I was interviewed by a number of schools across … · Web viewI was interviewed by a number of schools across London and Surrey. Majority of them had a student panel where they had

Strictly embargoed until 00.01hrs Saturday 3 April 2010

Abuse of Student VoiceCase Studies

The largest teachers’ union in the UK 1

N.B

Please note this dossier contains all of the responses we have had. The only editing that has taken place is to remove the identity of individual teachers, members of staff, pupils and schools.

These were the responses from members received in the main over a 24 hour period once an email had been issued.


Case Study 1I was interviewed by a number of schools across London and Surrey.

Majority of them had a student panel where they had pre prepared questions

that I and the other candidates had to answer. Rather demeaning!

Case Study 2Bravo. I’ve noticed this several times and there has been 1 very painful

disciplinary that I faced, which relied on student voice to gather evidence

against me. It was obvious to me and the union rep that the school or rather

the head, was out to get me.

Some of if not all of the comments given about me were untrue I was there in

the class and many issues didn’t happen that way. A "telling off" was

appropriate but the evidence "student speak" resulted in a push for dismissal.

A select governor’s team dropped it to a verbal warning but the chair of the

Governors considered that I work a lot with pupils and gave me a written

warning.

The stress nearly broke my marriage up, accelerated my male patern balding

and I lost time at the start of the process, which took several months, due to

the stress.

Currently, 1 pupil who is in "trouble" due to the lack of work and very difficult

attitude to me and to her learning has been brandishing a false accusation

that I called her fat because she couldn’t get out of the door.

The truth is, my comment was no one will leave until they have given me their

work. Since I was at the door, I will make sure no one will get past,

professionally of course. Another pupil changed this around after and told her

or clamed that I had referred to the first girl’s size.

on leaving the first girl who failed to complete her work pushed me out of the

way.

She made several attempts to get her story over to the pastoral head, in an

attempt to take the pressure of herself. The lack of work attitude and pushing

me away.



I wait to see if there is any further out come from the Senior Management

Team.

There is a lot of this occurring. Many pupils report false teacher comments or

actions to get themselves out of trouble or just being vindictive. However, as I

found out, we are banned from discussing any of this so issues that arise

around the school, are hidden away.

Case Study 3Particularly topical for me; I have had to undergo an investigation after 2

pupils let out that I was speaking too much French in my lesson (we are

supposed to as Teachers of MFL).

What I minded was that my head of department had told me he was going to

come and observe everyone teaching a particular lesson period 6 on a Friday

(last lesson) and that this was not at all linked with the complaints.

Yet he stayed 30 mins, took notes and, afterwards did tell me that one of the

reasons he had come was because of the complaints. I told him I was

disappointed with his behaviour and left it to that, esp. that he gave me some

useful tips as to better myself. He then came to another lesson and found I

was much better.

I do not mind being asked my views but for various reasons, esp. I work in an

independent school and I am the only non native speaker of English, I would

like to remain anonymous.

Case Study 4I recently received an email about abuse of pupil voice at school and wanted

to give you my experience of the situation. I work in a grammar school and

recently some Year 7 students were asked to complete a questionnaire on the

VLE about the teachers, things such as were teachers on time t. lessons, did

they do assessments, did they give them appropriate homework etc.



The only thing that made me slightly uneasy about this was that I felt it was

kept really quiet - hardly any of the staff knew about it (apart from a few

members) and I felt it was all a bit secretive. I only heard about it because

some of my Year 7 students were rewarded with chocolate cake when they

had filled it in, and were excited in my class knowing that in break time they

would get cake! Let me know what you think,

Case Study 5Student Voice (Provided in confidence)

Whilst working as a supply teacher at xxxxx School in Durham, I became

aware of a student panel being used as part of the interview process for the

post of a new Head of ICT.

The students on the panel were certainly not a true cross-section of the

school population. Two of the students chosen were children of teachers at

the school.

I asked a number of these students what questions they would ask the

candidate.

'If you were a font - what font would you be?' Was a question one had

approved for her to ask. I burst out laughing and the student responded, 'If the

candidate did that I would give them a zero!'

I asked what the purpose of such a question was. The student stated it would

show if the candidate was 'creative'.

Another presented her question; - 'If I needed help after school how would you

provide such?'

The student then stated that one teacher within the school allowed students to

e-mail her up until 10pm if they had any problems. If the candidate did not

offer such access they would score them low.



I approached a senior member of staff to ask them how much weight was

given to such student panels. Their reply was worrying. 'Great Weight. Last

year a very strong candidate missed out because their student score was low.

Despite the Head of Department believing they were the best for the role.'

Just a short account of my worrying experience within one of the best schools

in County Durham.

Case Study 6I work in a middle school deemed secondary. We teach key stages 2 and 3.

Currently we are under development having been deemed failing by a recent

mock Ofsted inspection.

As a brief summary we have had pupils being quizzed by Ofsted and LEA

consultants as part of "pupil voice" and apparently some of the questions

asked have been "Which teachers do you like? Why?" and similar. I have not

witnessed this myself but have been told this is the case. It is also used by

management but I am not sure in exactly what capacity. I have been given

unofficial verbal information from a member of the SLT about pupils being

asked whether teachers "act" the same all the time, or if they act "differently"

under observation, which seems a rather odd line to take.

Case Study 7I work in a secondary school and was applying for an internal promotion. The

process involved a student interview panel. I had mentioned to colleagues

that I was concerned in case a good yr10 student was on the panel as I had

given him a uniform detention a day or 2 earlier which he was extremely upset

about.

The aforementioned student was on the interview panel. I spoke to the

student the day after interview and he was quite candid about the fact that he

was going to grade me the lowest because of the detention. However, he had

decided to be professional and actually graded my interview highly.



Obviously in my case there wasn't an issue, but it is worrying that there could

have been.

During my PGCE I went for an interview where I was unsuccessful. The

interview panel included a student who had been in my observed lesson and

whom I had reprimanded. I felt this was unfair as well as unsettling when

coming face to face at with the student at the interview.

Case Study 8I recently attended an interview for a MPS job where I was interviewed by a

student panel. During this interview I was asked to sing my favourite song. I

declined as I was not being interviewed for a music position and felt that the

request was humiliating. I did not get the job - more to do with me being UPS

rather than any lack of musical prowess but I still feel very strongly that whilst

student involvement can be very useful the object is not to embarrass and

humiliate visitors to a school.

Case Study 9

I'd like to report that I went for an interview for a teaching post at a middle

school in, Staffs, a couple of years ago and was rather surprised to face a

panel of 12 year olds as part of the interview procedure. I had not been

warned this would happen. Can't remember the name of the school but it was

C of E and the head was a Reverend. The children asked me questions to do

with behaviour management. I remember being struck dumb by one question,

and a girl interviewer saying - "never mind - that was a hard question."

I didn't get the job.

Case Study 10I am currently in a dispute with my school and have an Appeal on Friday.

I am being represented by the NASUWT, following a claim I made about

harassment by my Head of Department.



Although this is not exactly what you meant by your email, some of the

accusations and reasons given for the school dismissing all my points have

used information that has been obtained from ONE student (the Head of

Maths' son). This included the Head teacher taking him out of my A Level

class for 15 minutes and interviewing him in a room on her own with the door

shut. None of the other students were interviewed and would have refuted all

his claims.

Once the Appeal is over, I would be more than happy to talk to anyone

regarding my experience. I have since resigned from my post.

Case Study 11In my school students are always used to interview candidates.

I personally think it is very hard for staff applying for internal promotion.

Students understand what is happening and can feel quite uncomfortable

after the interviews. Staff can also feel uncomfortable teaching students who

perceive the teacher has failed.

I applied for a promotion in school. I did not know I was going to be

interviewed by students and was totally unprepared for the experience. I was

interviewed by a member of my tutor group. After the morning interview the

girl in my tutor group looked incredibly uncomfortable knowing I had failed to

gain promotion. I felt more sorry for her than I did for myself.

I subsequently gained a temporary promotion but when it came up for renewal

I did not apply because I really did not want to appear a failure in front of the

students I teach.

Case Study 12My school is a secondary school and as part of my interview process, the

student council conducted an interview with me. They asked a variety of

questions which included “Do you like children?”



I am not aware how much weight is put on their views but I suspect it is

something that the management pay some heed to. Anecdotally I have

overheard kids commenting on teachers they have interviewed and their

decision seems to be based upon whether or not they like the teacher

concerned-possibly not the best test of suitability. My interview did not discuss

my professional skills, it was a popularity contest. Whether this constitutes

abuse I do not know, there are no doubt others more qualified than I am to

judge. Today we have candidates for English posts and the student council is

involved according to our Head in our briefing this morning.

Case Study 13Let me write about the background of my experience before giving my

thoughts of the role of students.

Just before this half-term I went to an interview for a post of Head of

Mathematics at a secondary school in North Yorkshire. I have deliberately not

mentioned the name but I am prepared to if you feel it important.

First of all I was interviewed by the Associate Headteacher and we had a

discussion about the post. During this conversation the Associate

Headteacher inadvertently disclosed the problems of the department and the

school. I don't think this was his intention as the other candidates had a

different dialogue to me. It was clear there were systematic management

problems in the school at all levels.

Secondly, I was given a tour of the school by a pair of students. They were

helpful and informative. I don't know what impact this had on the decision

making process. I was never told this. I could have been shown around by

staff. It would have made little difference. In fact I would have been able to

draw more out from staff responses as it would be difficult for them to hide

things from me. The students would certainly have known less.

Thirdly, I was observed for a lesson. During the course of the lesson I had

quickly identified weaknesses in how the lessons were being delivered at the



school. However, for my lesson nearly all the students applauded me at the

end of the lesson. This was not the case for all (3) of the other candidates as I

later had asked them. I considered the lesson to be at least good with some

outstanding features but my observer's view was different. I did not have the

opportunity to challenge my observer and was instead given feedback from

the Associate Headteacher. A flaw of the process. A decision I had to just

accept. Although I did tactfully pointed out my view. The student’s view of high

expectations was different to mine and these were the most able of students

in this particular school year.

Then I was interviewed by a panel of (3 - 2 of which were in the maths

department) staff and it became apparent that all of them had some

responsibilities of these failures. One of these senior maths teachers failed to

meet the requirement of her own post as she had responsibility for overseeing

predicted grades for the whole school. She had got this so wrong where both

Maths and English were concerned as well as possibly other subjects.

This was inadvertently disclosed to me when I was shown the CVA data by

the Associate Headteacher. The Associate Headteacher himself should have

identified this failure but it was clear he had little knowledge of statistical data.

Another flaw of the process.

Next, I was interviewed by a panel of 4 students and there was also one

member of staff present. The students each asked me questions and took

notes of my responses. So did the member of staff. They were more

concerned with their current problems and in my view the lack of high

expectation from the school. Another flaw of the system as the purpose of

taking notes opens the possibility of using the information. The students knew

little of the dynamics of teaching. They could claim that they did but to get into

an in depth discussion about this just goes to show what little they knew of the

complexity of issues of teaching.

Finally, I found out from the Associate Headteacher that it was decided for me

not to be interviewed for the formal interview. I had already decided to



withdraw as clearly there were too many self-interests that was preventing the

school for moving forward.

My thoughts of the students role are that they little realise the politics of

teaching within the school which was clearly apparent to me and I had been in

the school for less than a whole day. What the students wanted would most

likely be overruled by staff which just goes to show the problems of just going

around and around.

I believe the student’s role adds little to the interview process and it is better

not to have them at all.

Case Study 14I write to inform you of my experience regarding student voice at xxxxx

School, Lancashire.

I was observed by my Head of Department 3 times during the 2008/2009

school year and all my observations were at least of a satisfactory standard.

However, I was taken into the Heads office and told he had recently chaired a

meeting of the school's student council and they had reported discipline in my

classroom to be below standard. He therefore was to begin level 1

competencies against me on these grounds only. I found this to

unprofessional and an insult to my teaching competence.

I have now left the School on poor terms with the Headteacher. I believe he

used the student voice to activate competences due to my application for my

threshold.

Case Study 15Re your student voice enquiry. I work in Penzance.

It is a school catering to KS3 and 4.



I don't think there's much abuse of student voice here, though it is said to be

important e.g. it is used by the head to suggest that our lessons are dull and

boring, and that they like 100 minute lessons, but if students want to change

the uniform or have lavatories open during times they can use them, it is

ignored! The interview process utilizes the students to some extent - when I

was interviewed nearly four years ago there was a session of "speed dating" -

a fixed, short time with a couple of students, answering their questions, before

moving to the next table for more of the same etc etc. Also, students in the

interview lessons were asked their opinion of those interviewees. Nothing too

extreme, but hope it helps.

Case Study 16I agree I am sick of students being allowed to say exactly what they want to

say about teachers without any recourse. I work in Greater Manchester.

Case Study 17Our SLT tried to get a lesson observations going with our School council. After

a discussion with the head it was agreed that if SLT were so desperate to do

this, then SLT (who were willing!) would be the only staff to be observed.

Then this year the new woman i/c school council went on a GTC or

DCSF course (can't remember which) where they suggested that it was best

practice to get kids to observe teachers How, I have no idea!). Once again, as

rep, I went in to the head and it reverted to previous agreement.

It doesn't much help does it when you have outside agencies talking this up

Case Study 18About 4 years ago, when I was an NQT, I was asked to represent the staff on

the school parliament. I was pleased to do so. The parliament was led by a

member of SLT. During one meeting, the prospect of pupil involvement in

interviewing and observing staff was discussed. In my turn, I spoke to say that

many staff were concerned about this, and quoted a little from an NASUWT

publication. I believe I was polite but, the message I was delivering was very

much at odds with the general tenor of the meeting.



My comments were met with stony silence, and I mean stony, pin-drop

silence. The pupils were told to leave the room, and the member of SLT

walked out without speaking to me.

She then went directly to complain to the head about me having undermined

her position in front of the students, and threatened to take a grievance

against me. I was hauled over the coals, and told I had to make a full apology

or the grievance would be taken. My NASUWT rep advised me to apologise

and not risk further action, so I did, but reluctantly, as I still think what I said

and did was fully in the spirit of diplomacy. However, I was an NQT and didn't

want to risk failing or indeed to make any more fuss.

The school went on to use pupils in observations, interviews etc, and still does

so, despite many staff being concerned about this.

I have since left the school.

Case Study 19I was in an interview and felt as if student voice was used negatively against

me. It was for a post as Head of RE at xxxxx School, Chester, and the post

was not filled. In one sense student voice backed up my case in that I spoke

to a group of lower school students and they liked me, and I became their

recommendation on a ratio of 8-2. (I saw the note on the headteachers’ pad).

In one sense it counted against me, as I was interviewed by my prospective A

level students and apparently I came across as too willing to ask them

questions, rather than wait for them to ask theirs. As it was, the interview

panel was split, and the head had the casting vote, and he thought I would be

too challenging for their kids, so the sixth form panel appeared to confirm a

prejudice in their minds. I believe it was prejudice as they had a preset idea

of who they wanted and I obviously did not fit. I was too direct for them.



Case Study 20My Son is a member of NASUWT and he passed on your email. I am a

member of ATL since 1973

I am a science teacher in a mixed comprehensive of about 1500 students 11-

18 in West Sussex

I started at the school in Sept 2008 and as a returner to full time science

teaching I struggled with many issues. I started teaching in 1973. I returned

after being made redundant by an Adult Education Service as I wanted to

share my expertise with more students before my retirement. I am a Physics

specialist.

In September 2009 I was still finding the job tough but thought I had improved

from the previous year which had been my first at this school. The previous

year I was in another school for one year and it was about 20 years since I

had taught full time. Apparently a parent complained about my teaching and

this led to some questionnaires being given to my pupils. A few weeks later,

unaware of any of this I was called to meet the Head. I thought it was for an

update meeting but when I arrived the Head of Science was also there and

they told me what they had and said that they were to start the capability

process.

I was very upset by all the secrecy and the fact that the pupils were being

asked about my teaching. Some of these pupils were presumably in the class

of the complainant (name not revealed to me) and I can only assume they

swapped notes.

I was in school I think for about a week or 2 after this and went of with Stress

Related Illness. I then returned after 2 weeks and had a day to phase me in

but I only lasted about 2 more weeks before I was off again and have yet to

return. (I have been off since early December).



I am not sure I can face going back into classes full of pupils who can

complain anonymously and who can criticise my methods. In one class I set

some questions which were meant to stretch the pupils in this top set Physics

triple science class. Some just looked at the question and said “You have not

taught us this” I suspect that this group had been part of the complaint and

they appeared to need to be told everything or else the teacher had failed!!!

To answer the question they needed to do 2 things 1 Think 2 read the

relevant part of the text book. They appeared to think this inappropriate.

I agree that we should listen to and act on the voice of pupils and parents.

The problem I have is that what they say is taken as the truth and I am left

trying to defend my actions when I do not know who said what or when they

said it. I only know it happened some weeks before I knew there was a

problem. The school also trained pupils to observe aspects of lessons and

report their findings to the observed teacher. This did not happen to me nor

was it offered. I could go on!

I hope this helps to stop others taking early retirement which I think is what will

happen to me in the next few months and yet another Physics teacher has

been lost to the Country.

Case Study 21I have just received your e mail regarding the abuse of Student Voice. I have

recently resigned my job as a result of exactly this issue, although it was not

to do with promotion or a new job.

I resigned because I could not continue to work in a school where pupils were

given the right to gang up with each other and write reports on teachers. I

found that senior staff dealing with the complaints, were placing far more

emphasis was on what the pupils were saying than what I, as the educated

professional adult with years of experience, was saying.



I have been left feeling robbed of my dignity and courage. I am faced with

looking for a new job, but am feeling so low that I am of the opinion that I

should leave teaching forever.

Case Study 22

I work in a Comprehensive 11-16 school. During our INSTEDS (Internal

OFSTEDS on departments which are now called learning walks), students fill

in questionnaires that are judged by Senior Members of Staff and become

part of the report that is written on the department. They usually target the

year 9 groups that we teach, and are posted home and must be returned via

senior leaders not their teachers.

And to add to your investigations into student observations, we have not

experienced it yet but year 7 are being piloted this year to take part in a

scheme where students are going to regularly observe staff and be trained in

how to do it - the idea is that they observe their teachers to help them improve

on their learning and the style of lessons. Teachers and students will begin

training on this in April - I find it difficult to be positive about this idea!

Case Study 23In response to the request to find out if students have been used to interview

potential teachers, I have twice be interview by a panel of students.

I find it can show a positive side the students in a particular school, but on the

other hand it can give a false impression of the students in a school. At my

current school, I have never taught or seen any of the interview panel since

starting there last September (they were supposedly year 9s and 10s). The

overall impression I got was that the students were friendly and well behaved,

yet I have found out that there lots of behaviour issues in the school.

On the subject of questionnaires, lately there have been a lot of

questionnaires handed out to my year 7 form. Most of them ask about the

student's experiences in school and have asked them about the staff in the

school.



I work in a large inner city secondary school.

Case Study 24I am currently working in a Special school on a maternity cover contract. The

post holder has decided not to return to school so the post was advertised as

a permanent post for which I was interviewed. The interview consisted a

formal interview by the governors, a lesson observation with a class of

children who all knew me well and finally an interview by the school council.

Unfortunately the post went to an outside applicant and although I was happy

that the interview process was fair it was uncomfortable working in the school

when the pupils were aware that I had been passed over.

Case Study 25We have an increasing pupil voice at our Junior School. Children have

'interviewed' job applicants for teaching posts and questionnaires are used by

the both the headteacher and deputy to gauge children's views. I, and other

staff, think that too much notice is taken of what the children say regarding

lessons, etc. Our headteacher also listens to parents too much and makes

decisions before she has asked the teacher what actually happened. I would

not be willing to speak to the press and have no problem with children and

parents giving their views but too much emphasis is now being given to this

without regard to the professionalism of the teacher.

Case Study 26In Confidence

I am an NQT in a large (1500 roll) comprehensive. Following my first formal

observation, my HoD who teaches the class later in the day asked the pupils

during her lesson "what they thought of me" and my "behaviour management

techniques". This was done without my knowing it was going to happen, and

with no formal feedback. I feel that it undermined me as the pupils new

teacher when they were being asked to effectively grade my classroom



management. I was really disappointed to see student voice used in this

manner, and wish your campaign success.

Case Study 27I am disappointed with the tone of this email, which appears to imply that

‘using pupils to observe teachers teaching, involving pupils in the recruitment

of staff, including on interview panels, and pupil questionnaires which are for

management rather than educational purposes’ is wrong; surely, to be

balanced, you should be asking for case studies of negative AND positive

experiences? I have been the subject of 3 of the four items listed above, and

all were positive experiences – when handled in the correct way. Perhaps

focusing on how good schools use this well, rather than encouraging what

comes across as a witch-hunt of negative experiences, would be a better

tack?

Case Study 28I saw the email about the abuse of Student Voice and I thought I would share

my recent negative experience of this.

I went for an interview at a local school recently (for a HOD position might I

add) where there was a Student Voice Panel who interviewed me as part of

the day's interview process. All seemed fine on the day; I didn't get the job

but in my feedback I was told that the student panel were impressed with my

answers. However the following Saturday when I was in town with my partner

I spotted one of the students (a Year 13) who had been on the panel who had

clearly recognised me. I thought nothing of it at first, but then as I wandered

around the shop I heard her purposefully say to be overheard 'When we did

the interview there were about 4 of them and xxxxx was one of them, yeah...'

and then I couldn't hear her as she lowered her voice at this point. She wasn't

being friendly as it was clear that she wanted me to feel paranoid.

I completely ignored her as though I hadn't heard anything, but inside I did

feel annoyed that she was talking about me in public and I got the sense that

she felt superior to me as she had been part of the selection process. This

experience has highlighted to me how the power-relationship has been



presented to students as bi-directional, and in the wrong hands I feel it could

be abused. My experience was a minor one I am sure compared to some

examples, but it does highlight how dangerous it is to give children the tools to

judge professionals without professionalism. I hope this was of some use to

your enquiry-any further help, just let me know.

Case Study 29I work in a typical secondary comp and the student voice is used at our school

to interview prospective new staff. At the moment they do not fill in

questionnaires about current staff but I would not be surprised if this was not

in the pipeline for the future.

Case Study 30This struck a chord...In February of this year my department was internally

inspected, one of 3 inspected simultaneously. As part of this, students from

various year groups were interviewed by senior management, and their

responses concerning each department were included in the final written

report which was issued to all staff. Whilst I was not named, the report was

worded in such a way as to make it easy to identify me. I did not particularly

give too much thought to this at the time, but when the report was issued,

allegations were made against me regarding my behaviour in class which

were untrue, of which I was given no notice, and against which I was never

given the opportunity to defend myself. The experience was humiliating and

undermining - I did not challenge the report as we are given the clear

indication that it is not our place to do so, and that this interviewing of students

for their views in this way replicates action which will be taken by OFSTED in

future.

