HT actually have any power to do this?

Thanks for helping me to understand!

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Badbadbunny · 25/09/2016 16:25

How is this different from, say, a customer of business going onto social media to complain about that business?

gotthearse · 25/09/2016 16:29

I havent read the whe thread, so forgive me if its been said but hes being a prat about this. Can you imagine the NHS or the DWP or a retailer coming out with such tosh? We'd be up in arms about the lack of accountability and curtailing of free speech. Yes you will get your idiots and your mood hoovers, and you may even once in a while have to have a word with the odd unreasonable/spiteful/personal one. But that is life in public service. Its not always nice, never has been and was the case long before social media. He just needs to suck it up, and (perish the thought) listen when parents have a reasonable challenge (long suffering public servant here).

JeSuisUnChocoholic · 25/09/2016 16:31

I'd agree with HT because if I was a staff member I wouldn't want the whole world to know my name, where I work and what I look like. Same goes for kids.

smallfox2002 · 25/09/2016 16:32

"was rebuffed firmly by two law professors among the parents"

Who were wrong, you certainly can break defamation laws online. I think you made that bit up!

noblegiraffe · 25/09/2016 16:42

How is this different from, say, a customer of business going onto social media to complain about that business?

Because a school isn't a business and education isn't a business transaction. Relationships are important, schools are a community, and the teachers will be teaching your children tomorrow and the day after and the day after.

gillybeanz · 25/09/2016 16:56

I think the HT is correct.
Who wants to talk about their child's school on social media anyway.
More to the point who wants their child's name or their teachers discussed.

BeatrixBurgund · 25/09/2016 16:57

Basil
Sorry, that was badly worded.

Ideally, if there is a problem, the first step for parents is to speak to their child's teacher. If the problem isn't resolved, then go to head of year and / or headteacher. I do think that actually speaking one on one to your child's school should always be the initial contact, not going straight to Facebook for a rant.

If the problem doesn't just affect own child, then talking to other parents on social media is fine - as long as it stays in a private group and isn't abusive towards teacher or defamation. Gathering support in this way means that school can't ignore or dismiss the issue - as you said, within the community, they have a power that an individual parent just doesn't have.

As I said in my initial post, this only works when the school is willing to engage with parents, in person and online. Schools who try to ban social media are missing out on an opportunity to work closer with parents, which is detrimental to everyone.

Thingiebob · 25/09/2016 16:58

We had that with our school. I wonder if it is the same one!

No the headteacher cannot police what is said on personal pages and groups. Public pages or official groups in the name of the school are different matter.

CauliflowerSqueeze · 25/09/2016 17:02

noble

Spot on.

Someone likened it to complaining to the council about the bins not being collected a while back.

capricorn12 · 25/09/2016 17:06

What the hell happened to freedom of speech? Not quite the same situation exactly , but the company I work for ( a large energy supplier) tried something similar last year when a disgruntled colleague slagged them off on FB after she had resigned. Her post was announcing that she had left and wishing her colleagues well but she got a dig in at the company too. They couldn't do anything to her as she had already left but they attempted to take any member of staff who had 'liked' her post to a disciplinary! The union wiped the floor with them.

DanyellasDonkey · 25/09/2016 17:13

We had lots of this going on along the lines of, "Was up at the shit that passes for * school sports day today" and being a small town school. lots of staff were able to see it.

The HT called in a few parents and asked them politely to refrain from posing nasty comments about the school and its staff on FB and that seems to have worked.

LadyConstanceDeCoverlet · 25/09/2016 17:14

smallfox, you can't say the law professors were wrong unless you were at the meeting. From what OP says, they told her that discussing the school on social media didn't mean parents were breaking the law, which is correct. Presumably if the head had actually cited anything defamatory, they would have responded differently.

smallfox2002 · 25/09/2016 17:19

I can say what I like dear.

I'd imagine that anyone with legal expertise may point out that nothing had yet been done that could be considered defamatory but it was a significant possibility in the future, not firmly rebuffing a HT.

Frankly the statistical possibility of two law professors having their children at the same primary school and being present at the same meeting, and agreeing, are so low that this bit didn't actually happen.

BoneyBackJefferson · 25/09/2016 17:26

capricorn12
"What the hell happened to freedom of speech?"

Its fine as long as you are not spreading rumours and malicious gossip about someone.

