Parents want a TripAdvisor website for schools, Ofsted considering it.

[noblegiraffe]

Dear god are you insane?

Ofsted have refused to rule out this suggestion as a replacement for ParentView because more than three quarters of respondents to a survey thought it was a good idea.

schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-mulls-creating-school-reviews-website/

Sounds almost as dire as 'rate my teacher'.

For pity's sake

Who's the most likely to post a review: someone who's quite happy with the school or the parent with an axe to grind because you asked them to not swear in front of pupils?

Such a good idea.

Surely it would just get lairy with people airing their grievances until threads have to be deleted for legal or privacy reasons

I can see it as a place for 'that parent' to get their own back on Mrs X because she wouldn't put Persephone up a reading level.

Perhaps there should be one for teachers to rate parents.

Would it be used any more than PV though? I fill it out each year, along with about 2 othersit seems, so the results are never viewable. I like our school & fill it out for that reason but Physalia is right, if there was a TA type site, if it was actually used, the majority would be negative because you’re more likely react to a single negative experience than you are to years of a good standard of education.

So basically yes, as a parent I think it’s a rubbish idea that would negatively impact perfectly good schools.

Don’t worry, it could be balanced by fake reviews by school staff. You surely don’t believe everything you read on Trip Adviser? School staff could get their views across too! Win win all round?

Never mind negative parent reviews, it will be spammed by pupils at the school trying to be funny. The Google reviews for DS's school are, shall we say, "interesting".

I never understand the need for these though. In a primary school of say 400 odd or a Secondary school of day 1500. Plenty will have a good experience and plenty will not. Usually not necessarily the schools’ fault but people (and children) are all different. Therefore, getting parents’ views on a school will often not be relevant to your own child and whether they will thrive there or not. It’s too subjective!!

It could provide an insight into the kinds of parents at the school and the incidence of problem families/poor satisfaction rates. It would definitely have useful to have access to that when we were choosing schools. Could also be a good way to highlight instances of failures to accommodate children with special needs. All we had access to when we were choosing was official school materials (obviously biased) and current parents (who obviously wouldn’t stay put if they didn’t like the school). In the end it all turned out well but some kind of verified parent feedback from parents of students who had left the school/were the weird social butterfly kind that we ended up talking to would have been reassuring.

@MrsRabitRocks no body should have a bad experience though. No one i have met at our school has ever said they have had anything but the best experience (all for different reasons of course but no one has ever said that the school wasn’t a good fit or that the school failed to deal with problems or meet needs).

But would they make the effort to say that @BogglesGoggles? I do agree that nobody should have a bad experience, but in reality that can be quite complicated. A few years ago, in a previous school, we had a parent with mental health difficulties that meant a lot of storming in and ranting and swearing in front of children. She genuinely believed she had been hard done by but once she was on the upside of her swing she'd be mortified at her own behaviour.

I was meh about my own children's primary school - some things they did well and some I thought were total crap (Shanghai Maths, I'm looking at you) but that's entirely personal opinion.

I think a tweak of the ParentView questions would be a better idea.

@PhysaliaPhallis not sure what you mean exactly? Do you mean would they post those opinions? Possibly. The school is fantastic and for children with special needs/they have had bad experiences elsewhere/where parents were educated in a bad school themselves the parents tend to get quite evangelical. It freaked us out a bit at first but after the first term we understood why.

Yes, I think I do. And people are quite entitled to hold those opinions - it's what they do with them that counts. I think I'd be wrong to say Maths was awful for more able children at my child's school, even though I believe it was. There was so much they got right and I feel that it's human nature to focus on the negatives than the positives.

I guess though there are parents who have had genuine issues with a school and are not just wanting a moan. My Ds has had the most awful time at his school. I would like to be able to tell other parents that the school's SEN support is terrible, I would hate for another child to have the same experiences as my Ds.

no body should have a bad experience though
But that is so subjective. What is good for someone isn’t good for another. And some parents cause their own problems but just can’t see that. Nothing to do with the school (although sometimes it is). Some just don’t like ‘school’ full stop. No matter what school it is. Therefore, my point still stands. To use something like this to determine a decision on where to send your own child, is flimsy at best and downright unhelpful at worst.

No, just no.

Who would verify the posts? It’s a minefield. I love the idea that problem families will be identified! Really!? That really would be a step too far and possibly illegal. The Parent View questions are wishy washy. They could and should be revised.

Just to say, ratemyteacher has now deleted all of its comments as people are not allowed to be named (GDPR). The only thing that can be mentioned is the quality of the courses. So of course it’s empty.

It’s an utterly crap idea.

Yet another forum for parents to say what they want and the school to have absolutely no way to respond.

Given the mention of Ofsted I'm assuming this isn't relevant to Scotland but I still think it's a shocking idea.

It'll become like TripAdvisor for places, full of angry nasty and defamatory reviews because someone has a grudge.

Absolutely terrible idea.

Well to be fair, TA has plenty of great reviews. One wonders who posts them? Another future job for Heads maybe?