I'm sorry, but I would not wish to be interviewed on this matter, I feel I'm

sticking my neck out as it is. I should add however, that in the years I have

been teaching my work has been consistently graded as good/outstanding in

both internal and OFSTED inspections. If that counts for anything.



Case Study 31I used to work in xxxxx School in Uttoxeter and the deputy head and the

Assistant Headteacher were both PE teachers...they asked pupils to spy all of

the time and to my knowledge still do. There is also a lot of bullying going on

in that school and many staff including myself left because of it.

Case Study 32Our college, a 6th Form College, are very keen on student voice, they say to

improve the department and listen to students. However, I was concerned to

be told by a student today, that they were asked at a student meeting with a

Senior Manager following an internal department inspection, whether they

considered that xxxxx would make a good departmental head. This was

another teacher in the department, who had already made it clear that she did

not want the extra responsibility as she had recently dropped down to .8 of

her timetable.

Since this meeting, the role of department head, which I was told I would be

favourably looked upon as another teacher transferred into the department 2

years ago, was actually given to another person outside of the department as

there was the possibility that she was going to be made redundant due to the

Key Skills department being scrapped as Functional Skills are not being rolled

out at level 3.

I agree that students' voice is being used inappropriately as all new teachers

have to deliver a lesson in front of students and are asked to feedback on

their delivery. This includes internal appointments where I have had some of

my own students judging my worthiness for another role in college. You would

not ask the junior clerk to interview or sit in judgement on the recruitment of

their new boss would you?

Our Department Head also holds at least one Student Voice meeting per year

to ask about lessons, resources etc. One of our teachers has been targeted

partly because of some of the comments made by her students, and has

recently left the job, after effectively being pushed out.



Case Study 33We have student panels for interviews, where students are asking questions

(use of school council), but I do not think that this has any say in the decisions

who will get offered a job. I have never been in front of a panel. Another thing

is that for departmental reviews, pupils from all key stages are asked how

often homework is set, how much homework is set, if the books are being

marked regularly. I do not know if they ask any specific questions about the

teaching in general.

Case Study 34Two years ago I did supply work for two terms in a junior school that adopted

this approach. Children from the School Council sat on 'boards' which

interviewed candidates for teaching positions. I was horrified that children

wielded such power. I covered a Year 4 class which had at least five badly

behaved children. The assigned permanent teacher resigned rather than take

the class on, so I was employed on a temporary basis.

The children had had several supply teachers, one of whom vowed never to

return to the school again. Despite this I persevered to offer the children

continuity. I did my utmost to keep the class on track despite one boy making

it almost impossible for me to finish a sentence without interruption. There

were no systems in place to deal with this minority of disruptive children and

whenever staff raised concerns they were dismissed as inadequacies in the

teacher herself.

Where there were instances of conflict between pupils and staff, it was normal

practice for the head to take the child into his office and listen to their account

at length. A judgement was always made in the child's favour without

reference to the teacher. The child was compensated in some way, usually

with a treat. Often the teacher was told to apologise when the head had

received no adult's account of the allegation. In one instance a teacher was

suspended for assaulting a child without being asked for her account. After

several weeks, the accusation was withdrawn and the teacher re-instated



without an apology or any provision for her welfare. The child remained in her

class. She was so demoralised that she resigned after a few weeks.

In this school, the empowering of children was a substitute for competent and

considered management. The only advice that I received from the head was

that the children must like you. In other words, you must make yourself

likeable to them and mould teacher behaviour and interaction in accordance

with the demands of the most troublesome pupils.

It is totally wrong that children should be involved in the recruitment process of

staff. Children look at things from a child's perspective. It is demoralising for

teachers who work extremely hard. To let pupils participate in the appointment

process engenders an overly liberal attitude that children are small adults.

Childhood should be nurtured and nourished - not rushed through or ignored.

In another school I was asked to cover a Year 6 class. The teacher was a

lovely woman that worked extremely hard to provide interesting work for the

class. However, when I visited it soon became apparent that the class had

driven her to her wits end. She was often on the verge of crying. Another

Supply Teacher told me that the permanent teacher had resorted to locking

herself in the store cupboard on one occasion. When the time came for the

children to move on to Senior School six of the pupils were expelled within

weeks. The scary part about this I feel is that with many Head Teachers now

willing to participate in this process of giving 'responsibilities' to what can only

be described previously as 'extremely disruptive' pupils, are we to expect such

'characters' on interview panels of the future?

Case Study 35I am a year five teacher. Recently several year five children were selected to

take part in some, what I understood as, leadership training away from school.

They had a great time. The next thing I am told is that as part of this training

the children will be carrying out teacher observations. I did have some say as

to when this happened but was certainly not asked if this could take place.

The children were given a very OFSTED list of things to look for. During the



lesson they took two pages of notes and walked around looking at what pupils

were doing. I am sure they had been instructed to be positive but I felt very

uncomfortable. I spoke to the head later and explained this and that it felt like

another thing being done to me, not for me.

Case Study 36I would be pleased to give information about aspects of Student Voice that I

find hard to justify. I did a course with the Specialist Schools and Academies

Trust in 2005 and part of the course was to examine Student Voice as a

gateway to learning. The course was for teachers aspiring to leadership and

all those who completed the course (with an additional module from Warwick

Uni) were given a Post-Grad cert in Innovation and Leadership. I went to a

meeting for aspiring leaders and their heads/deputies. At the meeting I was

completely ridiculed because I thought that students should be in lessons

rather than observing and assessing staff teach. At the meeting a deputy from

a comprehensive described their results in KS4 as 'declining' and said that the

school had chosen students to go into lessons to observe staff - the lessons

were not lessons they would normally attend or necessarily with teachers they

are timetabled to be with during the week. I said that I thought that the best

way to improve results was to ensure that students were at least in their

rightful lessons. The answer from the deputy was that by giving the students

responsibility to observe staff, the students felt they were valued. I asked why

they did not feel valued before they were asked to leave say a Maths lesson

and assess someone else's History lesson, even when they perhaps were not

even studying History for GCSE. I left feeling that the Specialist Schools and

Academies Trust promoted Student Voice in this way and that I was being

quite 'old school' and not keeping up with the 'changes in the adolescent

society'. The natural consequence is that Teacher Training Collages are to be

run by the children! If teachers don't like the sound of that then they need to

be against this type of abuse of children and staff. When children assess and

feedback on staff lessons it diminishes the role of any official observation and

inspection and teachers who teach. If it took place in any other profession it

sounds ridiculous - which teenager would tell a dentist, doctor etc how to

work?



As a result of the course I became interested in learning from other schools

even internationally. I organised a trip to Sydney for teachers who wanted to

travel and see how a few schools worked on the other side of the globe. I left

the school the following year but have since heard that students from the

school did a similar trip to Sydney with the brief that they were to assess

lessons of the Australian teachers. I can think of far more valuable lessons our

students can learn in Sydney given the chance and going to another school to

assess the teachers there is appalling. At that stage the school was a

Grammar School.

I do use Student Voice to listen to the students to evaluate a series of lessons

and find out what they felt was helpful and if they have ideas that I can

incorporate into the curriculum. I do think that occasionally students can be

helpful to 'think tank' issues e.g. how to tackle homophobia in the school etc

When Student Voice is inappropriate, it abuses the right of the child to learn.

Case Study 37I teach in an 11 - 18 xxxxx School in Kent. (MGGS). We have had to put up

with student voice over the last 5 years. It was originally introduced as an

NPQH project by a then Assistant Headteacher who has since taken a

demotion to Head of English in a local High School, to regain a work life

balance.

The regime that was introduced was originally put to us as a means of us

improving our teaching, by involving our classes in reflection. However this

has not been the experience in practice. The use of Student Voice has been

corrupted into an extra monitoring vehicle, which does little for personal

reflection, but certainly increases that feeling of big brother watching. Every

year in May every class have to fill out a student questionnaire asking about

their likes and dislikes in every subject. These are passed on heads of

department for inspection and the summaries sent to SMT. Linked to this are

the regular work scrutinies, which don't just involve looking at work and

progress, but involve interviewing students and holding student forums, the

results of which are discussed by the SLT, before being discussed at

curriculum group meetings and from there disseminated to all staff.



Just as worrying is the use of Student Voice in the selection of new staff,

including SLT. All potential new staff are subjected to an interview of selected

students, who are primed with questions and then discuss their thoughts

about the candidates with a member of the SLT, who then relays this

information to the interview panel.

Case Study 38At my School which is Independent the students were invited to fill in an

anonymous questionnaire prior to an up and coming Inspection that was

purported to go straight to the Inspection team. Since then the feedback which

is mainly hearsay and was clearly stated to students that it was not for use in

the school has been used against staff members and taken as verbatim truth.

This was reinforced by the Head entering a Y7 and Y11 year meeting to say

that any issues with staff that they had were to be brought to her immediately

or through a worry box without any consultation with the staff concerned. This

was without any seeking out of prior opinion and she even asked the staff at

the meeting if they would like to leave the room so the students would feel

more comfortable. To compound this, a new tab has appeared on the website

for student suggestions that go straight to the Head. Whilst we all accept that

student voice is important we already have a school council, good relations

with parents and these actions are undermining staff morale and are

completely unprofessional. I should also say that this School still runs the old

management point system which I believe no longer exists and has made it

quite clear that TLRs will not be implemented and an attempt to set up a staff

committee last year was so intimidated that it collapsed.

Case Study 39In my secondary school we are asked to take seriously a questionnaire from

Y11s, 'organised' by the (male) HoD who feeds back to us with all the positive

comments prefaced with 'he' and all the negative comments starting with 'she'

– us



Case Study 40My own recent experience was in applying for a position as Head of

Computing/ICT at xxxxx School. When I received the letter confirming I was

short listed I was informed that there would be 3 interview panels, one

consisting of students.

I considered this to be political correctness gone mad. I can understand

having students being taught by a prospective teacher and giving their views,

but can see no purpose in their evaluating an individual for an HoD job. They

have little idea what an HoD role entails, and it reduces the distance that there

should be kept between an HoD and the student body

I withdrew my application as a result of this.

Case Study 41I had an interview at xxxxx School in East Yorks towards the end of my PGCE

course last year (i.e. late summer 2009). I am a mature entry PGCE and was

interviewed by a panel of about 4 pupils from years 8, 9, 10, 11. I felt

uncomfortable about this, particularly as if I had been appointed I would have

then been teaching these pupils. Their questions were quite naive, easy to

answer in a way which satisfied them (and therefore not particularly useful as

a recruitment tool). They also asked me which school I was currently teaching

in, which was tricky as I didn’t want to admit to being a trainee, so had to just

mention the school where I had a placement.

Personally I don’t think this type of interview is at all useful for the school, I

strongly suspect the pupils just use ‘gut feel’ to decide whether or not they like

a particular interviewee, it certainly put me off working at this school and I

wouldn’t apply to them again.

Case Study 42I'm disappointed to hear that the above organisations within schools are being

abused. I work at a secondary school in Northants and our student voice has

raised thousands for charity including the tragic Haiti earthquake. An

assistant head and an NQT run the student panel and the students are keen



and involved and in no way overstep their place or aims. It's a pity other

places spoil it and give the kids a bad name.

Case Study 43One evidence of bad practice exists at xxxxx College in Cambridge.

Management put in place a course review form which all students are asked

to complete anonymously.

Two problems with how it is done.....

1. Wording of questions

2. Time of year

1. We always felt that the questions were not best worded (and tended to

encourage negative responses) 2. The course reviews were done at the very

end of year. AS and A2 students - have had a number of years of exam driven

teaching and have just sat either their last exams (A2), or yet another set of

exams (AS). We always felt that this was a really stupid time to ask the

students to comment on the course. In reality, the students just want to get out

and have fun. Either have a gap year, or a long holiday before Uni, or finally,

finally finish school and get a job. In other words they were tired of education.

It was also a time when the weaker students really felt that they could lash out

and blame someone for the fact that they only got a D or E at A level (where,

in reality there was a mismatch in effort, and thus ability and what they felt that

they 'deserved') - these weaker students were then able to shout very loud,

and encourage other students to be negative too.

Quite often the courses reviews would be negative, or downright abusive -

and not really helpful in any way. I was aware that some teachers (in other

departments) really took offence at some of the things said, and some were

reduced to tears and stress.

To be honest, it was one of a number of problems at the college (many were

far more serious) - but the most annoying part was when management

attempted to use these course reviews to beat staff over the heads with.



Unfortunately I am not able to give you examples, or very recent experience

(i.e. from the last 12 months) as I managed to find a much less stressful and

more fun job in another school (having said that, my first 5 years at xxxxx

were incredible, and very enjoyable - it was only in the last two years of

employment, under new SMT that many things went wrong). I can give you

contact details of my ex-colleagues if you wish, who I am sure would be willing

to talk of this as well

Case Study 44My school does use student voice to observe lessons although we are asked

if we want our lessons observed. The students are used on interview panels. I

find the student has too much of a 'VOICE' and allowing students to advise

on how they want to be taught by observing and feeding back is rather

undermining.

Case Study 45I would like to pass on my current experiences of pupil voice:

have experienced being interviewed by pupils for an appointment at a

new school on at least two separate occasions and thought this was

the norm.

current head of department made TLR holders in department interview

pupils to find out their opinions on subjects and lessons, which was

initiated by a questionnaire inviting personal comments/criticism of

teaching due to its structure. As a result, although teachers were not

named, it was easy to work out which members of staff were being

commented on. I did not carry out the interviews as a TLR holder as I

did not agree with it and nothing was said at the time.

recently, the same head of department has set homeworks for all his

groups to "rate" their lessons on a scale and publish these on our

"virtual learning environment" which is accessible to all staff and

students.

I feel strongly that this is being abused and staff not considered.



Case Study 46This is not my own experience but that of a colleague. When she joined the

school she was interviewed by pupils. She was the only applicant for the

post.

Later, when she was teaching them she was told by pupils that she was

useless and that she was only given the job because she was the only

applicant.

Case Study 47I don't know whether this is relevant but I work in a school which has a school

council. That school council is often told what to discuss by the head and a

few others in order to pass their ideas. For example, if the Head decides he

wants to spend money on a project, he will get the school council to discuss it

as if it's their idea and then come back to the staff at a staff meeting as if it's a

fait accompli; i.e. the school council want it, therefore it goes ahead. Very

often the school council know about things that will be happening before the

staff!

Case Study 48Having worked as a Teacher of Computing in a sixth form college for just over

4 years, and currently in the unfortunate position of going forward to an

Employment Tribunal with the support of my union (NASUWT) regarding

multiple counts of mistreatment by management, my experience may be

somewhat 'coloured', but I shall indicate to you brief details of an incident or

experience of the use of questionnaires that I found unethical. Should you be

interested in further details I shall be happy to supply them.

Since qualifying in 2004 I have worked at the same school in North East. My

performance has been consistently good in terms of results and in the light

of the school being non-selective. In one particular year (my third teaching

year I think) my results ranked particularly well in terms of the department as a

whole, despite the fact that one of the four A-Level classes I taught was a little



challenging to teach in that their motivation was appreciably lower than other

groups.

The upshot of this, despite good results in most classes, was that I was called

in to be spoken to by management. I was told that there were grounds for

concern, and that these were based upon:

1. Exit questionnaire responses from this particular class of students.

2. A letter which had been sent in by one student in particular (which was not

received by management until some time after the end of the teaching year

(possibly late June or early July).

In a nutshell, I was invited to attend in front of panel of senior managers at my

school, and put under heavy pressure to 'identify' and 'reflect on' any elements

of my teaching performance that may have contributed to the feelings that

students had expressed via the questionnaire, and via the single letter of

complaint. No doubt other teachers experienced this also.

The dimensions to this which I found troubling and unethical were:

1. The exit questionnaires were 'anonymous' and therefore I was being asked

to account for criticisms from unknown sources.

2. Teachers themselves were asked to distribute the questionnaires, collect

and return them to management (see '3' next)

3. Teachers were not informed (and I doubt have since been informed) of the

possible use of these questionnaires (i.e. their use by management in

identifying possible problems within particular classes or with particular

teachers, and the willingness of management to use anonymous criticism

from students in order to put pressure on teachers, and to use anonymous

comments to raise questions about a teacher's performance).

4. Due to the small size of groups (occasionally less than 10 students in an

upper sixth class for example) the 'anonymity' of particular remarks on



questionnaires was not well protected. For example some questions on the

questionnaire required a written response, and from the style or type of

comment made by a particular student, it was in some cases not difficult to

determine the identity of the student who had made that particular response.

In short, I feel I was made complicit unknowingly in the gathering of evidence

which was later used in a manner that undermined my role as a teaching

professional, and left me feeling unsupported and isolated. The very nature of

the questionnaire, used in the context I have described above, gives more

weight to the collective student voice than to the teacher's single voice, and,

unless such questionnaires are very carefully controlled (perhaps by being

administered externally instead of internally and therefore per the 'whims' of

managers) I feel that such practices will lead to further unethical and unfair

treatment of teaching staff.

In my particular case, treatment such as that describe above with regard to

the use of questionnaires and other forms of mistreatment collectively forced

me to stop teaching due to stress and depression, and I am still currently

being treated for this condition.

Case Study 49I recently was applying for jobs and found that every single interview I had

involved a student panel, I am not convinced that these have any worth and

feel they add to an already over blown process of recruitment which often is

longer than an actual working day. One experience I had was that I was told I

was not suitable for a post because of what the students had said about me,

the senior then went on to misquote what I had in fact said to the students.

The students had evidently not been listening to me fully and had not

understood or only heard half of a sentence which they had then fed back to

the senior teacher.

Case Study 50I'm not sure whether this is relevant/helpful but I suffered a very negative

experience of student voice at an interview last year. I am currently an NQT



(humanities) in an 'outstanding' school which I also did my second placement

in.

The interview in question was at a local comprehensive in a village (rated

satisfactory). I had a good interview lesson and interview with the

Headteacher. My interview with the Head of Department was fine too. I was

then interviewed by a student panel, whose ages ranged from 12-18.

I was told that I had been unsuccessful the same day. When I asked why, I

was told that the student panel did not think I had much substance and was

not the sort of person they would want to work at their school. I was shocked

because I have a first class history degree and had worked for eight years as

an LSA! Moreover, the Headteacher had actually complimented me on my

hard work not two hours earlier.

I hope this of some help to your work, personally, I have found it quite

cathartic to tell someone! I would prefer not to talk to the media but I would be

willing to talk in more detail to NASUWT about my experience.

Case Study 51I work at a school in North Somerset who uses pupils to help on interview

processes but they are the ambassadors so not too bad.

However, I went to Gordano for an interview and the pupils that I taught for my

lesson were then used to help judge me to decide who got to the interview

stage. Because 1 out of 3 staff viewing didn't like me and the class told the

main interviewer they thought I was too strict, I was culled from the interview

process.

I felt upset that 2/3 of the adults liked me enough but that the pupils had that

much sway.

I know all this because I insisted on feedback.



Case Study 52I work in an Ofsted rated 'satisfactory' co ed state secondary school.

When I was interviewed, I was interviewed by a panel from the school

parliament, for about 10 minutes. The interview with the students would have

had a bearing on my success in the recruitment process. This is standard

practice in my school, where all prospective staff are interviewed by a panel of

students. I thought nothing of it at the time, until I realised quite how much

'power' students have in the school. For instance, some students have

recently been encouraged by the SENCo to write letters of complaint about a

colleague because these students feel that she doesn't listen to them in class.

There is also a culture of students threatening to report teachers for

disciplining them, despite the student's behaviour.

Needless to say, I am leaving the school.

Case Study 53I was interviewed by a student panel for my current job. I felt it was unneeded

and bordered on the unprofessional. The school, which I now work at, has

fundamental discipline problems. This is largely due to the fact that this Ofsted

pleasing agenda has got out of hand. The school has no real interest in

student voice issues as the student council which meets on a weekly basis

has never had anything approved. The student voice has lead to nothing but

undermining the teachers role. SLT don’t care because they remain aloof and

behind closed doors, they don’t have to face the day to day issues.

There have been issues in the last couple of years where there has been

cases of uniform or discipline that has come under some scrutiny and instead

of firm but fair leadership, the pupils do as they please because they

misunderstand their role in the school. They think it is 50/50 and their opinions

are as potent and powerful as the school rules. It is a shambles. This is a

result of the constant push for student feedback. It is nonsensical and creates

very tense relationships with other colleagues as it becomes a battle for

respect with students.



I don’t mind offering opinions but I would like to remain anonymous.

Case Study 54Full time class teacher- primary

Last month I applied for a new teaching post. I was selected for interview and

was told on the telephone that as part of the interview process there would be

pupil interviews. Due to a change in circumstances I did not attend the

interview.

I thought I would let you know that this is seen as good practice by a school

which Ofsted have deemed outstanding.

Case Study 55Hi. I am not actually in the NASUWT, however I was emailed this story as I

was talking about this exact problem today with a number of colleagues. I

work in a 6th form college in xxxxx. It is generally felt by the staff that the

students are used against us (without the student’s knowledge or compliance

in most cases, so they cannot be blamed).

Management often focus group students and we do not receive the feedback,

especially if the feedback is positive. However, we are often required to write

actions plans to act on negative feedback we have not viewed first hand.

On Thursday last week (18th March), I was on a course and head of our

college spent 20 minutes focus grouping my students without my prior

knowledge. Nothing bad has come of this in terms of what was said but I do

not feel that that is the point! Things such as this have put a lot of tutors on

edge. Tutors feel that they are not able to discipline students through fear that

they will complain about them or mention it when asked by senior members of

staff. Due to this the discipline procedure at our college is in total chaos and is

causing a lot of problems.



Equally the same is felt with parent’s intervention in college. I have not

experienced it personally but a number of my colleagues have and when a

parent is not happy it is automatically assumed it is the tutors fault. In a lot of

cases the cause is often misrepresentation by the students or a lack of

effort/bad attitude on the student’s part.

Case Study 56Not sure how relevant you think this is, but I'll share it anyway. As part of a job

interview 3 years ago, I was subjected to a student interview panel. This

consisted of 2 year 10s (a boy and a girl) and 2 year 11s (ditto). They seemed

very uncomfortable with the whole process, and as an experienced teacher, I

felt obliged to put them at ease! They clearly thought everyone being

interviewed was an NQT, so I was asked questions such as "Why do you

want to be a teacher?" (Have been teaching 30+ years!), "What do you think

you'll like about teaching?" and "What are your hobbies?” They asked

questions about the fairness of my disciplinary procedures, but found it very

difficult to explain what they meant properly, so much so that I got the wrong

end of the stick to start with (sorry, can't remember the exact way the question

was put). I was half expecting them to ask me what was my favourite colour

and what kind of music did I like. At the end, they asked me if I had any

questions for them. I got the distinct impression they'd been told to ask that,

because they were rather taken aback when I said I had. When I asked what

they thought of the school, there was a lot of uneasy body language, it was

clear they weren't comfortable answering that question in public, so I took

their answers that it was a great place, with a pinch of salt. I didn't feel

threatened by the procedure, it was somewhat of a novelty for me at the time.