LadyConstanceDeCoverlet · 25/09/2016 17:42

smallfox, if you really want to be as nitpicky as that, dear, I'll change what I said.

You can't say with accuracy that the law professors were wrong unless you were at the meeting.

Happy?

You can speculate as much as you like, dear, it doesn't make you correct. If the school is near a university, it's perfectly possible that two professors from a law faculty had children in a school which may have 800 pupils or more. A couple of kids in my ds' school year had parents who were science professors. If the head got the law wrong, there's no reason why lawyers wouldn't agree on that fact.

Starlight234 · 25/09/2016 17:46

I belong to a parent group..

I have seen one person complain about a teacher and everyone whip everyone else into a frenzy.. Made everything worse.

So yes if you have an issue with a teacher talk to the teacher.

OP I am guessing lots is been said you haven't read.

A couple of theads have come to heads attention and she has answered it head on...I admire her for that.

smallfox2002 · 25/09/2016 17:47

It's far more likely that the poster made it up though.

Enkopkaffetak · 25/09/2016 17:51

I am in 2 minds here..

On one hand I dont think slagging anyone off is ok on public media. (schools or parents)

On the other hand. I have issue with not being able to ask if other parents find homework for x class too difficult without the school calling you in for a "chat" (that actually happened to a close friend of mine) Claiming she was unreasonable etc. The homework in question was on a new online base the school was using many parents were uncomfortable with. Additionally the homework was GCSE level and the girl in question was in year 4 and at the time suffering hugely from anxiety and the homework had given her a panic attack. At this point I think it is 100% acceptable for the parent to ask if others find it too hard.

There is a closed group for the year 8 my youngest is in. It gets used for home work upcoming trips who is going etc and the occasional meet up outside of school hours. It is not very active but good here and there..

The closed group that was set up for the primary mine were in we ended up putting a disclaimer at the top stating it was run by parents and was not associated with the school. Made it easier for all.

mrz · 25/09/2016 17:58

"Does anyone have experience of a primary HT trying to limit parents' discussion of school standards & behaviour on social media"

If we read the OPs first post the head isn't stopping parents discussing school issues on social media.
I imagine they are reminding parents that naming the school and/or teachers in defamatory terms is unacceptable.

LuluJakey1 · 25/09/2016 18:02

Most parents who use social media as a place to gossip and off-load their opinions and grievances about schools are ill-informed and destructive.

Every parent is entitled to an opinion and welcome to discuss that with the school through the Head, Deputy or teachers or governors in a civilised way. Criticising, gossiping, ranting and raving, whipping up other parents and posting inaccurate information, using inappropriate offensive language is shameful. Schools are not places to be gossiped about and have rumours spread about them in the community.

Ditsyprint40 · 25/09/2016 18:09

Most parents who use social media as a place to gossip and off-load their opinions and grievances about schools are ill-informed and destructive.
This entirely.

We tend to invite those moanjng in to set the record straight. Their facts are usually always wrong. As in whinging about something that hasn't even happened. And a million comments 'go up the school and demand to see the head'. Most aren't even interested in actually coming to sort anything out.

flupcake · 25/09/2016 19:02

Ah this would explain why there is are so few chat threads online about schools! I am in the process of choosing secondary school, and there seems to be a blackout of any online discussions of the school options in this area.

Thissideof40 · 25/09/2016 19:03

I don't think a HT can actually enforce anything but ours says if you have a problem with the school come and speak to her.

We recently had a situation with some parents of a particular class whose kids had fallen out and the parents were slagging each other and the school off on Facebook. A letter was sent home to all parents of that class from the HT saying how disgusted she was with the parents behaviour. If my child was in that class and I'd got a letter home over other parents behaviour I'd be pretty pissed off.

nooka · 25/09/2016 19:08

I work for a university with a law school. We have twenty professors and probably about half of them have children. There are also lots of lawyers in our town, corporate and private. I'd be very surprised if any of them wouldn't say something if they happened to be at a general school meeting and someone in authority made a blanket incorrect statement along the lines of 'discussing the school online is illegal'.

Schools do not have the authority to control parents and should be more careful in how they approach this sort of thing. Most parents do not enjoy or respond well to being treated like children. Many schools are not great at communication, if there is lots of chatter about them (good or bad) online it's a sign that more communication is required. The problem is that it's difficult to monitor social media without resources.