I must have impressed them, I got the job! But I do wonder at the value for all

concerned of asking completely untrained students to interview prospective

staff in this way: did anyone check the questions to be asked? How did they

record the responses?

Surely impressionable children are more likely to be taken in by superficial

factors, rather than being able to 'dig deep' to the true value on offer from a

candidate?



Case Study 57I would like to say that pupil voice is an extremely valuable tool. There is a big

emphasis on it in my school which benefits learning. There are no concerns

among staff that it used inappropriately or in a 'big brother is watching' style

from management.

Case Study 58With your request in mind I wonder if an article in the free Compass magazine

by Professor Miles Robbins would be of interest. He says about the Frankfurt

club which was started in the early 1930's and one of its aims was to

empower children, remove parental control and take away discipline from

teachers and loss of class respect. I found it very interesting.

I used to work for xxxxx and worked for 6 years with the Referral unit and a

very challenging group. It was only in the last year that I did not enjoy the unit

when we had several charges taken against other members of staff etc that I

decided to move away from that sector. The head teacher took early

retirement and a much softer replacement was found. I no longer felt the job

was worthwhile and that the pupils were benefiting.

Case Study 59It has been my experience for the last 7-8 years that students are employed

as part of the recruitment process. My view is that any value attached to 'the

student view' in these cases is based on the superficial responses of a

candidate. It is unlikely that students have any abilities as professional

recruiters - and they certainly have no accountability for their decisions! I do

think that in my experience of recruitment many inappropriate candidates

have been appointed; however since the recruitment processes have been

without exception unaudited and essentially unauditable, the impact of the

student voice would be unquantifiable.

Good luck - there is a lot of madness about.



Case Study 60Hi, I'm not sure if this counts as an abuse of student voice?

In my school (primary with approx 240 children) the head interviews children

about their learning and experiences in your class. (What they learn, how you

help them if they're stuck etc) This then feeds into your pupil progress

meetings and in an indirect way into performance management.

Case Study 61I cannot claim to have experience of this process and perhaps at the age of

55 I am a bit old-school for my opinion to count but I have always deplored

what I can only see as a sort of pathetic toadying. As an example when my

school jumped into blazers many years ago the students were asked about

their preferences. This consultation was based on the need to get reluctant,

cash-strapped parents on board but to this day boys wear black and girls

wear green. This causes some whinging from our current student body. I tell

them they should feel lucky that gingham dresses were roundly rejected! This

of course was highly fashionable when Neighbours was THE soap to watch.

Therein lies my point. The children have a totally immature and short term

basis upon which they form opinions. Not only this but they bear no

responsibility for the consequences of poor decisions - they will have left

before the solids hit the air-conditioning. I have the same opinion of parent

power. Decisions are made on a partisan basis. The only parents who can

really claim validity should have a student in year 7 and one or more on the

way and should they decide to send the younger child elsewhere the should

be obliged to resign. In other words the only people who should be able to

make decisions should be those who will have to live with the results of said

decision. This can only be the professionally qualified and experienced - i.e.

qualified teachers.

Case Study 62

Case Study 63I went for a job interview at a school a year or so ago. I was to be shown

around the school by a group of Year 8 pupils, they started off in a conference



room, where they invited me to sit down and promptly started asking

questions.

I was not expecting this to happen and was quite shocked. They took copious

amounts of notes and (it has to be said) behaved more professionally than the

management that subsequently interviewed me.

I have had several interviews where pupils have interviewed me, xxxxx in

Stockport was another that comes to mind. I find it somewhat embarrassing

and awkward.

Case Study 64Please may I share my positive experience of being observed by students.

Whilst undertaking my GTP I invited a group of pupils to observe my lesson.

They had been trained by the school and xxxxx University. Their observation

feed back was conducted with the utmost care and consideration. The

feedback was the most helpful I have had to date and I still refer back to their

learning points in my current practice. The most reassuring thing was their

adherence to confidentiality, I understand teachers concerns, but if students

are trained correctly and professionally supervised it can be an extremely

positive experience. Indeed their mentoring skills surpassed those of some

adults.

I have also been involved in working with young people on interviewing panel.

As long as they and candidates are aware that their observations are only as

an enhancement to decision making and adult panel is in control. Pupils can

offer very helpful insights.

I am an advocate of using student voice if done professionally and

temperately.

I just felt I had to let you know my views.

Case Study 65I work in a secondary school in Darlington.



All our pupils are asked to complete surveys on teachers and departments. It

is carried out in tutor groups where for example my year 8 group might look at

their maths teachers

Another tutor group might look at ICT

They have a questionnaire which has ratings agree to disagree sort of form

with a series of questions for example are you confident in your teacher? Is

your work marked quickly? Are the lessons interesting? Etc etc

Case Study 66I am sure that your e-mail will elicit many replies on those concerned about

the abuse of the so called 'student voice'. It has come as no surprise that what

started out as a reasonable (at best) idea, is now widely misused.

My experience of this so far is:

1. Anonymous questionnaires were distributed to all students at the school

and they were asked a series of questions about their life at school. However,

their original stated aim was to aid the school in improving the teaching and

learning experience of staff and students. In reality, they were little more than

an opportunity for students to say what they wanted with little come back.

They were then sifted through by the SMT with the Head actually saying to

one of my colleagues 'we have to get rid of some of these weak ones' - i.e.

she used the questionnaires as evidence against those teachers who she

deemed as not being up to the job. The SMT seemed little interested in the

answers on homework, extra-curricular activities etc and more interested in

tittle tattle and comments on staff.

2. The above questionnaires were the basis of the Head then going in (to

date) to the assemblies of Year 7 and 11 and telling them that she

appreciated their feedback and they must always go to speak to her if they

have any problems and tell her if there were problems with staff.



3. The school website now has a new link called 'Suggestions, comments and

concerns' which allows parents and students to post anonymous comments

which go straight to the SMT. It can't be accessed by staff and requires a

password. Enough said!

4. The school has a 'worry box' near the office in which the Head encourages

students to post any of their concerns. In reality it is used for students to post

anonymous comments and is her source for tittle tattle comments about staff.

Most total nonsense I would have thought.

5. The Head regularly tells the students in assembly that they must tell her

any concerns about staff!

6. I recently attended an interview for a HoD position in which I was interview

by a panel of Year 12 students! Not particularly taxing, but I'm not sure what

their qualification is to help the school decide on a new Hod!

I know that one of my colleagues has also e-mailed you so I expect some of

these you have already read from him.

Case Study 67I don't always reply to these emails but in this case I believe that allowing

pupils to interview teachers and take a role in lesson observations is simply

wrong. I am not sure why I am worried because I am a good teacher but I

think it will be abused. I had an interview at a school in Staffordshire and I

was interviewed by a panel of pupils. I was very uncomfortable with the

arrangement. 4 desks lined up with me sitting on a chair at a distance from

them. I don't think I came out of that in a positive light even though I normally

form good relationships. The school put a lot of stock in these children’s

opinions apparently as they said they can be very astute. I think many

teachers will leave the profession if students are given the task of observing

teachers. Students are being empowered more and more and even though

they may seem mature they lack experience and professional knowledge.

Are we just to be judged on our ability to entertain?



Case Study 68I was promoted by internal appointment in October 2009, the post was

advertised externally and was subject to an interview by the school council - I

was asked about activities which I do in my spare time - which I found a little

unusual as it is nothing to do with my ability to do the job. The school

business manager chaired the meeting and encouraged the students to probe

deeper into my personal activities beyond school. I didn't really mind the work

related questions.

Although the situation itself was a little uncomfortable, it wasn't until one of the

students started repeating what I had said in the middle of lessons and

encouraging other students to ask personal questions that I realised it had

gone too far. I had to ask the senior leadership team to step in and remove

this student from the interview panel for future appointments.

Case Study 69May I respond to your consultation from a Headteacher perspective? I

understand the concerns about the way student voice can be misused, but I

am worried that this campaign risks eclipsing and even preventing some of

the excellent practice that exists. Good teachers use a variety of methods to

gather feedback on the effectiveness of their practice. They also find out how

children learn best. Dialogue is vital in both these areas, but the key is to

structure it so that it is constructive and non- threatening.

When presenting your findings, please balance the bad practice with

examples which show how it should be done. In my school (with the odd

exception from time to time!) teachers and pupils enjoy excellent relationships,

meaning that staff and pupils are happier and there is better learning. I believe

that student voice plays an important part in our outstanding ethos.

Case Study 70I encountered this on a recent interview and found it a very positive process,

with very switched on pupils asking, what to them were, very pertinent and



relevant questions. Unfortunately I didn’t get the post due to County Council

decisions (they were not a part of the interview process at all!), the school

were very keen to employ me saying I had demonstrated an ability and

natural flair for communicating with pupils for whom communication is difficult.

Therefore instead of using my skills to work within an ASD unit in Secondary

school I am supply teaching in Primary Schools.

Case Study 71Just a short comment – we have had an inset training some time ago when

students gave their voice to the way in which they sort of rated teachers. The

staff as a whole were quite vociferous on this one – that too much weight was

given to an immature response by students and that in fact some of the

statements were completely unacceptable. Staff made known their comments

to the presenter of that inset activity.

Certainly other suggestions have been put forward but staff have made clear

their objections to this; that there is far too much subjectivity and immaturity,

plus of course bias. Also that criteria are not thorough and that it just gives

rise to a personal vendetta in some instances.

Case Study 72I'm sending you this email in response to the question about the abuse of

Student Voice.

Although I no longer work at the school (and that's a WHOLE other issue!),

when I attended for interview, I was questioned by the Student Council as part

of the process. Teaching a class was one thing but this didn't sit well with me

at all. The TA who led the council was present at the time. The school in

question is a single-form entry primary in Staffordshire.

Case Study 73At a previous school, a manager asked my year 10s and 11s to write down

what they thought of me on a piece of paper. Teaching was very hard after

this, as the students knew that they were not being asked to do this highly

unusual thing because management thought I was brilliant!



Case Study 74I’m an NQT and went for an interview at a school in my local area last spring

As part of the day, before the main interview, we had an interview with 4

students, this was held in the interview room on an individual basis, we could

ask them questions about the school, as well as them asking their set

questions to us.

I found the process rather strange and I didn’t get the job. It has been my only

experience of being interviewed by students but I have only attended 3

interviews for teaching posts.

Having read the email I remember this event, I just assumed this is what some

schools did, I hope this has been helpful for you

Case Study 75I was interviewed for a 1 year full time position at the above school in which I

had completed a lot of supply work.

The interview format was clearly laid out in the letter and consisted of all

applicants to attend at 9.00am when they would be interviewed individually

throughout the morning by the school council, make a 5 minute presentation

to the Head, Deputy and Chair of Governors and submit planning for a lesson

which they may teach in the afternoon. At lunch a shortlist would be made and

the successful ones would then teach a lesson and face an interview panel.

I thought this bizarre and went along for the interview practise, having secured

other interviews 2 and 4 days later. I also knew that the school had just been

Ofsted’ed and that teachers expected to go into special measures, so I wasn’t

keen to go there.

At no stage during the morning interview were we informed that the school

had in fact been put into special measures (but the interviews took place

during that confidential period between inspection and publication of findings).



I faced around 5 members of the school council and 1 accompanying teacher,

and was asked questions that I would expect a child to ask. I can’t remember

them exactly but one was What is the funniest thing that has happened to you

at school?; and others were something like What do you like about teaching?

What is your classroom like? I clearly remember thinking that the single

accompanying teacher was in a position of unchecked power, probably able

to influence the children between interviews.

The 5 minute presentation to the Head, Deputy and Chair was a farce. I

rehearsed the timings and stopped exactly on 5 minutes but others were

allowed to overrun and finish their presentation.

I didn’t make the shortlist for the afternoon, which was a relief as I’d been

mentally rehearsing how I was going to ask them to delay a decision from until

after my last interview in 4 days time. I got the (permanent) job 4 days later,

and the person who came second to me at that interview was also offered a 1

year temporary position in my new school because she had impressed so

much at interview (school rolls were expected to climb during the year). She

told me that she had been offered an interview at the above school but had

declined on seeing the interview format because she felt she could not do well

at it.

My conclusion is that the above school’s interview process:

Placed children in a position of power over a teacher.

Placed the applicant in an unfamiliar environment, in an unfamiliar school, and

so did not put the applicant at ease.

Was open to prejudice

Was open to unfair influence

Placed the school’s teacher in an unfair position as an observer/interviewer.

(Her position was not made clear to me)

Persuaded first class teachers from going through the interview process.

Placed innovative gimmickry above tried and tested best practice.



Confirmed that Ofsted had made the right decision to put the school into

special measures.

I do not want to appear in the media but am happy for you to publish this

anonymously because I like the Head of this school and the Head’s superb

advice after this interview contributed a lot to my later successful interview. As

Ofsted are scrutinising this Head, I’m not going to provide them with

ammunition. They are well able to find their own evidence.

Case Study 76I am disappointed with the tone of this email, which appears to imply that

‘using pupils to observe teachers teaching, involving pupils in the recruitment

of staff, including on interview panels, and pupil questionnaires which are for

management rather than educational purposes’ is wrong; surely, to be

balanced, you should be asking for case studies of positive and negative

experiences? I have been the subject of 3 of the four items listed above, and

all were positive experiences – when handled in the correct way. Perhaps

focusing on how good schools use this well, rather than…

Case Study 77Just to outline some experiences. Recently we have had tutor

audits/observations which have involved pupils being asked about the quality

of relationships etc they have with their tutor, inspecting what is going on in

tutor time etc. I have no real problem with the school doing this because

OFSTED seem to put so much emphasis on student voice too so we are

actually pandering to their ever changing goal posts.

Case Study 78I’m writing with reference to a recent email from MASUWT re abuse of student

voice.

I attended an interview last Friday 19 March for a Head of Science position at

xxxxx School, Aylesbury. In the course of the day I decided I didn’t want the

position for a number of reasons, so have no axe to grind, I’m just writing to

give you details of what I experienced.



As part of the interview process I was interviewed by a panel of 2 students

from each year group in Years 7-12 (so 12 students in all). The students had

been ‘trained’ (Headteacher’s words) and so were left to interview me for

approximately 20 mins with no adult teacher present. They asked questions

about me which had not been vetted by the senior leadership of the school

(the Deputy Head in charge of student voice told me that they were very

experienced, knew what they were doing, so he left them to get on with it).

Some questions were frivolous (e.g. what fancy dress character would you

dress up in to go to school and why) and some were related to issues they

had in school, e.g. how would I handle student misdemeanours. After they

had asked their questions I asked them what they thought of their school,

what they would like to see improved in science in particular, and their two

main concerns were lack of discipline in class and lack of challenge. We

discussed the behaviour policies in place in my current school.

I decided I didn’t want the job anyway, and informed the interview panel so we

parted on amicable terms, but I did ask the Headteacher for feedback,

particularly from the student panel as I had not experienced this before. The

students had reported back that I was very ‘traditional’ in my approach, so had

completely misunderstood what I was saying about tools and strategies that

different schools might employ as a way of controlling behaviour. I believe that

an experienced teacher would have understood that we were discussing

strategies, not necessarily my own views, whereas the students did not have

the experience or maturity to know the difference.

The school gives a great deal of weight to student voice in other areas of

teaching and learning, for example they have ‘trained’ students who will

observe lessons and provide feedback on the nature of the learning taking

place. This is one of the reasons why I decided I didn’t want to work in the

school.

None of the candidates (3 of us) had been informed prior to the interview that

we would be formally interviewed by students.

Hope this is of some help



Case Study 79I am in my 2nd year of teaching now but whilst in my first placement on my

PGCE course I was 'observed' by a member of the 'student voice'. Apparently

she was an expert at evaluating teachers and her feedback to me was both

cold and heartless, with little understanding of the criteria that we all abide by.

I completed the PGCE with a complete set of 'very goods' - the first student to

do so in 6 years from xxxxx University. I have also been through 2 OFTSED

inspections (in the past year!) and both times received outstanding. I would

definitely say that the pupil's comments have been the least constructive of all

observations and I am fully behind any work you may be undertaking that

limits their 'power'.

I would not like to be contacted in the future about this, nor would I speak to

the media. It was a one off event and I feel sure that there are teachers who

have to endure student voice more than I did!

Good luck with the crusade!

Case Study 80I'm not sure whether my input is of any use to you as I got the impression that

you feel students having a voice in the appointment of staff is a negative

thing. I was interviewed by a student panel when I applied for a job in xxxxx. I

got the job, and will be working in the school from September, for my NQT

year. My experience was a good one. The pupils involved asked appropriate

questions, relevant to their experience of school life and the relationship they

would have with the appointed teacher. I was led to believe that, although the

students are consulted, their opinions don't hold an inordinate amount of

weight. In other words, although they get to say what they think of a

prospective teacher, it would only add to the over all impression gained by the

staff members who interviewed me, rather than sway them in any way. Am I

being naive?



I'm not sure that I'd like to be contacted by the media. Being a trainee, I don't

feel I am qualified to comment on what should or shouldn't happen within

schools - I just don't have the experience to do so.

Case Study 812 years ago at the school at which I was then a teacher of English, a student

interview panel was employed to interview the new Head of English. Whilst I

am not against this in principle, it was the fact that students were given an

organised opportunity to have their voice heard whilst the teachers within the

department were given no such opportunity. We met the candidates over

lunch but were not given an opportunity to give proper feedback. A meeting

over lunch also made it difficult to speak to all candidates. I would not want to

speak to the press but do feel strongly that in some situations at this school

student voice was more highly considered than staff voice.

Case Study 82I work in an Academy and some students are being trained to participate in

this process. My understanding is that they will be involved with actually

planning lessons with teachers, where they have a say in what is taught and

how it is taught. They will also be conducting observations and providing

feedback on these observations.

How this will all pan out will be very interesting as staff have not been

informed of the process and are not privy to the details at the moment. I

believe the students know more about it than we do. As a result it is very

threatening.

In a previous school, I was observed a by a year 12 student who spent his

time yawning and doodling. His report was ultimately positive but his

comportment lacked professionalism and was extremely disconcerting.

Case Study 83I went for a job interview at a secondary school in 2007 where I was

interviewed by a panel of students. No staff were present. I didn't get the post,



and during feedback form the Head, I was told that the students didn't believe

that I could have hobbies of playing Irish flute music and playing cricket as

they are so unrelated. The Head said that this meant I could have been more

convincing.

Case Study 84Our school has a newly appointed head who has set up so many areas for

student voice. They undertake interviews for new appointments and their

comments are taken into account when deciding on the candidate. Student

voice seems to only work one way i.e. to assess teachers. Students

themselves think student voice is pointless as they feel improvements they

would like never seem to materialise. However their comments are used as

part of the department review which is undertaken each year. The comments

of the interviews are fed back to HOD's although when you look at the sample

there are probably 7 from each year group out of a year group of 175.

I know that a survey (verbal by the Head) was undertaken last year to find out

what types of teaching styles the pupils liked and I understand it resulted in

pupils naming teachers they thought were good and those not so good ( I’m

sure not intentionally by the Head)

Whilst there are no negative experiences at present I can certainly see things

becoming more intense and more pressure with regards to accessing

teacher’s performance. There is student voice, parental voice, governor’s

voice etc but no teacher’s voice. One member of staff was told they need a

lesson observation by a governor!!

I would not like to be interviewed as I need my job!!!

Case Study 85I am local secretary and know of schools where students form part of the

selection process for jobs, and student voice used to comment on how much

lessons are enjoyed.



Regards

Case Study 86We have a zealous assistant head - aka the chief box ticker - who delights in

doing "a student voice" at every possible opportunity. Parent voices are

almost as common at the moment.

The best one was a recent move to have a student monitoring Learning

Objectives. A given kid in every class had a form to write down LOs and check

if the teacher revisited them during the lesson. They then had to decide if they

had understood and comment.

The teacher's name was removed from the form, but it would not have been

hard to identify them.

I tend to sabotage such moves. It leads to a couple of nagging e-mails, but

one wonders what the use of all this is - apart from filling a folder somewhere.

Case Study 87I am not sure whether secret "pupils' voices" have been used during my 2,5

months training placement with the xxxxx school or not, but I was astonished

and taken aback when I received an "all failure" report from my college co-

tutor (Head of Maths) at the end of my placement. Despite the fact that she

had never attended a single lesson of mine (apart from 10 min ones), she

wrote in the report that "I do not have respect from pupils" (!?). She also

complained to my university tutor about my foreign accent (English is not a

native language for me) and about children "not understanding what I was

saying and explaining", despite the fact that none of my pupils complained to

me personally or to their regular teachers. Was secret "pupils voices" scheme

set up on Internet? Did my worst troublemakers revenge me in this way? I do

not know. But I do know that the final report given to me was unjust,

accusatory and unsubstantiated (as far as I know). Considering my 15-years-

long teaching experience at universities, business schools and banking



consultancies in Russia and the U.K., and my professional teaching education

in Russia and Italy, it seems even more puzzling and strange.

At the moment I am going through the official complaint procedure at the

University and awaiting the decision. I also decided to withdraw from the

course, because the School of Education breached their part of the training

contract with me on several instances (including college placement as well).

Through my personal experience and the experience of my friends I have

accumulated enough evidence to show how and why the existing teacher

training system loses its best trainee teachers long before they start their first

post. I would be keen to share my knowledge and experience with you or any

other interested party.

Case Study 88For reference only to highlight instances:

The headteacher observed a colleague's lesson (a few weeks post OFSTED

we had a Faculty Review as management thought the Department was

responsible for getting satisfactory) and asked three students how many

marks out of 10 they would award her - 2 giving 10 and the third 8.

At the recent appointment of the new headteacher, students from the School

Council were involved in some way with the interview process.

Case Study 89We are currently going through a restructuring process (job cuts!) and for the

Vice Principal role students from Student Voice were used in addition to the

usual interviewing process.

I was not aware that this was a problem. The pupils felt that they were

included in the hiring process, although I doubt they had much influence on

the actual outcome.

We have also had department reviews where students have been asked for

their feedback on a terms scheme of work and the way a teacher delivered it.



Not very comfortable if you are on the receiving end of it and none too

comfortable in listening to colleagues been slagged off by students!

Case Study 90I am an experienced head of maths, who applied for a job last year. When I

was called for interview, the schedule told me that there would be an interview

with a student panel. I was so disgusted that this was a school who was giving

so much power to pupils that they were going to interview me, someone with

15 years of successful teaching experience. I immediately emailed the school

and told them of my reason to withdraw from the interview.

In my own school SLT are now training students to observe lessons, I find this

practice unfair on members of staff. I have decided that when a student wants

to comment on my professionalism, I shall refuse and upset SLT.

Case Study 91I have had two recent examples of student voice groups on interview panels,

both for a Head of Year post in London (this is not where I currently teach, I

teach in East Sussex at the moment.)

In one school the students asked each candidate a series of questions which

they had allegedly come up with themselves. One of these questions was

surrounding the issue of safeguarding and what I would do if a student said

they were being beaten at home. The question itself made me question

whether a student had come up with this, and certainly left me wondering

about the vetting of student questions. I answered the question best I could

given my audience, however, during the entire interview process this was the

only question I was asked about safeguarding students, although I did raise

this myself. Being asked to discuss the finer details of such an issue with a

year 8 student audience left me feeling uncomfortable.

Various other questions they asked centred on what rewards would I provide

for students and what I enjoyed doing outside of school. If trips were

mentioned then the there were a series of 'yeahs' around the table.

Interestingly, although difficult to prove how linked this was to the short listing



process, the two shortlisted candidates on this occasion both came back from

the student panel interview saying that went well, I knew if I mentioned

football and Eastenders I'd get through that. I was a little taken back to think

that my promotion chances depending on selecting the right trip location,

supporting the correct football team and watching TV!

There was a staff governor involved in this process, who was actively part of

the interview process.

The second school, again in the same area, the student voice involvement

was even more apparent and concerning with a year 11 student being taken

off timetable for the whole day to spend time with the candidates, he spent the

day ushering candidates about the school and 'watching' over us during 'free

time'. At lunchtime when staff involved in the process met with the

headteacher, this student also joined them to share his opinions on us all! He

seemed to be in there for the duration of the discussions. During the day the

student also boasted how involved in the process of staff selection they (the

students) were stating that they had chosen the current headteacher because

he was 'a nice bloke'. He actually said they were asked who they'd like, that

said this particular person and he was appointed. It is difficult to gage how

true this was, but he was certainly making it clear that what the students said

carried a lot of clout; this was also said in front of staff members, none of

whom corrected him otherwise.

At this school there was also a student panel interview - as candidates we

were told to use this time as we saw fit. I chose to ask the students their

opinion on the school and then see if they had questions for me. This seemed

to be a similar format to other candidates when I discussed with them. In my

feedback on the interview process I was told that my use of this time was

poor, and that students hadn't liked how I 'controlled' the interview and rushed

them, although I was escorted there late, and told I had just five minutes to

speak with them. There was a member of staff in the room, although I not sure

how involved they were in the process. Again a member of the panel joined

the headteacher and other staff to feed back on us all!



Another area where the student voice was used was during assembly. Each

candidate was asked to prepare a 5 minutes assembly for a group of year 8

students. The group I had were meant to be in a PE lesson, were clearly

itching to get back to their lesson but had been interrupted to go to a 'special'

assembly. After the assembly the students, without the candidates being

aware, were asked for feedback on the assembly and whether they would

have rather been in their usual lesson or not (great if they came out of Maths,

not so good when they were desperate to do PE). This all came to light after

we had been interviewed. Again, the feedback I had was that students didn't

really like my assembly and would have rather had been in their usual lesson.

Clearly I'm not a crowd pleaser, but I'm being interview for the position of

Head of Year/teacher not a children's entertainer. This again, clearly formed a

large part of the interview process.

This interview process also included a written task, which a large amount of

time and effort were put into, and wanted us to strategically plan intervention

for a group of underachieving Year 9 students. At the start of the day a large

amount of emphasis was put on the completion of this task. However, at the

end of lunchtime the headteacher collected these to discuss with the panel

(possibly with the students still there?), within a matter of minutes the head

was back to tell us who was shortlisted, it clearly looked like the decision

made had been made before they collected the written task. So a key element

of the job could be glanced over while making a decision, while so much

emphasis was put on gaining students feedback.

During my feedback on the process the two areas highlighted as being my

weaknesses were the assembly and student panel interview, the students

hadn't liked me or my style, and this was it. No comment on my lesson, my

interview, or my written task was offered, when I asked they stated that

student voice was key to the running of the school.

Upon return to my school I discussed this with our deputy head teacher who

couldn't believe what I was telling him, he has sat in on several of my

assemblies and said they were always good, they were interesting and

thought provoking. He also stated that my relationships with students was

good, saying they saw me as firm but fair, knowing where they stood with me.



I would also like to add that this person had nothing to gain from flattering me;

he himself is leaving the school at the end of this term and ended the

conversation by telling me it was time to leave the school.

I would be prepared to discuss this further; if you would like more details

please do not hesitate the contact me

Case Study 92I am a Head of House and at my interview, there were several parts to my

interview process. One of which was a panel of pupils from the school council

who had been primed with questions from management about my views,

contributions I would make etc. if I was to be offered the post. There was also

a senior member of staff in the room acting as a 'chair'.

I have since secured a promotion, again as Head of House at another school

but again I had to go through a formal interview which included two pupils

giving me the 'third degree'.

Case Study 93I am not sure of the full details as it has been kept pretty quiet and no official

representation has been made about it

However, I believe sixth form pupils were asked to rate their teachers on a

scale of 1 to 4. With 1 being excellent and 4 being unsatisfactory. One teacher

I spoke to said it had arisen because of students complaining about a

particular teacher and this had been done so that they could get information

on this teacher without them feeling singled out. Also, the timing seemed

strange because it was 2 weeks before we were due to be assessed by our

county inspectorate with regards to sixth form teaching anyway. Incidentally, I

believe the teacher who had generated complaints was judged to be

unsatisfactory by the inspection team.

If indeed this was done to “entrap” one particular teacher why did it involve

questioning all sixth formers about all of their teachers.



I was also told it was anonymous so that no particular teacher could be

identified, but one student said I was referred to as maths teacher 1 in his

questionnaire. Since he only has two maths teachers it would not be hard to

identify who I was especially as the other is female and the odd he or she

might have given the game away.

Also some students told me they gave me 1 and I wouldn’t consider myself

excellent (good yes, but not excellent), which begs the question do students

actually know what constitutes an excellent teacher. Or do they just mark

those they get on with highly and those they don’t poorly. I am completely

against the principle of students judging staff and was shocked and annoyed

when I heard of this.

I am also pretty sure that I would have got unsatisfactory off at least one

student in the same class, who is frequently absent, doesn’t catch up missed

work, did not attend the after school revision sessions I held and failed the

first maths module miserably. As a consequence I am always trying to chivvy

her along and would have expected her to be asked to leave the course, but

we have been forced to keep her as we as a school will not allow a pupil to go

down to 2 AS levels. The reasoning being that that would mean asking her to

leave and we won’t do that because we lose money.

So the judgement to me is likely to be subjective in the extreme and not really

based on any objective assessment criteria at all. Therefore, it is unjust and a

serious abuse of student voice.

Case Study 94My experiences are as follows:

1. Interview at xxxxx in Sheffield (2009):

Student Council members turned up late to observe the lesson thus disturbing

the lesson. In the student council interview, students asked if I would be

willing to do extra curricular activities.



2. Interview at xxxxx School in Bradford (this year):

Asked to return to reception as Student Council was 'late'. Waited half an hour

into my interview time only to be led back into the room where an angry

student council were waiting because I was 'late'.

Case Study 95I recently underwent department monitoring - during this time student voice

was used to question pupils about the enjoyment of lessons - and behaviour

management in class. It identified several students KS3 that they didn't enjoy

their lessons, thought behaviour was a concern and that a particular member

of staff spoke badly to pupils by accusing them of doing things they had not

done on several occasions. She deals with some particularly unpleasant

students renowned through the school for being difficult who deliberately

make sport of winding her up. This gave the staff member no opportunity to

answer the allegation prior to feedback - it was advised that the SKT felt this

was serious and this staff member was spoken to by the Head regarding

these issues.

Whilst I have little or no doubt this may have taken place it did not

contextualise the incident or incidents and I had already been identified that

this staff member needs additional training in behaviour management but

none has been forthcoming, save the basic in house NQT support, and being

told to get her to observe me teaching as an example of good practice.

Despite me requesting additional behaviour training on more than one

occasion - it hasn't happened – and I as Hod am left to pick up the pieces. In

order to bring her up to expectations I have been told to arrange for her to

observe me teaching.

I work as Head of Art and Design (now referred to as subject leader...).

The Behaviour Policy has also been recently updated stating 'that staff are

responsible to not get into a conflict or escalate poor behaviour with their

response to students' as they have the tools and training to avoid these



situations' ! It's like saying that if an escalation of poor behaviour occurs it's

the staffs fault!

In the same document it also states that staff must make allowances for poor

behaviour for ASD etc students as they have special needs - in the past these

same students would not have been in the classroom ruining the education of

their peers and disproportionally dominating teacher time... then unreasonable

progress targets are placed on students some up to 5 levels of progress

expected in KS3 based on maths and English only - when they arrive with

practically zero technical foundation subject skills. It's all very demoralising!

It is clear that heads are pushing the Government agenda to absorb these

expensive previously statemented and in PRU units kids at the expense of the

quality of education for all the other students being watered down. Staff are

then being told if it kicks off it's down to them ... they have the tools.... and if

they don't manage the situation to the SLT expectation it's the HoD's problem

and they'll be held to account!

As this is pretty specific, and if identified it would be known it had come from

me - I would prefer it not be also I would request that I not to be identified - as

I do not wish to be in anyone’s firing line!

Case Study 96I have been teaching for 12 years now. My school I am teaching at is

independent, and does use the students for observed teaching, and tour of

the school by head girl which is used by the head mistress.

My own experience has been an unfortunate one, in that the senior

management have taken the side of the students.

For example, two years ago a colleague had a complaint from a student and

the head mistress encouraged the letter from the parent.



My colleague was observed without notice from the head, and she had to get

NASUWT involvement. Eventually, she was left alone.

My case is very recent. I have been suffering mental illness. My personal life

had been a mess, and I struggled everyday to teach. My year 11 group kept

asking me questions related to my personal circumstances, and to my horror,

two weeks later a letter allegedly from a parent was addressed to the head

complaining about me.

The beginning of the letter starts:-

Dear Ms xxxxx,

As requested I am writing to complain....

Since I was presented with this letter, an investigation meeting was carried out

where I was denied representation, and the following day suspended, pending

investigation into an allegation of gross misconduct.

I am now off work suffering severe depression.

I believe that the students had been coached and encouraged to give details

within my lessons, which was then used to promote disciplinary action.

Case Study 97Firstly I must ask that I with to remain anonymous if quoted at any point.

The instances I have witnessed of pupils being used in an inappropriate

manner are as follows:

1) In a private school where some staff's children attend, these children

are used as spies for unsatisfactory teaching.

2) Having attended several interviews - one in a North Derby school - I

was subjected to a student interview panel.



3) A college in the West Midlands is using a panel of 3 students and 3

staff for a lesson 'presentation' in place of sample lesson.

4) In a previous school, the children from a particular class were polled as

to my professional conduct and the result was the threat to place me on

capability procedures in light of the findings - there were other

supporting factors, this was not the only evidence used.

I hope this helps, I can give further details if required.

Case Study 98I do not have direct experience of this but as a member of our School

Management Team I do know that recently candidates for the Deputy

Headship of this Primary School were required to be interviewed by our

School Council and points awarded by them contributed to the selection

process. This gave the candidate who already worked at this school, in my

opinion, an unfair advantage. I was not aware that children aged 7 to 11 were

capable of making professional judgements!

I do not know how the external candidates felt!

Hope this is of some use.

Case Study 99I am the NASUWT Rep. at this school. If this helps:

Student Voice is used during interview process but I’m not sure of

influence

When it started Student Voice “Reps” (i.e., students) were given

training in the language of Lesson Observation. I was concerned at this

but nothing seems to have come of it.

When we got a new Head of Dept. he issued a questionnaire

researching students’ thoughts about the Dept., including a question

about quality of teaching. I kept a copy but can’t now find it. Again,



nothing seems to have come of this. Not sure if Student Voice involved

with this, or all students.

I do not wish to be interviewed re. this.

Case Study 100Hello. I went for an interview a couple of years ago. There were 2 rounds of

interviews the first was by 2 pupils interviewing and there was a second

round. The head invited 11 candidates for the job, he didn't want to see us

teach or see our portfolios. I was so put off by the interview with students I

didn't get to the second round. I came away feeling cheated because I never

had a decent chance for the job.

Case Study 101

Case Study 102I am a member who works in further ed - I would perhaps suggest that this

issue should include all your members including those who teach up to year

12, but in colleges rather than schools. My college does use students for

student observations.

Case Study 103I was interviewed for my previous post as Head of Science - I was an external

candidate - I taught a lesson and the teacher observing (a senior teacher)

asked the pupils at the end who they thought was a better candidate for the

job. She quoted the students. She also quoted the students in front of other

candidates - saying that they were bored in one lesson (and the teacher they

were referring to was there and he knew it was his lesson because she made

a point of saying so).

I was appointed - even then the senior teacher would tell these students "you

helped chose our new head of science".

This year’s departmental pupil voice has been carried out by the 2nd in

department because the head of science said "when we do it they seem a bit



negative" - his classes were last year - other staff had

normal/reasonable/positive reviews. The 2nd in department would then give a

blow by blow account of who has positive results and who doesn't - as if it

classifies us as teachers - and as if we are interested in this form of gossip.

She also did this to undermine the HoD.

Not willing to go to press - but you did say you wanted any stories....

Case Study 104I'm not sure if this is relevant but my experience in interview did not sit well

with me & I thought I would run it by you.

Last year I applied for the internal post of Assistant Director of Sixth form at

xxxxx school (2 posts). There was no mention of involvement with the Sixth

form being a prerequisite for application. My Application was well received &

interviews went well. Three interviews with senior members of staff & 1 with 3

sixth from students. My Ideas were complemented & my ambition applauded.

In the feedback given post interview I was told the reason I was unsuccessful

was I was not known to sixth form students as I do not ( as yet) teach in the

Sixth form. This has been an ambition that has not yet been fulfilled. The

other applicants were well known existing sixth form teachers. It could be that

there were other reasons but these were not disclosed. Obviously if students

interviews were to be used as part of the selection process they were far more

likely to give positive feedback on staff they are more familiar with.

Please let me know if this is this is of any help

Case Study 105I find it strange that you only want to hear negative experiences of the use of

student voice.

I work in a comprehensive secondary school. In my school the year council (2

reps from each year group) were given the opportunity to interview the



candidates for Headteacher, Head of 6th form and the two Deputy Heads,

who were all appointed at the end of last year.

They had pre-prepared vetted questions and all the students and candidates

got a lot out of the experience. The students felt like they were listened to and

took the responsibility seriously, and the candidates felt able to give the

students a feel for what they would be like in the role and also get a feel

themselves for the school student body and the character of the school.

Ultimately, although the students' views were taken into account, the final

decisions were made by the senior management and they did not always

match the choice the students would have gone for.

I therefore think when used appropriately, student voice in appointing new

staff can be a positive thing.

Case Study 106My school regularly uses pupils on recruitment panels. When I was recruited I

was 'interviewed' by a panel of 5 students. During my first year here I taught 3

of them. These pupils turned out to be poor behavers and low achievers who

were being given these positions of responsibility as a motivational and self-

esteem boost. One of them actually said to me, 'if I'd known I wasn't going to

like you in the interview I would have chosen one of the other teachers, but

one of them looked like Humpty Dumpty so I didn't pick him'. I think that letting

pupils influence who is successful in interviews is dangerous, as they can be

clearly biased by everything other than the candidate's actual teaching ability

and professionalism. I would be horrified to find that, after studying for 6 years

part-time for my degree whilst working full-time, then going through the living

hell of a PGCE course, that I didn't get a job because pupils didn't like my

look.

Also, we have recently had Ofsted and in a pre-inspection exercise, the LA

came in to do a mini inspection. One of the exercises was 'Pupil Voice' where

pupils from different year groups and ability groups were asked about, among

other things, their opinions of teaching in the school, and quality of lessons. I

fail to see how a pupil can understand how to describe the 'quality' of a



lesson. Children, as we all know, speak with their emotions and if they dislike

someone, for whatever reason, they feel no guilt about 'putting the boot in' so

to speak, as they have no concept or concern for any consequence this might

have for the person concerned. This exercise also rather conveniently ties in

with the current wave of restructuring and redundancies we are about to go

through.

I am unwilling to be interviewed by the media about this, as I don't trust

anybody I work with, much less the management team. Please could you

ensure my comments remain anonymous.

Case Study 107I have been questioned by 2 sets of students at 2 different schools It definitely

influenced the decision as I was told so.

Case Study 108With regards to the email below I can confirm that I have been subject to

Student Voice in my school.

When I was interviewed in 2008 student voice interviewed me and provided

comments on my personality and statements made.

Over the last 18 months of teaching at xxxxx Student Voice are regularly

encouraged to observe lessons and to comment on behaviour management

and the content of lessons.

xxxxx is a restorative practice school and actively encourages student voice in

all areas.

Case Study 109I'm writing after reading the union's invitation to share experiences or abuse of

student voice.

I am still deeply traumatised by what happened to me in the last school where

I worked. I am very happy therefore that this initiative is undertaken, as I



believe it is appalling the way some school management exploit students' will

to participate to school life, giving them powers well beyond their maturity, in a

populist, demagogic, consumerist attempt to attract the students' and their

parents' favour and indirectly coerce, persuade them to be partners in cruel

power exercises, where prejudice, xenophobia and other narrow minded

tendencies can thrive…

I am still terrified of power figures, even in an open minded place of work,

such as the one where I am now.

I think it is disgusting the way children are exploited and the blind eye that all

turn not to end up in the same trouble.

I would be very happy therefore to be interviewed and give an opportunity to

view the documentation produced in the year-long torture that eventually lead

to me leaving my teaching post after a 14 year-long career (University and

Secondary).

I would, however, need NASUWT to ensure absolute anonymity to myself and

my case. I am no longer part of the union, but I would like to help in your

research.

My case, in brief, was an escalation of allegations against me, where some

students were encouraged to make complaints without any foundations,

based solely on my appearance, on their expectations from a foreign teacher.

These allegations and complaints were taken for granted to be true, and I

found myself under cruel scrutiny in front of parents, students and other

personnel. On the other hand, insults and aggressive behaviour towards me

was played down to insignificant and often justified reactions: a student

slapped my hand after trashing the room; an administrative member of staff

insulted me in the reception she was in charge of, in front of students and

visitors; students were allowed to block my way out of my classroom; insulting

behaviour in my corridor was laughed off and dismissed, and at best

condoned by the vice head when she found the culprits still outside my door...



parents were allowed to write terrible insulting letters to me from the second

week of my employment, blaming me of things that went on before my

appointment; the same year 10 students who interviewed me (I was

interviewed twice for that post!), were then to start a year-long campaign,

where they were free to scrutinise my behaviour, my appearance, my accent,

my teaching methods. This lead to them feeling very empowered in a negative

way, becoming rather bullish and feeling justified in their often cruel display of

disrespect and spite.

The fact that two of them requested to be moved from my class was

automatically blamed on me. The head of department and the second in

department would send each other emails complaining about me just to have

reasons to call me to answer for non-existing complaints, which were taken

however awfully seriously and I was made to answer them as having a very

serious consequences for my career. At least in one occasion, I was able to

prove it all wrong by calling parents and finding out that they were not aware

that their children apparently had made allegations against me, that as far as

they knew they were very happy in my classes.

I am not sure this is of interest and I apologise if not. One day I will get rid of

the insult and the terrible damage to my career and my self esteem...

Case Study 110Just thought that I would let you know that our students are having lots of fun

with this student voice.

I have had students get up and leave my classroom to go and tell SLT that I

am mean and am picking on them as I have disciplined them. It has become a

common practise amongst students to decide that they don't like a teacher or

the way ion which they teach and put formal complaints in.

One member of my department is having formal investigation as she told

students in an afterschool revision class that she would no longer be running

the sessions and it made them "feel uncomfortable" I my self had a class

telling me for 2 weeks that I was a crap teacher, they made complaints and

the 2 weeks later decided that I was a good teacher again so changed their



tune again. It is ridicules students are actively being encouraged to challenge

teachers and know that they can get away with it by crying to the head I hope

it gives you a better picture.

Case Study 111My present school did have a student interview panel, which was separate to

the main panel.

I found it a positive part of the interview day but it was totally misleading

regarding the actual experience of teaching at this school. The panel were

polite and positive which is totally unrepresentative of the classes that I have

generally taught since.

I do not object to the panels as part of an interview day, but am not sue quite

how useful they are. Maybe they are just a trendy bit of window dressing a

school that will eventually fade away.

Case Study 112Unfortunately these cases are true and you can find them all over the country,

management uses pupils to appoint teachers. I am currently working in Kent

and as a matter of fact I was confronted to a panel of pupils when applying for

my job. They had questions for me and I answered in front of them and of the

deputy head.

In my former job (now headmistress) gave questionnaires to the pupils about

the teachers performance and as senior member of staff made the teachers

know that those were very important. The questions were very "sharp".

I would like my details not to be public but I hope someone can do something

about this questionnaires and the attitude of the senior management who take

this to have some power over the teachers in terms of promotions and so on. I

think working in xxxxx was the worst experience of all my career, Mrs xxxxx is

an abusive character.

Case Study 113I can see that there might be problems in some schools and I for one would

not agree to being ‘observed’ by pupils. However we did involve a small group



of children in the selection process of our new head teacher last year and I

thought it was a useful exercise.

Case Study 114It is interesting that you seek only negative examples of this being used in

school. The NASUWT continue to disappoint me in this way.

I found the student panel interview that I had revealing as I asked the children

what they felt of the school and whether it was a happy place and if they felt

they learnt a lot at the school. I suppose that this MAY have encouraged them

to speak badly of certain teachers, but they remained professional. In turning

the process around, I was able to elicit information for my benefit.

This was a primary school interview for a deputy headship. During the

interview, I was observed interacting with pupils by members of the governing

body.

You seem to accept that pupils should be involved in being able to articulate

their views, but do not include the interview as a place that they can do this.

I do not wish to be contacted concerning this, as I am uncertain as to how the

information I provide will be used by the NASUWT.

Case Study 115Deputy Head teacher at xxxxx school has used "loaded" questions in

interviewing students. This was his message published in the school bulletin

Friday 12/02/2010

Message

Outstanding teaching and Learning

We have all had substantial training on teaching and learning over recent

years and without question the learning experience enjoyed by students at our

school continues to improve due to your dedication and professionalism. It

has been identified however, through student voice discussions during the



faculty review process and general informal monitoring of classrooms that

some students are still receiving an inadequate diet in some lessons.

Can we all remember that we agreed at the start of the year that students are

entitled to:

· Be greeted at the door with a welcoming smile

· Be informed about what they are learning about, why and how they are

going to learn it

· Participate in active lessons involving a range of learning styles

· Have work differentiated

· Receive a regular review of learning throughout the lesson

· Collaborate with other students

· Be assessed through a range of questioning styles

· Access to PLTS on a regular basis

Unfortunately however, students have informed us and we have noticed:

· Staff sat behind their desks for extended periods of time not engaging

with the students

· Slow starts to lessons due to lack of planning and preparation

· Inadequate care taken over written feedback

· Lack of homework being set

· Inappropriate use of resources with excessive amounts of text

book/worksheet activity

· Bored students because the level of work either too easy or hard

In order to raise standards and ensure this school continues to make the

necessary improvement we all have to be engaged in following this advice.

Please don’t be surprised if you are asked to explain your actions if you are

found not to be working to the agreed expectations and supporting all

colleagues in school.

Have a happy, relaxing and healthy week off!!!

I do not wish to be identified as yet, but this is typical of the management style

in the school, the staff feel undervalued, undermined and the regime is one of

bullying and rudeness and when anyone raises the use of Union intervention



then they are accused of bullying and told that the staff they are "standing up

to" feel intimidated and also have professional bodies who will support them.

Case Study 116The key points that I would like to make are that firstly, in my experience,

student voice is very much a one way street and is almost always used to

inform views of the teaching staff and is hardly ever used to inform views of

management. Secondly, student voice is only ever acted upon when the

views expressed by pupils are those that reflect the management line and are

almost always ignored when they don't. Therefore a more subtle but I think

key abuse of student voice is that it is only used when it confirms pre-existing

notions of school management policy. At xxxxx school I have been involved

with the student council and pupils have been asking for the same things for

years - lockers, clean toilets etc and have been ignored as it is inconvenient to

act on these things.

Case Study 117I currently work at xxxxx school in Suffolk.

Over recent years the school council have been given more

powers/responsibility which was welcomed by most of the staff. However not

all of it has been positive. When the Deputy Head and assistant head were

appointed (a year apart) the school council interviewed all the candidates. For

the deputy head interviews the pupils involved openly told other staff and

pupils that they had appointed the deputy head themselves, because they

liked her and not the fat other bloke. Staff felt that more guidance was needed

for the pupils involved which did happen with the second appointment.

At school council meetings pupils are asked questions such as:

Which lessons do you like and why?

How can we improve your lessons?

Who gives the most good points (awards)?

This half term members of our school council have met with members from

the other school in our pyramid and the high school in preparation from when



we become a federation in September, although parents still haven’t been

informed of federation.

Case Study 118You may be interested to know that our school operates a system where each

tutor group consists of 5 students from year 7 to year 11 with a learning

mentor/ tutor. In the school development plan under personal development

and well being one of the items of focus for 2010 - 2011 says "Trial a system

of Year 10 students contributing to the writing of learning mentor reports for

Year 7 students."

Case Study 119

Case Study 120Here is a bit of background about myself:

I work in a small primary school (approx 120 students). I worked there for 22

years, but am currently signed off due to the stress caused by an untrue

allegation of abuse made by a pupil.

Our school introduced pupil questionnaires about 5 years ago, at the request

of the (then) newly appointed learning mentor. The head agreed to the

process as it ticked an OFSTED box. Staff were assured that the process

would be a positive process, however this has not ever been the case for of

us.

Speaking for myself, I have found it particularly demoralising when children I

have reprimanded in the days leading up to the questionnaire have written

extremely negative comments about me as a professional, all comments not

proven or backed up with any evidence. These include accusations of hating

being in my class, of me always targeting a particular child, a child saying they

feel unsafe in my class, criticism of boring lessons and work too easy/hard.

Our previous head was extremely dismissive when these comments were

made, stating he knew me as an outstanding teacher and told me to disregard

them as the children making the negative comments didn't mean it. I was



concerned, however, as potentially damning comments against me were held

on school premises, and I had no assurance that only the head would have

access to them. Incidentally, the few children who made these comments

would invariably give me little cards and letters days later saying how I was

their best teacher and how much they wanted to stay in my class. Maybe I

should have filed these with the questionnaires.

Our new head takes the results of these questionnaires quite seriously. His

philosophy is that of very much listening to the child's voice, above all others.

Comments made by children have been believed unconditionally. (Teachers

shouting and being unfair were flagged up last time) Discussing the matter

with colleagues, we now feel completely demoralized, guilty until proven

innocent.

While I have always valued and incorporated children's interests and

viewpoint in my teaching, I do feel that there is a danger in giving pupil too

much power, especially at primary level, as they do not have the

understanding of the consequences an inaccurate, immature statement can

have on the careers of teachers and far reaching effect on their lives outside

of school. Frighteningly, some children deliberately abuse this power if they

are allowed.

Case Study 121I have 2 examples

I work in a Sixth form department. On my interview day 7 years ago I spent

some time on my own with 3 students as part of the rota for the day and we

were basically left to chat about what we liked. The other interviewee had the

same opportunity. I felt this was odd. They were clearly asked for feedback. I

got the job by the way. I don't think we do this now.

In our college we have a quality assurance programme which as you expect

involve lesson observations/grading etc. It also involves in some format or

other consultation with students in a student forum. I had never regarded this

as a bad thing until one department's post review report included a statement



such as -Try as we might the students had nothing negative to say about the

course staff. I don't know how the students were selected for this but given a

few different ones this could have been very damaging and just doesn't sit

well with me.

I must say that we have an annual Student Voice mini conference which

seems to raise interesting issues, but is also used to assess the "health" of

the college.

Case Study 122I believe I have been a victim of unfair pupil voice when I attended a

secondary school for interview.

Five of us had to teach a 10 minute lesson on the same topic to the same

year 10 lesson, i.e. the students were taught 5 times in one hour.

Students were then asked for feedback of each candidate for the position and

then finally voted for who they felt (the students) was the best teacher.

Funnily, the candidate who got the most votes was appointed for the position.

I believe this was highly unfair for the school to appoint a teacher as students

obviously don't have the professional background to decide who would make

a good teacher.

I have also had friends who have been interviewed by student councils and

individual students using questions given to them by the SMT.

I hope this helps with your case studies on this outrageous process performed

by senior management teams.

Case Study 123I'm not sure if this was abuse of Student Voice, but I was interviewed by a

student panel for a post in a secondary school and at the end of the interview,

I was told that one of the reasons I didn’t get offered the post was because

the student panel didn’t think I took student behaviour seriously enough,



unfortunately I felt they had misinterpreted what I was trying to say. If I had

known their opinion was going to affect whether I was considered or not then I

would have thought more carefully about my approach. Another lesson

learned in the already very intense interview process.

Personally, I think this is just another way of a school finding a reason not to

employ someone and taking it away from making a correct or justified

judgment for themselves. I do think it’s important that students have an

opinion about a new teacher, but I'm not sure if it should be used as an

excuse not to employ someone, as I am not sure a child can make as

professional a judgment as an adult would.

Case Study 124I am currently working as a supply teacher in the South West having

completed my NQT year last year and before taking up an appointment in the

summer term. During my NQT year I applied for several jobs and have been

interviewed approximately 10 times for various posts at various schools (large,

small village etc).

As far as I can recall there has been some kind of student voice procedure

where you tend to be interviewed by members of the school council and

asked all kinds of weird and wonderful questions from what you would bring to

the school in terms of clubs etc to what is your favourite colour? At each and

every school I have been interviewed at.

However, a couple of schools I was interviewed at last summer had taken

things one stage further in terms of student voice.

School number 1 asked for candidates to prepare a 10 minute presentation on

some aspect of school life (I can not recall what exactly) but remember

discussing a smartboard presentation in which I had pictures of my current

class at work, some of my class displays & clubs I had run etc. At the end of

this the children then asked various questions of varying relevance but all in

all an odd experience and one which was on top of observed & planned

lesson plus planned scheme of work to accompany lesson taught.



School number 2 was by the far the strangest with the below details copied

from the interview invitation I received:

Activity 2: An observed conference with a small group of pupils on the

subject of ‘Learning’.

From the above I had no real idea of what to expect but when it began I soon

found out that this activity consisted of approximately 10 children sat in a

small horseshoe whereby you were expected to question them about their

own learning whilst also fielding questions from the pupils. The whole activity

was timed by a teacher sat at the back of the room who I only became

aware was part of the interview process when she bellowed out '5 mins left!'

and lasted around 20 mins I believe and seemed a complete waste of time as

some children would just give one word answers or couldn't even recall what

they had been learning...just very, very odd!

Well that is my experience of student voice, some positive and some negative.

As far speaking to the media I am not sure what I can add as my recollection

of some of the specific procedures is a little hazy as you are under so much

pressure on the day but could possibly speak to the media if need be.

Case Study 125Coming from a background in youth work, it seems to me a positive move to

involve pupils in the selection of new teaching staff. Theirs should be one of

the stakeholders consulted. This is different to handing over responsibility for

making professional decisions/ judgements to pupils.

Case Study 126I haven't experienced much regarding the student voice but I work in a school

that recently recruited a new head teacher. As part of his settling in period he

interviewed the year 9 cohort and asked them to name teachers they liked

and disliked. As a staff he told us he had done this and said 'I know which list

you all want to be on'. This was a total disregard for professionalism but the



head has just left this post after less than two terms so as a staff we no longer

have the anxieties he created!

Case Study 127I am concerned by the fact that you have asked particularly for negative

experiences with regards to student voice. I have been interviewed by student

panels a number of times and have always been impressed with the way the

students conduct themselves. In all cases, the students were either

supervised by a member of staff or sat alongside staff on the interviewing

panel. I have also sat with students on interviewing panels and have been

impressed with the way they approach their duties and with the considered

responses they give – they do not evaluate prospective teachers on the basis

of superficial reasons I can assure you!

Our school has recently started our annual cycle of student interviews with

Y11 students in small groups – they have been giving us their feedback on

their experience of school before they leave for the 6th form. It is their

opportunity to be honest and their feedback is invaluable in identifying where

we need to address support. They are full of praise where it is warranted and

very tactful about the areas they feel could be developed. No teacher is given

any negative feedback but we can target support to ensure these issues

aren’t raised again.

In my own teaching I ask students to comment on what they enjoy and what

they wish could change. I think the students have good suggestions to make

and I often use their ideas to enrich my planning – this does not mean that I

don’t cover areas that they don’t enjoy but I do try to include bits that they do

enjoy – the result is better behaviour and much better results for them. We

also use student questionnaires regularly and use them to inform our future

planning – things we, as adults, think will help our students are not always as

useful when you are 12 or so and student feedback helps us fine tune our

processes.



Students are our primary service users so if we don’t listen to them how will

we best meet their needs? I am not saying that student voice cannot be

abused; just saying that it can be a fantastic way of involving students in their

own learning. Isn’t that what we are here to do? The title of the email is, I feel,

inflammatory and leads someone who might have felt neutral on the subject to

feel negatively about it. Surely we should have a balanced response? It

makes me wonder what your ultimate aim is!

Case Study 128I have recently received an email from NASUWT regarding the abuse of

student voice and wanted to share with you a recent experience I had. I was

asked to interview for a position starting September 2010. I am currently a

PGCE student and was excited to have received my first invitation for an

interview. However, I was also informed that part of the process would include

an interview with members of the school student council. On receiving a

debrief after the interview I was informed that although the pupils liked me and

found me to be a friendly, confident and outgoing person, I was not given the

job based on a comment I had made during this part of the day. I was

informed the pupils found the comment disconcerting (I mentioned that I

thought it a good thing to not bump into pupils outside of school!). This was

the only real negative comment I received and it appeared that the reason I

was not offered the position was down to the student council. I did find this

quite a worrying thought, yet as I mentioned I am a PGCE student and

therefore not aware that this may be unusual in an interview process.

Case Study 129I was pleased to receive your email with concerns about the abuse of student

voice. The school I work at is generally good, using the student voice

programme in an effective way. However, last year selected students were

given a questionnaire to do about how they feel they are getting on in my

subject. I felt some of these questions were inappropriate although the worst

part was where students were given a space to write comments. Generally

these were fine but in some instances where students had been disciplined,

they felt this was their opportunity to complain about me. Some of the



comments were very upsetting and distressed me to think that the head of

department and head teacher would read these and take it on board. I did

raise this with the head of department and head teacher and they said they

understood how some students will respond and ignored it. I strongly believe

that sometimes students are given too much opportunity to voice their

opinions and we are not given opportunity for our side of the story and defend

ourselves.

I wont be willing to talk to the media on this issue as I don’t feel it has had a

big impact on me or that my school is a problem but I wanted to inform you as

the issue of students voice is sensitive and does concern me greatly.

Case Study 130Although the following points don't directly involve me, they do involve

members of staff at my school. Student voice is being used far too much in my

school and I really feel that management listen to the students rather than

staff. One boy could have been excluded for hitting a teacher - and in my

opinion should have been permanently excluded for it (I witnessed it.) Our

headteacher took his side and said forceful shoving of a member of staff a

dozen times is not hitting. Hence, it never went to the governors. Another case

is as follows:

This alarming case came to light on the new recent appointment of our head

of year 9. I am not here to say whether he is the right person for the job, but

what was shocking was the public admittance (by the headteacher in a staff

meeting) that the person they employed was their second choice for the job.

Our headteacher stated to us that the man, who was given the job, was given

it because of students' influence.

I am happy in my job, so would prefer to remain that way and be anonymous,

but I am concerned at the opinions of our senior leadership team.



Case Study 131In a lesson observation with the Headteacher, he asked students in my class

whether the lesson being observed was a regular sort of lesson. During the

observation he was asking the students about my teaching style. The majority

of students were very supportive although the Head then challenged them

about the effectiveness of the methods. He claimed that some of the students

stated that not enough progress was made in lessons. He sent me a letter

after the observation stating that my students claim that not enough progress

was being made. Although, no complaint had ever been made, the

Headteacher used the student feedback to threaten me with further action. As

a result of the Head's questions, rumours started to spread with the students

that I was in "trouble".

Other members of staff have been involved in reviews where students have

voted on the effectiveness of the teacher during the lesson. These members

of staff were very upset with the process. I will encourage my colleagues to

contact you.

Case Study 132".........using pupils to observe teachers teaching, involving pupils in the

recruitment of staff, including on interview panels, and pupil questionnaires

which are for management rather than educational purposes"

I can not see that any of the activities you mention, in themselves, are a

problem. My school has had children 'work shadow' adults across the school

(although this included teachers it was also very positive in terms of raising

the profile of all adults in school). I myself was interviewed by the School

Council as part of my selection process and the children have filled

out questionnaires about all areas of school - including their thoughts on

teaching. All I have found to be very positive.

It will be the ethos of the school and style of management that will be at fault if

these activities cause a problem - not the activities themselves.



Case Study 133xxxxx School uses pupils for interviews and sometimes in observations.

Headteacher also interviews pupils every week asking what they think of their

lessons. Asking many questions.

I think this is spying. A worrying trend. I think headteachers are using pupils

as a way of controlling teachers.

I'm not happy about it. Respect - there is none not from management or from

a lot of pupils. We are just cannon fodder, use them, abuse them, hope they

leave start on a nice cheap new graduate. That seems to be what

management want to do.

Case Study 134I was recently shown documents from a Year 9 Student Council meeting at

which I was heavily criticised for the way I ran my Tutor group. The criticisms

involved my style of teaching, my Christian faith and a lot of very strong

material that I had no chance – at the time – to refute or give my version of

events. Indeed the first time I saw the minutes of the Student Council was

when I instigated a professional discussion on my mishandled performance

management for that year. Another member of our staff and an NAS/UWT

member was criticised in very personal terms at another Student Council

meeting, at which the deputy head presided. Minutes of this meeting were

then circulated to Year 9 staff to read to their students.

Case Study 135xxxxx school does ask students to comment on the quality of teaching, the

questionnaires are collated termly and not really fed back to staff, we support

learners to complete these?

I never see these forms again and haven’t as I recall seen any results from

these learner voice surveys.

I would agree that they are definitively used by management though.



Case Study 136Further to your e-mail, I have not personally had any negative experiences

with Student Voice at the school I work at, so disregard this e-mail if you wish

- I am simply writing to state that criticising the use of students on interview

panels is something that should be approached with great care - During my

interview for my present job I had an informal interview with three students as

well as a formal interview with senior staff and governors. The students'

questions were thoughtful and challenging and they demonstrated immense

maturity whilst being at all times good-humoured and polite - I would support

the use of such a system in any school, providing the students are agreed

upon by numerous teachers for having shown adult qualities in lessons. They

are, after all, the people who we will be working most closely with and

therefore I feel it is wise to allow them some input into who teaches them - it is

naive to suggest that students do not know what makes a good teacher.

Case Study 137I've been waiting for something to be raised about this; quite a few of my

friends are teachers and we all agree that the student voice is important but

we don't agree with how it's being used. I have experience of the student

voice in two schools.

My first experience was when I went for an interview almost two years ago at

xxxxx School and came up against xxxxx and their interview process. The

Y11s were off on study leave and the Y10s were on work experience; I was

offended when I was informed that I would be interviewed by the student

voice group which was two Y9 students, an Y8 student and an Y7 student. I

was told that the students’ opinion was valued and they would interview me

and that if I got the job I would also be observed by the students in future

lessons. Needless to say, I didn't try hard in the interview and did not get the

job.

My second experience was at xxxxx school in London; I was there for the

2008-2009 academic year and one of the reasons I left was that they were

actively training Y9 students to perform some of the official teacher



observations which would be used as part of their performance management.

I'm unaware if the school is actually using the student voice group.

Questionnaires were also being distributed to the students (I think online as

well) to assess how the teachers were viewed by the students.

I am currently at xxxxx School in Essex and could not be happier; the school

has a student council and the students can raise their concerns, but the adults

are in charge.

I'm willing to reply if you want to contact me regarding this issue.

Case Study 138I would like to remain anonymous.

Student voice is used often at our school. Most recently in identifying areas for

improvement. Bi-annually the students complete a student survey asking their

opinions of teaching and learning in the school. There were a range of

questions asked which related to the school as a whole but lastly the students

were allowed free comment. Some students used this to disrespect staff - I

was never mentioned but these comments were published on the school

network and 'named and shamed' certain teachers as the students were given

the power to say who they thought were rubbish teachers.

Case Study 139I'm an OTT teacher and recently received my QTS qualification. Prior to

arriving at this school, I first worked at a school in Barking. I had just arrived

from xxxxx and was still settling into life in London. It was difficult to adjust to

the new school system but I had a good relationship with the students and

was a hard working teacher. When the school year was ending, I had to

interview for my job again. I did get rehired, but the interview process I think

used student voice in an unprofessional manner. I was told students would

interview me as well. I remember them asking me why I thought I would be

good for the position. When I answered I was already a teacher here, it was

embarrassing and demoralising. Most especially, one of the students was



currently in the year 9 class I was teaching. The head of my department didn’t'

even ask me if any of the students were currently in my classes (as I thought

that would put me in an awkward position). When I saw the student in the

interview, it was a shock. You can imagine how awkward and embarrassing it

must have been for me to answer professional questions to a student who

already knew me as their current teacher and to other students who were

shocked to know I was already a member of staff.

After I had decided to move on from this particular school I moved on to

another in the same borough. As I recall, they were discussing how students

will be watching lessons. They did not implement this practice while I was

there. Now that I have left that school, I do not know if they have actually

taken that into practice.

I hope these stories will help other OTTs and other teachers in England to be

aware of how student voice can be unprofessional and demoralising to

teachers. As an OTT I was unaware and quite naive to how interviews were

conducted. In hindsight, I think it was easy to take advantage of a teacher

who was unaware of the process.

Case Study 140My school is a 13-18 comprehensive and we use pupil voice in all kinds of

inappropriate ways. All staff interviews include a student panel; this includes

the appointment of everyone from the Head to cover supervisors. We also

have a small number of Sixth Formers who join members of SLT on learning

walks where we don't get any formal feedback or warning that they will be

popping in. We know that these learning walks are used to help plan

appropriate CPD for staff. The same pupils have a Learning Forum where

they discuss their opinions on learning and feed this back to SLT who then act

upon the feedback.

Case Study 141



I am currently applying for Primary deputy head/ assistant headships. All four

interviews have included interviews by a panel of pupils from the schools

council ranging in age from year 1 to year 6.

In my previous post in a Middle school (which was closed last summer),

student voice was used appropriately by class teachers to gain information

about pupils preferred teaching methods or give feedback about interaction

with individuals. Teachers were permitted to keep this information confidential

if they chose or share with colleagues in supportive CPD.

I would prefer not to be contacted by the press.

Case Study 142Although I am no longer working in a school (I am now in FE), I feel that I can

comment on my experiences at a school where student voice was taken

rather too seriously by the Headmaster. I left there at the end of August 2009

to return to Yorkshire.

This man would take little notice of the majority of good pupils within the

school, but take an inordinate time with the disruptive element. Thus pupils

had no fear of the headmaster; indeed many despised him. The man had little

time for his staff. He was on a mission to cut out the dead wood, his words,

not mine. He targeted staff that the pupils had named.

Although it was a difficult school, he made it much worse by failing to tackle

the disruptive element, preferring to blame it all on bad teaching. The result

was that it was almost impossible to get a sufficiently disciplined working

environment for effective teaching and learning to occur. I jumped before I

was pushed, as did many others, for he was not far short of "having plans for

me".

He leaned on a charismatic teacher who was head of sixth form, who teaching

methods were based on:

Pupils listening and doing as they were told;

His doing the teaching and their doing the listening.



He pointed out, quite rightly that there were people who would pay thousands

for just that at an independent school. Although he could appear gruff, he truly

cared for his sixth formers, and had a heart of gold for everyone. And I had

the privilege of teaching some of the best sixth form students I have ever

taught. His sixth form was scoring more points per student than many of the

local "good" schools. But that work was totally overlooked.

The headmaster led the school into special measures. He left in February to

become a consultant headteacher. Jobs for the boys, or what?

Somewhere there must be good headmasters and headmistresses. Bar one

or two, I have not yet found one that I could respect. Instead, the ones I have

worked with are at best mediocre, at worst, imbeciles. Is being a complete

idiot a prerequisite for being in charge of a school?

Case Study 143I work as a teacher in a state comprehensive. Student voice has had a lot of

prominence over the last few years, although I have not heard a lot about it

recently. However, there is always an interview panel of students for new

positions and some which can be internally appointed. I was interviewed for a

higher post in the same school last year, along with another internal candidate

and 2 external candidates. One of the interviews was with a panel of students

- about 12, taken across the year groups, pretty much the clever and well-

behaved students - who asked a variety of questions, including some rather

strange ones ( e.g. if you could be on Britain's Got Talent, what would your

talent be?). Notes were taken by a senior member of staff during the interview

- one I would trust very much - but there was no feedback whatsoever from

what happened in the student panel to candidates who were interviewed.

I am happy to give further information about student panel interviews to the

union but would not want to be interviewed by the media. (By the way, I didn't

get the job!!)

Case Study 144



I was recently interviewed by a school and observed by a 'student

representative' for a maternity cover position. I am an NQT. I obtained the

post. However the school has major problems with controlling behaviour and I

believe the student was used to mislead me into believing that students

performed a very real and meaningful position of responsibility in the school

when they clearly do not and are not capable of doing so. I found this process

demeaning and it is an abrogation of responsibility of those in charge-

something they clearly are in the habit of doing or else they would not have a

problem with behaviour in the first place!

Case Study 145Further to this issue......colleague of mine having interview tomorrow. His first

obstacle? Pupil panel to decide whether or not he proceeds to interviews with

ADULT panel.

Talk about undermine the profession......I wonder if law firms are

implementing the practise of using office juniors to select appropriate solicitors

for their company? Or perhaps criminals selecting and approving police

officers? The list goes on.......

When are 'we' going to realise that children (just like us) have to earn the right

of passage to adulthood through experience and time? I am all for

empowering children with the skills to become independent learners (that is

our job isn't it OR perhaps the pupils can start doing that for themselves

also?) but come on............reality check..........

This DOES NOT MEAN THAT CHILDREN DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO

EQUALITY. I fully support and implement the tenets of the NASUWT on this

matter..............instead it suggests to me that which ever TWIT interprets the

new law in such a literal and OCD manner deserves to be publicly

pronounced as INCOMPETENT, SELF-DELUSIONARY AND WHOLLY

INADEQUATE FOR WORKING / INFLUENCING the sphere of education.



And just before any criticism fires my way...........I AM NOT a control freak / old

fashioned ma'm / cynic / embittered practitioner/ or other!!!!!!! Just a

realist!!!!!!!!!

Case Study 146I teach in a large inner city comprehensive

Questionnaires are being used by our new KS4 coordinator in the science

department which include a question 'what do you think of your teacher'.

Results are being collated and reported back to the department in terms of

how many teachers the pupils 'like'. I find this highly inappropriate but was

reluctant to raise this at a department meeting and risk looking like a trouble-

maker.

Also, APP tasks are being used in addition to existing assessment

procedures. We have to complete 12 end of unit tests and six APP tasks per

pupil in KS3 - excessive. I have pointed this out in a constructive way but

been told in no uncertain terms that this is what was expected of me and it

was not going to change.

Our HoD and Key Stage coordinators are conducting random 'informal' 10

minute lesson observations with no notice. They say it is to facilitate the

sharing of good practice within the department. Are they allowed to do this?

We have all had two full lesson observations plus 'learning walks' already this

year.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Case Study 147I had to under go an interview which involved a number of students (2). These

students feed back what they didn't like about the teachers and which ones

they thought were professional. These students were present when the

management were discussing the appointment, pros and cons of each

teacher.



Hope this helps, and I have only recently found this out after having an

unrelated conversation with a member on management. Please keep my

details confidential.

Case Study 148I work in a Foundation school, 11-18.

It may have happened on other occasions, but the one I know of for sure is

the head girl was on an interview panel asking questions to candidates when

they appointed the new head of year 8 about a year ago.

I am not aware of it being used for curriculum posts, but it may have

happened for other pastoral posts.

Case Study 149I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for but I believe it is a matter

of concern regarding senior management using students to undermine staff.

My experiences are from when I worked in xxxxx.

A year 9 told me (in front of witnesses) that when he enquired why my subject

was not continuing and was I being finished, he was taken into the dep head's

office by the ass head without any explanation and "forced" to make a

statement against me. He had been told by his form tutor that my subject was

not part of the options for the following year and had been upset as he had

done particularly well in it. In his own words he said "... it was like being

interrogated and they kept on and on until I couldn't think any more....I hope I

haven't got you into trouble miss..."

Also a year 10 student said that she had made a similar inquiry and had been

taken into the dep head's office and was 'made' to write a statement regarding

the same thing. Her words were that "...they kept going on at me....and he

(ass head) said he would let me go to the front of the queue and he (dep

head) would buy me anything I wanted....I said I didn't want him (dep head) to

buy me anything.....I just wanted to go and meet my mates.” This was at a

lunch time.



Both students were told not to mention any of this to any one else; they came

to me on their own volition.

The head boy at the time was also asked to make a statement against me

regarding my 'redundancy' and although he had several behavioural

incidences logged on SIMs they miraculously disappeared after he had written

the 'statement'.

Students are 'encouraged' make statements about members of staff. A

student wanted to change her subject and naively asked the dep head if she

could. He 'encouraged' her to make a formal complaint about the teaching

style of the subject teacher and wanted to phone her mother there and then

so she too could make a formal complaint. The student refused and

complained to her form tutor about what had happened. Unfortunately the

form tutor was too frightened to challenge or even report this unprofessional

behaviour.

These accounts are unfortunately the tip of the iceberg. I am still waiting for

my grievances to be heard by the LA.

Case Study 150I am happy to share a few thoughts with NASUWT, but am opting out of any

future interviews.

My school recently carried out a student survey, and the questionnaire was

completed during a PSHRE lesson. The initial reactions I received were

comments from some of the more vocal and cheeky students who said they

would be complaining about such and such teachers. They also said they

would be asking to get rid of uniform etc. basically what we expect from

teenagers who have been given some position of authority.

I was disappointed yesterday upon a discussion we had about the sacking of

our previous Head. To cut a long story short, this Head was 'too strict' and so

the students did not like her and members of staff felt she was a bully and



were willing to take strike action against her. I personally found her perfect for

students who without a strong leader can very easily become misguided -

typical inner city London kids, mostly on free-school meals, lots of

EAL/behavioural issues etc. Since this Head has left, I have noticed a big

drop in behaviour, and the students are of-course happy about it as they are

able to 'get away with it more'.

I feel that the student voice is important during school council sessions

whereby some authority is given and pupils participate in some of the school's

decision-making. However, allowing students to talk so freely about members

of staff and their employment is totally absurd and a recipe for disaster. The

'respect for elders' aspect completely goes, although this has almost fazed out

already, and before you know it students are choosing to keep 'easy-going'

teachers who let them do as they like and getting rid of the more strict ones -

i.e. the ones who try to strike a good balance so that good teaching and

learning can take place in a safe working environment.

I would blame the Government who is asking Heads and governors to involve

students in what I see as 'grown up matter'. I don't understand how they

cannot see the obvious impact it will have on, well finally it turns back on the

students themselves. As parents, would they seriously let their own children

make up the house rules? If you are dealing with already wonderful kids then

yes, it could be quite productive and meaningful. But when you have students

who have had no correct parenting in the first place, or are rebellious at home,

or have other issues, then how on earth can these children decide who their

teachers should be.

I hope some of it will help.

Case Study 151Have been aware of pupils involvement in teacher appointment decisions for

over a decade.

Pupils have often been taken from my classes to be involved in the

interviewing process.



Pupils are asked their opinions following: lesson observations: after showing

Teachers around the school: and after they have been involved the interview

of a Teacher.

Pupils influence is significant and they are being nurtured/guided to make

predetermined appointments by management. The pupils involved in these

processes seem to have influential parents who appear to rule the day.

In my opinion there is a strong tendency for schools to base appointments on

redeployment: nepotism: Friends of: youth: cost: gender and a strong leaning

to potential.

Higher qualifications, age: cost: experienced and achievement are all held

against those falling outside the preferred qualities of appointees.

Schools often justify their decisions to appoint base on Rubric analysis of

applicants’ suitability, and the opinions of 'unqualified or trained' pupils, staff

and School Governors.

Rubrics are often used to negate applicants experienced: higher qualifications

and achievement. And the continual introduction of New National Curriculum

Documents provide employers with opportunity to claim applicants experience

and qualifications are outdated: and furthermore as the school/department

may be moving to a new exam board, your past achievements don't count.

Staff who are appointed, but fall outside the preferred appointee profile often

fined there contracts are switched to temporary or even part-time with

unrecognisable timetables to the job they have applied for.

It is not unusual to find the job that you applied for is spirited away before,

after or during the interview.

Case Study 152



Yes, this is becoming a feature. For the past 2 years we have been asked to

distribute questionnaires about us to the students we teach (In lessons).

The questions are highly personal, others are preposterous. Obviously

students with a gripe will relish this opportunity to moan at the person who

has, perhaps, criticised their behaviour or lack of work etc. One wonders how

the parents of these children would respond to a similar audit after refused

their child permission to stay out late or who told them to clear up their room?

These poorly (or suspiciously worded) documents were used, most recently,

in a way that caused me to make a complaint to a senior member of staff.

Perhaps, naively, I did not put this in writing. I was assured, however that what

had occurred, shouldn’t have. My opening question was that were these

surveys designed to gauge responses across a subject area and not

individuals. I was assured that this was so. As it didn’t occur again, I am

certain that the member of staff who did the following was acting in a

vindictive manner, subject as he is too many passionate complaints about his

social and professional conduct.

Said member of staff, arrived in classroom with surveys. This was

unannounced. He disrupted a lesson with a difficult group.

He wandered round handing them out, demanded that they fill them in then

and there and then collected them. It is clear that he was attempting to find

fault with me. There is no question that he was able to identify me.

We have a new head. He was interviewed by students.

If you’re interested, I’ll attempt to find a copy of the questions but I suspect

management everywhere are using the same forms.

Case Study 153I do wish to remain anonymous and do not wish to be interviewed but would

like to relay my experience regarding interviewing.

In the summer I applied for a teaching position in a London school and before

the round of interviews/tours etc. My first interview was with a panel of 7

students ranging between yr 7 and yr 12. The younger members had little to



no input into the procedure and really it was chaired and run by a very

aggressive six former who obviously felt important. This boy asked questions

which really had no bearing on my ability or on past experience.

I am an older teacher with 10 years experience. What I find interesting is that

the school actually said to me that the student panel would probably make the

decision for them - if they liked the candidate that would be a good indication

in choosing someone for the position. I did not get the position.

Case Study 154I'm concerned by the tone and leading nature of this email. Surely if the

NASUWT is to come to a balanced and sensible conclusion on the use or

misuse of student voice, it should be "particularly interested" in both positive

and negative experiences. If you only ask for latter, what other conclusion can

you draw?

Provided the use of student voice is carefully and thoughtfully managed, it can

be a huge benefit to teachers. There is plenty of evidence to support this -

both anecdotally and in the literature. Has anyone considered a more rigorous

study rather than simply asking for the 'moans' of disengaged teachers?

Case Study 155In confidence! I work at xxxxx School which, like a lot of Academies, ignores

Union rules and guidelines. They have torn up the rule book on teacher’s

rights. (and strangely – created with the blessing of Gordon Brown!) Students

do all of the things you say and I heard one student say “I hope I get to

observe Mr xxxxx I’ll just write crap” Each classroom has a student voice box

and periodically we have to photocopy comments and submit them to the

faculty heads for inspection “to inform teaching” but they can be quite critical.

At the Academy students evaluate the quality of lessons and complete online

questionnaires too! We all now feel totally undervalued and all of our staff is

de-motivated!

Case Study 156



Anonymously of course.

I had a particularly bad set of examination results. The year head concerned

proposed interviewing all students in the class on "their take". As far as I know

this never happened but I was alarmed about it. When I could see through the

fog of angst that the results had caused and that this was a serious proposal

as this would have seriously undermined me - a sort of inquisition? Maybe it

did happen and the students were positive about me?

Case Study 157I am a HoL in a secondary school and members of student voice have been

involved in interviewing potential members of staff at my school. I was

shocked when I first heard and still disapprove but was under the impression

it was a general policy which we had no control over. Thankfully this practice

was not in place when I interviewed. I believe we may have lost sight of the

fact when we call them pupils or students that they are in fact CHILDREN not

miniature adults. And as such are prone to all those silly immature emotions

that all children suffer as part of growing up and to think that they have a

potential influence over an adult's life and career is abhorrent to me.

Regards

Case Study 158I am pleased that the union has recognised the issues related to student

voice.

Even more important to consider is the idea that totally unqualified adults are

assessing the ability of teachers, during lesson observations, and making

judgements on their performance management.

This is actually happening and staff are too scared to report it.

I would suggest that this is an aspect that the union should be investigating as

it poses more harm to teachers than student voice.



Case Study 159I work at xxxxx Academy.

Exactly the involvement of pupils you describe below is taking place at this

Academy.

It has been introduced without any staff consultation and is definitely leading

to demoralisation on teachers' part and a feeling of being usurped of authority

within her own classroom.

Case Study 160

Case Study 161I received an email from NASUWT yesterday about the abuse of 'student

voice' in schools and colleges and found the material to be very interesting in

the light of recent events at my workplace.

I work in a Sixth Form college, and have spent the last 2-3 weeks doing

student surveys and course forums. These activities are designed to allow the

students to have a say in their learning experience, but inevitably turn into an

opportunity to criticise what their teachers do or don't do - basically a

commentary on the quality of teaching rather than how well they are learning

or what they are putting into the course.

To add to this, students are now being invited to be on the interview panel for

middle management roles. A colleague of mine recently applied for a

promotion and when she went to the interview she found that a student was

there asking her questions along with 2 senior managers. She found the

experience very demoralising and has since been worried about how much

access the student in question had to her private details.

I would be happy to give you more information should you require it, but I

wouldn't be happy to be involved with the media.

Case Study 162



I am the NASUWT rep at my school and recently the management gave out

questionnaires to pupils to ask how their Soc Ed had gone over the last few

weeks.

I gave the papers out but vetted the responses and lost those questionnaires

which I considered to have inappropriate comments.

Case Study 162I wanted to express my concern at the tone of the message I was sent about

'the abuse of student voice' and I disagree with the sentiments.

'The NASUWT is concerned by increasing reports that student voice activities

are being abused by some schools and resulting in practices which privilege

pupils in a way which is undermining, disempowering and deprofessionalising

teachers. These activities include using pupils to observe teachers teaching,

involving pupils in the recruitment of staff, including on interview panels,' -

I completely disagree that these practices disempowered staff, in fact in my

experience it has the opposite effect. Students have a right, in my opinion to

be involved in this way.

The tone of your message automatically implies these practices are bad and

this simply isn't the case.

Students are themselves experts and have a much boarder understanding of

curriculum in many cases than your average teacher. As a Head of

Department value their opinion and as a result of consultation with students

results and lessons have got better for all concerned.

Naturally in the case of observations and interview panels they need support

and training, but do we as teacher really think that their observations and

ideas are not worthy, if so I would suggest we are in the wrong profession, we

should celebrate their commitment not run and hide in fear of being exposed

for being a less than outstanding teacher. If these things intimidated staff it is



because they know they are underperforming, and we are being judged by

students, every day, every lesson.

I cannot fathom why my union doesn't support the excellent practice of getting

students involved. I'm very disappointed.

Case Study 163I'm not sure that this is exactly what you were looking for but I felt compelled

to write to you just in case. I previously spent four years at another school

during which time the appointment of our deputy head took place. The

candidate was subjected to a normal interview process but was also

interviewed by the school council which I am told by some people seems

standard practise in schools these days?? I happened to be sat in on the

process and felt fairly uncomfortable, particularly the conversation that ensued

following the candidates departure from the room - not surprising as these

were children having the discussion.

Although this part of the interview took place I am not sure how much

weighting it was given in the final decision making process - I am assuming

not much, yet I was appalled that a member of the SLT referred to that

particular part of the process as very important. Whilst I believe in my students

having a voice, surely is we who are the professionals and know what is best

for our schools??

I am reluctant to tell you the name of the school unless I am sure that it will

remain anonymous - I left in the Summer for another school, and hear that my

old school are currently in ISP which is already obviously a stressful time for

them.

I hope that this has been of some help and not a waste of your time.

Case Study 164I am the Music Teacher at xxxxx School, Staffordshire.

On the 11th December 2009 a Deputy Head and a Head of Year chaired a

Year Council meeting. In this meeting the Deputy Head allowed a general



discussion of my competency to take place. Issues such as unfair use of the

detention system, not taking the register correctly and inadequate lesson

objectives were cited by pupils. Without my knowledge this information was to

be circulated as minutes by email to Form Tutors for discussion with their

classes. A member of the NASUWT opened this document and immediately

informed myself and the Head that this was not appropriate. The document

was circulated to all form tutors but the Head teacher prevented the

discussion of the contents with pupils.

The Headteacher and another Deputy discussed the issues with me.

However, the assumption was that everything that pupils had said at the

meeting was true and that there is a need to apportion blame. The easiest

course is to blame members of the school staff. I was told at the meeting that

no other staff have this problem, this is unusual etc. At a meeting with other

members of the NASUWT this was evidently a common practice as a means

to bully and undermine staff by the Leadership Group. On 4th January 2010,

the Head sent a memo to all Heads of Year and the Leadership team asking

them to tell the next school council meeting that he had discussed the pupils'

concerns and that he expected to see a significant improvement from myself.

The Head wrote to me to tell me that although no formal action would be

taken he made it clear that the children’s unsubstantiated allegations at the

school council meeting were true and that I should meet the school council to

discuss with the children how they believe I can improve my relationship with

those making the allegations. He also told me that any further allegations may

result in disciplinary action! I feel the school council is being used as some

form of Performance management mechanism.

I am now in a position where I teach over 500 children a week, any of which

could invoke disciplinary action upon myself. This makes my day-to-day

priority largely a case of avoiding all conflict and confrontation in the

classroom, hardly the best way for progress in Education. After 29 years in

teaching I am now looking to escape the bullying and intimidation as soon as

possible. In 4 years I will be able to retire to another job that I hope I will enjoy

and without the abuse I am receiving at the moment.



Obviously I cannot talk to the media about my situation until I have left the

"profession". I do not want to antagonise any senior managers and so this is

sent purely for your information. I do hope that as a Union you can win back

some of the "rights" Teachers used to enjoy when teaching felt like a

worthwhile job.

Case Study 165I have experienced an interview where pupils were used to interview us. All 3

candidates were interviewed by a panel of 4 KS4 students and asked us

questions that they had written themselves. A member of staff from the

school was present and observed the discussion. I know that the pupils were

then asked for their feedback and we were told their findings would be

considered when appointing.

This was for an AST position at an 11 - 18 high school that I do not currently

work at. I know that my current school (also 11 – 18 comprehensive) use this

technique for recruiting people for external jobs (and as far as I know

members of staff who currently work here are expected to go through this

process also). It is my experience that using pupils on interview panels is fairly

common place.

I'd rather not be contacted by the media and I hope what I've described above

is helpful.

Case Study 166I work in a large secondary school where student voice activities are regularly

used. It is considered the norm to perform a student voice activity for almost

every aspect of school life and I have to admit I have been concerned about

this for a while.

A panel of students were used to interview our current headteacher and it was

made clear that this was a very important part of the appointment process.

Almost every meeting or training activity that I participate in has a student

voice "mind map" that we are asked to analyse and base our teaching upon,

be it "good things about our school" or the standard of specific lessons and



activities. This started as a small part of our training days but has become

more and more frequent. At my recent performance management meeting, I

was encouraged to do more student voice activities and record them, and this

was made one of my targets. I know that a lot of student voice activities are

kept on record but am not sure what the purpose of this is.

I have found out today that some students are trained to observe lessons and

interview new staff, a colleague says that she was observed and interviewed

for her current position by a student contingent.

Our website states that "We also believe in listening to our students". The

students at the school are encouraged to discuss, to speak up when they see

something they feel is wrong and to support each other." Many of us on the

teaching staff feel that the student voice takes precedence over our own as

professionals and that lines are continually being crossed as to who is in

charge of teaching and learning in our school. It is demeaning when it seems

that students have more of a say in how the school is run than the staff who

work in it.

I don't know if this information is of any use, but I would be willing to be

interviewed about this subject. I have used my personal email rather than my

school one for this!

Case Study 167In our Southampton school they are discussing using gifted & talented pupils

to observe teachers taking a class of other G&T pupils & reporting back on

how well the teacher provides for extending & motivating the gifted & talented.

Case Study 168You can interview me if necessary. I would not mind at all! I have left the

profession now for reasons you may find interesting.

I, personally, have not been "observed" by Student Voice. However, I have

worked for schools which have, if I am being honest, been ruled by this entity.

It was common practice for potential employees to be interviewed by Student



Voice. I can recall several disasters based on this principle. Completely

incompetent teachers were employed because they were apparently "safe" (in

other words, a walkover!).

I hate to sound as if I am pedantic, but as a teenager, I would have looked for

a teacher who would submit to my will. Human nature. Student Voice is a

superb way whereby students can express their views. I do not deny that and

fully support the underlying ideas. Superb. The problem is that 15 year old

pupils, in my opinion, are not capable of interviewing objectively.

However, the key point, in my opinion, is that PUPILS SEEM TO BE

RUNNING SCHOOLS in Britain

I am taking a school to a tribunal, having been dismissed following me saying,

in front of other members of staff, "either he goes or I go". I said that because

this particular pupil had verbally abused various members of staff, including

me. When I say "verbally abused" I am sure you know what I mean, but I do

not want to say the actual phrase in this email. He continually abused me,

sometimes under his breath so the teaching assistants could not hear it. It

was promised by the so called "leadership team" that this pupil would not be

in the school following its conversion to a so called "academy". What do YOU

think happened? Do you think anybody from the magnificent Team attempted

to teach these lessons?

Why do I mention this? For help from you in my case? No, because NASUWT

has already refused me help because I could not continue with my direct debit

following my dismissal.

I mention this because THE PUPILS RUN THE SCHOOLS NOW AND IT

MUST STOP!

Case Study 169I read the email below and just wanted to give my full support to this and just

say that I’m really happy that the NASUWT takes this issue seriously.



I can't say that I’ve experienced any negative effect of this myself, but find

questionnaires sent out by SLT to pupils asking about individual teachers

quite demeaning - especially for those colleagues who receive negative

feedback. Its not so much the questionnaires that are the issue for me, its the

power that schools are now giving to pupils; pupils are starting to think they

are above teachers.

So, thank you.

Case Study 170I am currently a GTP student just coming to the end of my first term in a

wonderful school.

Before starting my GTP I was employed in a High School as a Cover

Supervisor. Students were involved in the interview process and a panel of

students questioned me and then gave feedback on what they thought to the

Senior Management Team. The questions were unrelated to my experience in

schools or working with young people and were concerned with my hobbies

and what I did at the weekend. Students that showed the interviewees around

the school before the interviews were also encouraged to give feedback on

their perceptions of the candidates. I found this unfair, as a 14 year old's

perception of someone would be very different to an adult's judgement.

Fortunately I got the job at the school. I was familiar to the students already

having worked there through an agency as Cover Supervisor. One of the

candidates that was unsuccessful was disliked by the students. I am unsure

as to whether her unsuccess was a direct result of this.

I am not sure whether this practice would constitute the kind of abuse of

student voice you are looking for? I do believe that the school concerned

would not have intended any abuse of power and would not have been aware

that this would be poor practice.



I would like to remain anonymous.

Case Study 171My school use students on interview panels all the time, for all new

recruitment and promotion. I am to face this trial by fire myself next week

when I am interviewed by KS3 students for the KS3 coordinator role. I have to

say that the thought concerns me somewhat. I have outlined in my application

letter where I think improvements need to be made and the biggest one is the

setting and marking of homework which is never going to be popular amongst

the majority of the student body. I suspect I wouldn't be the most popular

candidate given this!

I will let you know what the experience is like when I've had my interview.

Case Study 173This document was created in 2008 by a newly co-opted member of the York

NASUWT Exec Committee at the request of the committee after they listened

to a somewhat impassioned account by the said member & subsequent

author.

Please excuse the fact the student voice issues are embedded in a general

account of the interview (of an experienced teacher for a cover supervisor role

after her very satisfactory Supply Role at a secondary school had almost

totally dried up as a result of the 'rarely cover' initiative which had the

unforeseen knock on effect of generating jobs for unqualified people a low

rates of pay who were often asked to teach.) This is another issue that I

would very much like to raise with the NAS & at Conference [I am attending

for the first time this year & know nothing as Manuel used to say]. Thus I

hope it will be read and considered in tandem with the student voice issue.

I shall attach the document and then the two attached evidential documents

as mentioned in the text.



Please be good enough to acknowledge receipt. Any other comments would

be read with extreme interest! Needless to say this was my own experience,

written purposely in a more detached manner for the NAS Local Committee

than was the case on 1st draft!

Attached document:Interview: Cover Supervisor (Autumn Term 08) changed heading

The following is the experience of one teacher applying for a Cover

Supervisor post in a secondary school

The report begs several questions

What is the modus operandi for conducting in-school interviews,

especially of nominally non-teachers: is the format entirely at the

head’s discretion – one might say whim?

What should the school pupil’s role, if any, be in this process & how

can it be regulated to strict professional norms? Can a straightforward

Student Interview of candidates undertaken by pupils just out of Yr9

ever be justified?

What exactly is the role of a ‘cover supervisor’ in any given school?

The applicant checked with the school as to the wisdom of applying, given

that she was a teacher with an existing sporadic relationship with the school.

She was encouraged to apply.

The application was made. The thing that struck her among responsibilities &

duties under the Job Description was: “On occasion, to plan a lesson/read up on topic if taking a group for a week or more”. (Attached 1) This was

not what she and she also assumed the teaching unions, expected of a cover

position.

The letter inviting her to interview stated activities that seemed a little ‘full-on’

for a cover post: they were: ‘...a tour of the school, a written task, supervising

a lesson, an interview with students and a formal panel interview’. The

highlighted one was particularly noted.



On arrival the candidate was immediately tempted to leave when she saw two

young men in their 20’s already waiting. She felt she might be the statutory

non-ageist candidate (as she’s in her 50’s)?

In end there were four candidates – a slightly mousy young lady was late for

the first event.

a) Meeting/coffee with Head seemed standard – his comments re student interview were noted:

Candidates would be put in rank order by the students

He ‘set a lot of store’ by what the students said & thought

b) School Tour pleasantly conducted by Yr10 girl, who was incidentally on the

student interview panel though this was neither explained nor commented on

in any way. Not all guides were then interviewers.

c) Briefing for cover lesson [briefing duration10 mins] – in this candidate’s

case with a slightly flustered teacher who told her she’d only been given

10mins notice that her lesson was being covered & part of an observed

interview. It was week 2 of a 2-week timetable, in week 2 of the new school

year, and she actually

Got the room wrong herself

Therefore had incorrect seating plan

Thus told the candidate to ignore where kids placed themselves as

they’d move into 3 pre-planned groups asap anyway

Also

It was later ascertained that the candidate had been given one of the

worst Yr9 classes in the school (‘Oh that’s naughty’ was the comment

of a teacher spoken to at lunchtime, especially the fact that it was for a

full hour, in his opinion)

Anyway the candidate was also told that:



the class would be arriving from PE & thus might be ‘high’ & take their

time arriving

The only ‘judges’ were 2TA’s (who incidentally knew nothing of the

class teacher’s verbal brief – as didn’t the Head)

c) Cover Lesson – Overview, candidates opinion: The middle 40mins of the

lesson was satisfactory; work was undertaken, groups co-operated internally,

the candidate & the 2 TA’s took charge of a group each. The candidate

referred to the 2 TA’s who knew the class well, when tweaking the amount of

work expected, given how well groups were doing at the time, & the

constraints of time, because of the slow start.

There was one point when the candidate was suddenly addressed by her

Christian name by a pupil, early on in the lesson: she was SO shocked that

she had little time to think how they might have ascertained her name, (she

says she has NEVER used a colleagues Christian name in front of pupils in

over 30 yrs in classrooms). After a moment’s thought she just’ let rip’ as she

would have done in any classroom if a pupil stepped that far out of line –

thinking it did them no harm to see the full ‘teacher in flight’ for 30secs

[interesting to note the class didn’t not know the term ‘Christian’ name when

she explained why she was angry]. On reflection the candidate realised the

name badge given to her by the school bore her first name; perhaps a sign of

poorly thought out first time practice by a relatively new head, in the

candidate’s professional opinion).

The beginning was very disjointed & unsettled. It was impossible to set up an

orderly entry as 2-3 classes were crammed on a small landing at the top of a

staircase. Thus part of the class was let in. Pupils took up to 10mins to

arrive. The last arrival wasn’t challenged by the candidate as she was mid-

instructions & noted that a TA asked where the pupil had been. The class

had elected to fill in from the back but given the other potentially

confrontational issues, the very small room & the class teacher’s instructions,

the candidate decided to push on to organise the core activity & move into

groups.



The end of the lesson was spoiled by one pupil, whom none of the 3 adults in

the room could identify, because they were deeply involved within their

respective groups, who removed a girl’s pencil case and

scattered the contents around the room

hid the actual case

The victim (better word) was very upset & general upheaval was caused.

The candidate had to bring the class to order, help find the scattered

equipment, clear up generally & collect work, and then make it clear no one

would have a break unless the case appeared. A couple of minutes into

break the case ‘reappeared’. The class was then spoken to in an appropriate

manner, including an apology to those who’d settled to work well, & weren’t at

fault. They left. The dismissal was not organised enough – a candidate fault.

The candidate indicated her dissatisfaction with part of the outcome to the

TA’s & asked how they rated the lesson. They said it was by NO means the

worst they’d seen with that class, & the middle had been good.

d) coffee in staff room; to be followed by a rather frantic series of four activities

back-to-back. The staff conducting them (non-teachers) indicated that it was

the first time they’d done this, the head was newish & they were finding their

feet, the timing was pressurizing [all 4 to be completed within an hour] etc

e) Interview with Cover Manager [previously ban office clerk]: no comment

other than that candidate was told that the problem with younger cover

supervisors was they found it too hard and didn’t stay. The name badge issue

was mentioned and appeared to be taken on board, with an apology.

f) Interview with newly promoted Senior Cover Supervisor: no comment other

than in this one candidate’s case, this lady had been a TA at her old school

and had done admin for her department. They had always been on good

terms. The SCS commented that she found the reversal very strange and she

was encouraged just to ignore that & do what needed to be done



g) Student interview: this was undertaken in the Head’s Office. The only adult

present was the Head’s PA. There were 3 girls and one boy. They each had

a clipboard. The candidate noted that interviewer1 read directly from the clip

board, made no eye contact, but was quite assertive about what they would

do & be looking for. This did not strike the candidate as the pupil’s words.

Various questions were asked: the one that stuck in the candidate’s mind

(and craw) was:

‘What would, you be able to offer by way of extra-curricular activities?’

On consideration the candidate felt she had to say:

‘Oh I didn’t realise that was part of the job description!’ before going on to

answer the question.

At this point it is relevant to consider these young, male and female people’s

instinctive response to 2 young vibrant males in their 20’s, & thus their

reasons for their eventual rank order of the 4 candidates – this is NOT

ageism/sexism on the candidate’s part but just a straightforward statement of

‘fact’ after working with young people for over 30 years & remembering being

one herself.

h) Written task: to write a letter to a parent who had written (letter provided

attached 2) to complain about a confiscated mobile. The school policy that

the parents would have seen was also provided. The candidate did wonder

about the appropriateness of a cover supervisor communicating directly with a

parent (wouldn’t the form teacher, HoD or HoYr be i/c this by then?)

i) lunch – no real comment [bar the teacher-remark re the group offered for

observed supervision mentioned previously] except

the younger candidates told the more mature candidate that they were

all applying for this job to decide whether to go into teaching i.e. for the

short term, a year (if that)

all 4 candidates agreed that it was almost impossible to work out what

they would be paid given the number of scales, grades, & pro-ratas



involved. No attempt was made to inform anyone: this put everyone in

the similar awkward position of having to ASK at some point, not really

desirable.

j) short list down to two final candidates – debrief

The candidates were informed that the two women were unsuccessful

(interesting that no woman was invited to the final interview?): the two young

men were to go forward. The candidate requested a debrief. The Head said:

i) ‘The students didn’t warm to you – they felt your comment about

after school activities & a job specification to be negative.’

ii) TA’s commented on children gravitating towards the back & the

Head said teaching (remember this is not a teaching job) to a

‘space’ wasn’t good practice (the candidate actually just moved

forward towards pupils anyway). He had no knowledge of the

teacher’s brief.

iii) TA’s reported that candidate didn’t make enough fuss re last latest

entry into classroom – as explained before, candidate felt as lesson

instructions had only just started so late & TA (who would have better knowledge of this pupil anyway) picked pupil up, there

was no need to create a scene & disturb the class’s concentration.

iv) Head commented that other candidates had all given positive

reasons for applying for the job, seeing it as a STEP UP!! The

candidate’s reasons had been less positive. The candidate had

made an honest statement in both interviews e) & f) re perhaps no

longer wanting all the time consuming stresses & strains of teaching

a much changed subject full time, but wanting still to use her

expertise and liking for young people positively for the mutual

benefit of both, & for the foreseeable future. How could this teacher

see post as cover supervisor AS A STEP UP?????

At this point the candidate was incandescent & decided that nothing could be

gained by responding to any of these debriefs honestly or indeed

professionally.



As a postscript it is true to say that the candidate was so mortified by her

treatment and indeed so furious that she was physically ill as a direct result.

Details on request.

October ’08 – 1st draftNovember 08 – accepted therefore proof read

Case Study 174I experienced a student interview panel i.e. a number of older students, at an

interview for a management position at xxxxx, Walsall which was not a

particularly pleasant experience (over one year ago).

I found it a daunting and intense experience as the power of interview was

definitely placed in the students' hands and the questions were numerous and

like those a manager would ask in an interview (it made me wonder about the

nature of the origin of the questions). Moreover, if I could not answer a

question immediately, it diminished my confidence as 'all eyes' were on me

and they were children rather than adults.

Furthermore, the environment was strange, as it was held in a normal

classroom with the desks in a line for the students which seemed quite

unprofessional for me and yet quite 'business-like' for them.

I would not be prepared to be contacted by the media and I would not want

the name of the School or myself published. I would only like it to be used for

informative 'generic' purposes only.

Case Study 175I attended interview at xxxxx School Maldon. I was interviewed by a panel of

yr8 students and their views were taken into account.



I was very upset by this. I also believe this is wrong. I feel pupils are swayed

by youth and appearance. I would have complained or refused to take part if I

had known that the unions considered this bad practice. I also would have

questioned this if I had had warning prior to interview.

I am finding work very difficult to find as I am 45yrs and have been teaching

22yrs and I am up against NQTs. One year I applied to 22 permanent

positions and as per usual later could only get maternity cover.

I have heard at some schools I have supplied for about students assessing

teaching practice. When it has not been a formal pupil panel I know that after

teaching a lesson at interview students were asked about what they thought.

As a supply teacher I have noticed the appalling behaviour pupils show to

temporary staff. If you are interviewed for a temp post I have been treated

with suspicion and actually asked if I have a criminal record or have I been a

trouble maker.

After 10yrs of temporary posts I have to question what is going on?

Case Study 176I find it astonishing that the NASUWT considers "involving pupils in the

recruitment of staff, including on interview panels, and pupil questionnaires

which are for management rather than educational purposes" to be an

"abuse" of student voice

I wonder quite how neurotic and paranoid you are encouraging teachers to

be. So asking pupils for their views on matters that directly impact upon their

education and life chances is an "abuse" which "is undermining,

disempowering and deprofessionalising teachers"!!! By that token, I assume

that the government's consultations with all professional associations, which

have engendered tremendous improvements in the profession because it taps

the voice of the frontline users, similarly undermine the state, threaten to bring

Westminster to its knees and imperil us all. It's almost breath-taking and



tells the rest of the world everything it needs to know about the arrogant,

patriarchal neurosis of a union which descends into inflammatory, knee-jerk

rhetoric at the drop of a pin. "Let's engage in concerted action because a

school dare ask a child what it thought!" "Man the barricades, brothers and

sisters - they're asking the children what they think!"

"Abuse"!!! Deeply, deeply tragic and woefully ill-informed.

Case Study 177I worked until Christmas at xxxxx School, Sunderland where there was a pupil

voice questionnaire completed regularly by pupils-I think I still have a copy of

one of these questionnaires with results. It was taken up buy the Sunderland

and Lambton Federation, but as far as I know the head ignored the LEA

request to stop using this as it was being held up in a committee in parliament

as an example of good practice. I am happy to give more details but would

not be happy to talk to the media. The survey itself was universally disliked by

staff but the head thought it was wonderful.

Best wishes

Case Study 178I'm actually rather concerned about this phrase that appears in your email:

We are particularly interested in negative experiences of pupils observing

teachers teaching, interviewing them for appointment or promotion and of

questionnaires issued to pupils by the school which ask about teachers'

behaviour, attitude and professionalism.

How about those of us that have had positive experiences?

Or has the union made its mind up on this issue already?

Case Study 179Apparently during my lesson observation as part of Performance

Management my observer will ask the class some questions at the end of the

lesson about the lesson. This is the first time I’ve aver had that happen and it

feels wrong.



Case Study 180I am very willing to respond to your email but would like to point out that your

deadline is somewhat unrealistic as most teachers are struggling to meet

deadlines or organise holiday work for students over the Easter break.

If you want maximum response, I would suggest giving at least one week-end

or more - maybe till the end of next (Easter) week?

The NASUWT will therefore not be adding to the pressure already on us at

this time and the response will probably be better; certainly from me and some

of my colleagues-

Thank you for listening

Case Study 181

Case Study 182I work in a school in Kent. Pupils are being used to observe teachers as part

of faculty reviews. To my mind it is unethical to place such a responsibility

upon a child. This has been resisted by my faculty. To avoid this we were

instructed to canvass opinion through a questionnaire.

Questions asked of pupils:

Do you enjoy science?

Are we working fast enough?

Is there a variety of activities in lessons?

Do you get the correct amount of homework?

Is the homework marked promptly with advice on how to improve and

returned promptly to you?

Are you happy with your progress?

Do you know what your target level/grade is?

Do you know what your current level/grade is?

Student voice I feel has been used to inappropriately in this school. In my own

case after an Ofsted visit a small number of pupils were said to have

complained about myself. I was informed of this in a meeting with my faculty

head and second in faculty. When I was asked who made the complaints and



what the nature of those complaints were I was told that I could not be told.

Vague mumblings were made regarding negative student perceptions. The

question here is how am I supposed to respond to criticism if I don't know the

nature of it? It was not till a further meeting that the names were disclosed –

some months after the complaint. No written copies of complaints were given

and no precise details of the nature of the complaints were given. Negative

student perceptions were mentioned again and in my view were not and are

not typical amongst the vast majority of students I teach. Forensic

examination was made of a group where negative perceptions were said to

exist. Pupils were encouraged to give my lessons a score out of 10. They

complained about being given too many worksheets - which incidentally were

recommended on the scheme of work. No similar forensic examination was

made of other groups where no such negative perceptions existed. Groups

with positive perceptions of what I was doing were simply ignored. It must also

be borne in mind that aside from two observations by the Head as part of a

faculty review in my first year and one observation made by my line manager

during my probationary period (Deputy Head) I had not been observed for 2

and a half years at this point. Yet it was claimed that observations had been

made of my teaching. This included listening through the crack in the door

from the adjacent lab and through vents. The second in faculty would also

drop in for a maximum of 3-4 minutes of a 100 minute lesson. This he

believed was enough to give him a flavour of my lessons. He of course

scheduled no formal observation in order to verify his concerns. Even though

these 'complaints' occurred outside the relevant period of my threshold

application they were used as evidence to reject my application.

As things progressed it became clear to me that the agenda was to try and

get to a point where proceedings calling into question my competence could

be taken against me. They wanted shot of me. I have been teaching for 12

years and regularly work 10 hours a day in school and of course for longer

once I am home. The school perhaps not being confident enough to risk a

constructive dismissal case did a deal with my union rep. I have not had to go

down that route as I have secured a post a as Head of Department.



I have been quite vocal in my objection to performing admin tasks such as

photocopying and in one meeting was openly criticised for doing it at the last

minute! My point is that I should not have had to do it at all. Furthermore I

have also been critical of 'focus days' and the way staff would regularly loose

NTP time. Over the last term I have lost 300 min of time - a whole day of

teaching. This time is not made up to us - yet we are expected to have

everything done which is frankly impossible if one wishes to have any kind of

work life balance. Most importantly no account is made of the time lost even

though it can predict who will loose what. We were encouraged by Head of

Faculty to simply accept it. I have also been critical of the 'collective failure' of

the school in dealing with disruptive pupils effectively.

I was set targets (about 8 or 9) one of which involved tackling these negative

student perceptions. It was also simply assumed that student complaints

were actually justified. Out of the 200 odd students I teach it was only a small

but vocal peer group in Year 10 now 11 who complained. Questionnaires that

I rolled out did not give a picture of lots of unhappy classes. None of my

classes are failing and the levels of achievement are comparable with other

members of the department. The majority of my pupils are hitting their target

grades. This was simply ignored.

I am happy to be leaving this school for a job in the private sector. My union

rep is presently looking at evidence to put in an appeal against the threshold

decision. She is not hopeful. My concern is that if I return to the state sector I

will have to take a cut in pay and go through another two years of PM.

Curiously - when my rep made enquiries about appealing she was told by a

deputy head that the Head would be unlikely to pay it due to the cost. My rep

put here right on that one. It is odd that should be the first thing to come to

mind rather than my actual performance as a teacher. I have also passed two

performance management cycles. In the first my Second in Faculty

recommends that I should get pay progression in writing - something he went

back on later.

Sorry its a bit rambling - hope it helps

Case Study 183



Could I preface what I have said below by saying that I am as committed as

any other teacher to ensuring that pupils are safe in school but I am also

committed to developing their potential to think and act for themselves as

human beings. Changes that undermine the ability of teachers to use their

professional judgement are not commensurate with those objectives.

I am a sixth form teacher in a very large secondary school in the east riding.

could I draw to your attention the issue of how IT is being used in school? In

particular, I feel that teachers are being de-professionalised through the

imposition of filtering and surveillance systems under the banner of 'child

protection'. Filtering against possible risks, inter alia, viruses/inappropriate

fora to which sites are anticipated or known to connect has led, in my school,

to me being advised to write to the Head to get a perfectly bona fide sociology

site unblocked (the website is managed by people who write the books I use

in class). Indeed, I have found many sites blocked in this way and they have

not been unblocked even when I have raised concerns about this.

What concerns me is not just the time and effort that is wasted trawling

through sites to isolate those approved of by the IT systems managers; it is

the way in which they are fast establishing themselves as the moral

conscience and custodians of virtue in the school. For example, I was told

recently by our IT manager that teachers could not be given privileges on their

school laptops because they are known to leave their classrooms, allowing

students access to them and inappropriate material. I asked him if this

amounted to distrusting teachers in their classrooms, to which he replied: two

members of staff have been into the IT room this week only to discover on

their return that someone had typed 'get stuffed' or worse on the interactive

white board. I was also informed that You Tube and other sites that admittedly

have mixed content - from 'masturbation to Marxism' - could not be made

available to members of staff on site for the same reason. Very self-

righteously, he announced: 'I will prevent any student from looking at

inappropriate material on school premises'.



As can be imagined, this frame of mind is leading to an ever more

claustrophobic atmosphere affecting the ability of teachers to explore

resources/research their subject. Moreover, this is a war that is unwinnable

as the daily ritual of students having their accounts suspended demonstrates.

It is unwinnable just as the war against terrorism is unwinnable, and also has

the same undesirable by-products: ever more vigilant surveillance affecting

the quality of life of everyone. For example, the IT managers now drop in on

student accounts whilst they are at the computers leaving messages for them

on screen: 'is this homework?' being typical of what students are seeing.

Superficially, this might seem helpful to teachers, but the astute teacher will

realise that this is an infringement of his/her professional role. When I set

independent research for students on the computers, I often do not

accompany them to watch them working. Instead, I review the outcome of

their efforts when they return. I, in common with most other teachers, are

perfectly able to differentiate between students who have been working and

those who have not - their output (e.g. PowerPoint’s) are a good guide to what

they have achieved. Furthermore, how do students learn about trust if they

are continually monitored? Have the IT managers become virtual classroom

assistants piggy-backing the students as their mentors and moral

conscience?

Some teachers are going along with all of this, accepting it as a given reality,

an environment that they have to learn to adapt to, rather than a community in

which they have a voice reflecting their concerns and experiences. Even as I

write this, I'm wondering whether the IT managers are gazing at their screen

ready to interject with 'is this CD?'

I find all this rather intolerable. I came into teaching to teach not to train with

pre-given resources approved of by 'the management'. I came into teaching

to empower students to become independent learners, and that involves

fostering in them a degree of personal responsibility for what they do, and that

must involve a degree of trust. If schools are to become paranoid policing

systems, I suppose it will at least reflect general changes in how society itself

is evolving, but must we stand by and watch this happening. Are we to look



the other way as our educational institutions become increasingly

emasculated by the virtual face of IT technicians and their managers?

One final irony. The school has policies on homophobia, racism, bullying, etc

- quite rightly. however, where a (possibly gay) student of mine two years ago

wanted to research homophobic bullying, he found that his ability to do so on

school premises was severely limited - because 'gay' connects to all sorts of

inappropriate material (as, apparently, does the word 'woman'). I suppose it

never occurred to anyone responsible for the filtering that what was being

filtered might resonate as cultural bias or even discrimination against certain

members of society. It certainly helps to reinforce the use of some words as

negative labels. Clever people invent clever systems that give rise to

problems that they weren't clever enough to anticipate, nor are they clever

enough to solve them. Instead, they dig into their trenches, repeat the same

mantras or look the other way. their objectives become the only ones that

matter - unless their agendas are challenged.

I wonder how many of your members have similar experiences and/or share

my views?

Case Study 184The school where I work was placed in special measures in November 2009.

It is a large primary school in Newcastle-u-Lyme, Staffordshire. As part of the

school's action plan to get out of special measures we have a Head teacher

mentor working alongside our Headteacher monitoring lessons, etc. Both

headteachers came into my classroom during a maths lesson on Monday of

this week as part of a general 'Walk the school' session. I was seated at a

table working a with a group of children and the Headteacher mentor went

and sat at the end of another group's table at the opposite end of the

classroom. I hear her quite clearly ask the group of children "Does your

teacher shout at you or does she raise her voice?" I didn't hear the children's

replies. I felt intimidated and upset that she was talking about me when I was

in the room. This is similar to overhearing colleagues making negative

comments about one. I do realise that Ofsted etc want to know the opinions of



pupils and that they have a right to voice them. However I was not happy that

this took place in my presence.

Case Study 185Staff at my school have been horrified that selected 'sensible' pupils have

been used to observe and give feedback on teachers during the recruitment

process. There have been a number of questionable pupil surveys and

probing pupil 'mentoring', which staff felt was more about finding out what was

wrong with the teaching rather than the pupils' problems, in the past. Staff

have felt very demoralised and undermined by these management choices.

With our new head, things may improve, as he was union rep earlier in his

career!

My school is xxxxx School, Birmingham. I do not wish to appear in the media

in any way but feel these trends should be stopped.

Case Study 186I had a nasty experience where a group of students made a complaint which I

think was vindictive and trying to get back at me for personal reasons and to

do with my having raised behaviour issues.

This was taken up with due process even though when I asked if this was a

disciplinary I was told it was not – my lessons were observed and I had to

have a number of meetings. There was a blanket refusal to give me the

names of those who had complained. In the end my excellent exam results or

those of my classes at least got me off this particular hook. It probably

damaged promotion prospects however.

It was a horrible experience and I think - with less experience and less

resources on my part- would have more seriously damaged my motivation to

continue as a teacher.

Case Study 187Hi Judy



Further to the email which arrived from NASUWTBounces on 22nd March, I

am happy to respond. The activities described in paragraph one of the

communique was like a check-list for us as we would be able to tick all of

those.

The school is an 11-16 comprehensive in a 'challenging' area. I do have the

criteria which the school use for the purpose of interviewing students with

regards to lesson observations (including a completed version with the

'victim's name' deleted).

I can also give details of students having been used as part of lesson

observations for faculty reviews, appointment interviews, etc. I also can give

explicit detail of a questionnaire given to pupils asking about a teacher's

behaviour, attitude and professionalism (as well as the 'hidden' verbal

questions which were put to the students prior to the paper questionnaire

being completed).

If this is of use to you, Please contact me further.

Case Study 188When applying for a Science post in the summer months of 2008 I was

interviewed by a group of pupils as part of the interview protocol at a school in

Burnley. I found this quite inappropriate at the time and quite annoyed about

it. Should you require any more details please don't hesitate to contact me.

Case Study 189Our school uses http://www.kirkland-rowell.com/ who do all the analysis - so

the process is more at a distance...

Case Study 190I would be very interested in having a conversation with you about this.

Case Study 191I am the NASUWT rep at xxxxx school, Surrey.

Our school is expecting an Ofsted inspection any day and there is

considerable stress being generated one of which is Student Voice

We have been having issues with SLT & Student Voice


http://www.kirkland-rowell.com/


Following advice from my Local Association & Region Rep the attached letter

was sent jointly from NASUWT, ATL & NUT reps

As a result the survey was stopped and the Headteacher made a public

apology to the staff and to I believe 3 members personally

In addition a member of SLT has sent a copy of the survey to all staff for their

comments - I will forward the reply I sent.

Whilst happy to pass this information to you I would not wish to be interviewed

by the media

Attached document10th March 2010

Dear

We have been approached by a number of our members regarding the SLT

checks on lessons via Student Voice

xxxxx spoke informally to xxxxx yesterday but since then there have been

other comments/ concerns all listed below

SLT visiting classrooms asking to have 3 students – no indication why,

no feedback at a later time , one staff member found out about the

questions because the students told her – another thought the students

had been required for an errand, a third thought they were called for

photographs, another was told ‘SLT are checking up on you!’

SLT arriving in lesson – no communication with staff, questioning

students then leaving again without comment or even a ‘good

day’ /’thank-you’ to teacher

Staff receiving printed feedback sheets with what appeared to be no

opportunity to respond

We appreciate that it is necessary to monitor what is happening in classes but

we are already having observations and many, many learning walks, this last



initiative is causing severe stress with some members especially as it would

appear that not all students being questioned are telling the correct story

Many are of the opinion that the manner of these arrangements is in some

cases discourteous and in the extreme causing staff to feel they are being

harassed

We hope you will take these comments into account and change the

arrangements, also keep staff fully informed of what is happening, why, how

the sample of classes/ staff is chosen and give meaningful / sympathetic

feedback with consideration to the additional stress this is causing

Thank you

Professional Reps for

ATL NASUWT

NUT

Case Study 192As I have tried to tell NASUWT many times, I am no longer a teacher. I was

ordained to the diaconate in 2001 and ‘priested’ in 2003. However, may I say

that the sort of abuse of Student Voice that is alleged in your email to me is - if

these allegations are factual - thoroughly reprehensible, immoral and

indefensible.

Case Study 193Do you not see how ridiculous your email is making you look? You want

teachers to give you evidence to prove something you only suspect is true?

You're particularly interested in negative experiences? Why... because the

positive ones don't fit in with your latest agenda?

Sorry if I’m missing a point here or being obtuse in some way but why don't

you try approaching an issue with an open and fair mind. It's a bit like me



asking my students to evaluate my lesson by only saying the things I want to

hear.

Students have every right to observe and interview teachers - they're the ones

whose education depends on the quality of teaching.

I understand this email will be a complete waste of my and your time as you

clearly only read emails that say what you want.

Case Study 194As a member, I am concerned that you are ONLY interested in 'negative

experiences'. I paid for a balanced view to protect my career.

Case Study 195I was passed an email regarding possible misuse of pupil voice and though I

would contact you regarding this.

I am not sure whether this is misuse, but in my school, pupils of all years were

given a questionnaire under the concept that it was pupil voice.

Questions included in the questionnaire were

Have you enjoyed your maths lessons?

Are your questions answered fully by the teacher?

Can you get on with work without distraction?

Do you understand the explanations of your teacher?

The pupils were expected to answer always, usually, sometimes and never.

The results of these questionnaires were then used to investigate classroom

management or explanation of concepts but only for two teachers and not

others who had similar results.

As a result two teachers this year on their performance management have

had to have these same questionnaires completed by their classes and

expected to achieve good results in order to pass their PM.



Pupils were also interviewed collectively and asked to discuss their opinion of

a teacher once one pupil had complained.

In our school interviewed teachers are commented on by the boys they do a

practice lesson in front of. If the boys do not seem to like them this is brought

up in the deliberations.

I work in a boys grammar school where there are high expectations of 100%

A* - C and 100% A level pass rate.

I would like to remain anonymous as I would not like this email to affect my

career but I do believe that using the questionnaires in this manner is wrong

especially if then used as proof for PM purposes.

Case Study 196I work at xxxxx Academy.

There is serious push on student voice, interviews with students asking their

views on lessons and teachers. On one lesson observation an NQT was

shown a very upsetting written account by a student that was personal, talking

about how the students hated the teacher etc. Similar reports are known of in

this school but have not been brought to me as a rep so far. Students are

asked to comment on professionalism of staff etc which we find totally

unacceptable.

I am currently not at work due to ill health but my colleague who is still in

school may be able to get more information if needed.

Case Study 197Only last week a new Deputy Head was appointed in our school. A few

members of the Student council had written questions to ask each of

the candidates. Members of the student council showed the staff around the

school on a 'learning walk'. One of the candidates was an internal candidate,

and was the acting Deputy Head.



Pupils then asked the candidates the same questions, and provided the

governors with written feedback about their responses and general feelings

about each candidate.

The acting deputy didn't get the role, and I know if I was her I would feel

uncomfortable around the children on the 'panel'. However the member of

staff involved has made no complaint and the other candidates gave the

impression that this was very common practice!

I would not like to make comments to the press.

Case Study 198In response to your email, this is to say that my colleague and I (both

members of NASUWT) were both observed by pupils, and uncomfortable with

the situation, to say the least. Also, what with performance management,

headteacher observations, monitoring observations, as well as a recent

Ofsted, there is surely a limit to the amount of observations we should

receive?

Case Study 199I am an NQT (primary), and for one of the jobs I applied for last year, my

interview was split into three parts; a formal interview, a teaching task, and an

interview with the student council.

I have to say that I had no problem with this, and did not feel undermined in

the slightest. Their opinion did carry weight, as it was cited as one reason why

the post was offered to another applicant. I was under the impression that it

was a trend a lot of schools were following at the time.

Case Study 200I currently work in a school where student voice is used pretty effectively. The

students feel pleased that they can express opinions and can get feedback

about the concerns they have raised. The feedback is presented to me in a

way that I think is fair enough. My school is an 11-16 predominantly white



working class school, and I have to say that I do not feel the system is

abused.

My experience in my previous school, however, was much different. This was

an 11-18 white middle class school, and the complaints you have outlined

about student voice were very much the case here. Although there were many

lovely children, there were definitely a proportion of students who were quite

arrogant. In my opinion, student voice only succeeded in making them even

more over-confident and empowered to make complaints about teachers. I

would sometimes turn up to A-Level management meetings to find there were

sixth-formers there giving feedback about the teaching of A-Level. To not be

warned of this, I felt, was inappropriate. One example, which particularly

aggrieved me was when my Head of Department carried out a student survey

of an A-Level course with a group we both shared. She did not tell me this

would be happening, we did not agree the questions, and she conducted the

survey when teaching the group we both shared. She then spoke to me,

followed up with an email, with comments such as 'Friday afternoon

lessons...teacher very tired...not much point in them.

'I felt this was a very unfair way to conduct student voice, and I felt it had been

conducted with the aim of catching me out. She told me that 'they felt very bad

about saying things about you.'

So, overall, very unhappy with the way it was conducted at that particular

school.

Finally, although I really support this cause, I wouldn't be happy to be

contacted by the Media - I really believe that if schools are advocating the

idea of freedom of speech and voicing ideas, then this should be extended to

teaching staff. In my experience, this is something that many schools have

little interest in.

Case Study 201



I am not a member of NASUWT but have heard through a colleague about

your request for evidence with regards to abuse of student voice. I am happy

to provide you with some information on this but would only wish to do so

anonymously. I teach at a comprehensive school that frequently use surveys

in the wrong way and who are now encouraging the use of students in lesson

observations. I would perhaps consider talking to the press depending on

what this involves (i.e. what type of press) and as long as you could

guarantee my anonymity.

Case Study 202I am the Branch Secretary of UCU at Xxxxx College. I was given your details

by a colleague who is the only member of your union here. I would like to let

you know that some staff have real concerns about the potential use of

Student Voice here at the college. As I have only just become aware of your

campaign and would like to share some of our concerns- could I e-mail any

information on this after your deadline? We cannot speak to the media as it

states in our disciplinary code that we are not allowed to, but some of us are

willing to give details of our concerns to your union- especially as only today

one colleague overheard a student shout out loud in the library-' if you want to

get that member of staff- don't forget, put it on student voice'.

Case Study 203Yes this happens at the school I work in, not only do they walk round and

observe if our lessons are interesting, which they then have a tick list were

they can either tick for good or bad but can also put remarks on this form as

well as ask pupil what they like in the classroom but they also come round to

form tutors once a week to ask pupils if the have been told about their target

attendance. Sorry I do not want to be interviewed.

Case Study 204This is a response to the email requesting case studies of teachers’

experiences where ‘student voice’ has been used negatively to undermine,

disempowering and deprofessionalise teachers.



My own case is extraordinary. The story unfolds after a long period of bullying

from an eccentric colleague who became Principal in the last few years of his

career. Questionnaires were used inviting pupils to give their opinion about

how they felt about subjects that could easily identify individual teachers. He

would invite and support complaints from mischievous pupils and their parents

and he seemed to allow himself to use his position to respond to students

complaints with a growing prejudice. Although my contributions to my school

were considerable he made unfair attempts to block my continuing

professional development. I am by the way an enthusiastic Maths teacher.

A close working colleague became ill with ulcers and was encouraged by the

Principal to retire only a day or two after being taken into hospital. The

Principal then escalated his efforts to undermine me in a whole variety of

ways. Most significantly, he supported an allegation by a naughty year nine

pupil that I had intimidated her when she had in fact pushed me out of her

way to leave the classroom. This resulted in a conduct procedure against me

that lasted for 3 agonising months, a matter that should have been dealt with

in just a few days.

His efforts were unsuccessful and I was delighted and relieved that I could

continue to complete my career in an honourable way. Although the Principal

had known me for 28 years and really knew better of me, he then persisted in

pursuing me at every turn. He encouraged complaints as if it were a sport and

became skilled at feeding an environment of discontent amongst the more

difficult pupils. I became distressed that mischievous students knew that they

would get a supportive ear when they took unfounded complaints about

particular teachers that they wanted to get into trouble. And with egg on his

face over so many failed attempts he stepped up his efforts to get me into

trouble again. Although I had tremendous support from my colleagues who

wrote to the governors his efforts were unconditionally supported by Human

Resources from the local authority. What was alarming was that they did not

seem to allow any duty of care or safeguard for me. Concerned colleagues

were discouraged from becoming involved and governors became

disheartened and left.



The last straw was when a pupil who seemed set on sabotaging my lessons

and doing whatever she could to prevent lessons being constructive,

complained that she was unable to answer questions in a term end test. This

was converted, by a newly appointed and misinformed Head of Department,

into an allegation that I wasn’t teaching from a scheme of work. Although this

was completely untrue, it was exactly what my Principal was looking for and

he in turn, horrifyingly translated the matter into another conduct procedure.

This Conduct Procedure placed me in crippling isolation and distress, and the

depth of mistrust and feelings of injustice became so severe that I became

paralysed with fear. A Conduct Procedure disallows the teacher from making

contact with any Governor or any other colleague, and any breach of

confidentiality carries the threat of another conduct procedure! This is said to

be a “neutral act” and schools are “encouraged“to use them.

All of this was again supported by the local authority without any attempt to

see the plight I was in. I was held in prolonged suspense and distress for

another 3 months until I lost heart and felt obliged to take premature

retirement.

I have been traumatised by what has been completely inconsiderate and

irrational behaviour. All because student voice is allowed to be used against

the very people who want to help them. And those more appreciative students

and parents who know what happened are themselves frustrated and

disheartened by what they see. My school is now in serious decline as good

parents send their children to more distant schools. I had taught at the school

for 32 years, have been a governor for 8 of those, and I have taught in a way

that has responded responsibly to changing priorities. My wife continues to

teach at the school and 3 of our own children were successfully educated

there. I am proud of them. Imagine the pain that we as a family have felt that

such malevolence is not only possible but pursued with enthusiasm.

As you might gather from this email I am feeling stronger now than I have

been for a long time and I am willing to be involved in further discussion.



I am concerned because I see other valuable and good teachers being

brought into similar circumstances, and matters seem to be getting worse as if

those who have followed this type of approach now think that this is the way

to make ‘necessary’ changes. And the problem has been solved when some

teachers have lost all sense of what is rational and have hung themselves

from their ceilings or thrown themselves of Cornish cliffs. I believe that it is an

expected outcome that unreasonable pressures result in managers behaving

in ways that they would not normally consider reasonable. It is the demand to

attain unrealistic targets as the bar is raised by those at a distance, thinking

that higher targets and pressure will lead to better performance. In fact I have

heard of them boasting as much. What has happened to genuine

encouragement and agreed targets?

It has also become a characteristic that just as teachers approach the

threshold of the last few remaining years of their careers, it is at that point that

younger and inexperienced managers are encouraged to find ways of leading

them into retirement in the belief that we have an infinite pool of young

enthusiastic new recruits. We seem to be educating many young teenagers

that we don’t need to value the older classroom teacher because they are

older. What happened to wisdom?

Case Study 205I've tried to write detail a few times, but I've ended up rambling. So, here goes

in bullet point style!

In an 11-16 1000 pupil comp in W Yorks.

In 2007 -08

Brainchild of "new dynamic head" (you know the type...)

Imposed with no discussion with staff

Used in lesson observation and in both internal and external appointment

processes

Causes for concern



a) if taken seriously, placed pupils' views on an equal footing with

adults/experts. That's clearly not right (Does your teenager's

view carry that weight when you're deciding on a mortgage etc?)

b) If not taken seriously, then what's the point? It's a sham,

insulting to the pupils and a waste of organizational time.

c) Pupils raised common sense question such as we all do in the

staff room (e.g. why do we all have to study subject X? Wouldn't

it be better if Miss had fewer children in her class? Why can't we

expel Y, she's always disrupting lessons?). As adults we know

these are the kind of simple questions that ought to have simple

answers, but for long convoluted reasons we know they don't.

However, if pupils raised them of staff, then it became the

teacher's remit to answer with the weasel words rather than the

head having to do it.

d) All the pupils who did it were those with good, positive attitude.

But that in itself skewed things - as it only saw school from a

conformist point of view. If you really valued student voice (see

point a+b) then you should include malcontents too.

e) Once you'd admitted student voice at this level, you were putting

another question mark in front of teacher authority. Again, "good

kids" handled this well - but less content ones didn't.

f) Lack of maturity in any decision - that's to be expected - but if

any student voice recommendation just went for the "alpha male

and female" role models on the staff, then that's hardly a

valuable insight.

Thus, in conclusion, a laudable aim - of course it's good to know what pupils

want from a school and to understand their concern. However when put to the

level of lesson observation/promotion and appointment selection, as it was in



the school to which I refer it's not applicable for the points raised at (a) and (b)

above. Its imposition was another source of friction between senior

management and classroom staff.

Hope this is helpful.

Case Study 206The school where I work was placed in special measures in November 2009.

It is a large primary school in Staffordshire. As part of the school's action plan

to get out of special measures we have a Head teacher mentor working

alongside our Headteacher monitoring lessons, etc. Both headteachers came

into my classroom during a maths lesson on Monday of this week as part of a

general 'Walk the school' session. I was seated at a table working with a

group of children and the Headteacher mentor went and sat at the end of

another group's table at the opposite end of the classroom. I hear her quite

clearly ask the group of children "Does your teacher shout at you or does she

raise her voice?" I didn't hear the children's replies. I felt intimidated and upset

that she was talking about me when I was in the room. This is similar to

overhearing colleagues making negative comments about oneself. I do realise

that Ofsted etc want to know the opinions of pupils and that they have a right

to voice them. However I was not happy that this took place in my presence.

Case Study 207While I abhor the notion of Student Voice being abused, I am also fearful that

such strong headlining could result in the loss of teachers' rights to engage

students as they see fit. For example, I'm a teacher who is doing a Masters in

Education, the research of which depends on my ability to involve selected

pupils in the methods you have clearly outlawed below, maybe even radically.

Provided I, as the teacher trusted and empowered to make such decisions for

these things to occur; and provided that ultimately I have the authority to end

them at any time, then it is not an abuse AND it is perfectly professional. If, on

the other hand, teachers are handing over control to the students, then that's

the teachers' fault, and their responsibility to regain control, with the support of



colleagues if necessary. I don't believe we need even more legislation telling

us how or how not we must teach.

Independent of my above opinion being right or wrong, and with regard to

your request ("We are particularly interested in negative experiences of

pupils..."), I am shocked that a union with such rhetoric and mass publishing,

would particularly request information to support only one side of an

argument. If you only ask for one side, then the data collected will be biased,

uncritical, and uneducational and could result in changes in legislation without

fair representation. I believe that any company (just as the BBC) involved in

publishing news (and yes, the NASUWT publishes via emails, newsletters,

etc. to a huge number of teachers), has a social duty to portray a balanced

opinion of facts. I am tired of organisations selling unbalanced views to the

public, which can so often appear tantamount to propaganda.

I am very interested in this topic of "the abuse of Student Voice", but if it does

not show a truly balanced argument, then it would be a waste of your

resources. Even if I agree with the argument, I still want to see the opposing

side.

Case Study 208We are a 350 pupil junior school (7-11) in Gloucester. On interview pupils are

asked about how demonstration lessons went, in their opinion. Observations

by the head and school improvement partner were followed up by two children

being interviewed by the SIP and the headteacher to report back on how

many AfL activities were occurring in their classes, rather more than the 'Do

you know what your next step in learning?', including how many times does

your teacher use peer marking, talking partners etc, etc. We have an annual

school survey of pupils and parents including these questions:

My teacher treats everyone fairly.

If I find something difficult my teacher helps me (this is included as it is one of

the 3 questions that directly refers to the teacher)

My teacher is calm and friendly



The first and last questions, in particular, I find objectionable.

These questionnaires are completed on-line, analysed by an outside firm

and reported back, on a class-by-class basis in addition to overall school

results. We feel this is like the Stasis.

The general feeling is that the school council makes more policy than

staff meetings, they at least have the benefit of an agenda and can put

up subjects for the agenda. On several occasions the school council has

overruled staff meeting decisions, as yet only on fairly trivial

matters, but give it time.

I would prefer not to speak to the media.

Case Study 209I have just tried to send a detailed email on the above subject to you.

Unfortunately I don't think that I could send it using the link supplied. I don't

feel able to repeat the whole message again but I will say that I was writing to

endorse an earlier email sent to you by my colleague xxxxx. If you should

want to speak to me about this.

Case Study 210I work in a secondary school and I have had 2 interviews in the last month.

The first was for a management position, and 2 members of the student

council were on the interviewing panel. The headteacher was not present on

the panel, which was very bizarre seeing as it was for a management position.

I felt the students were put in a very awkward position, and I do not agree that

the students should have been present on such an important and confidential

interview.

My second interview (I did not get the first job) was for a Head of House

position, and again, a member of the student council was on the panel.

I don't think that students should be present on the main interviewing panel.

They should have a separate panel for the students, with a member of staff

present where they could ask their own questions.



I felt very awkward being asked interviewing questions by students. They

were also present when the decision of who got the job was taking place, and

I don't think this was right.

I would rather not talk to the media about this, but I just wanted to share my

experience with you.

Thank you

Case Study 211I am the newly elected NASUWT Rep at the above school. Myself and the

previous Rep have had some concerns for a couple of years now over the use

of a pupil survey produced by a company called ‘Kirkland Rowell Marketing’.

In this survey the pupils views are analysed to produce graphical information.

The report from the survey details the findings of the ‘Education Perceptions

Monitor’ for our school. The report measures the levels of satisfaction among

the pupils for a range of criteria, as well as asking about the perceptions of

progress for the core subjects. It also reports on the quality of teaching in

subject areas. It also measures performance with regard to satisfaction and

improvement.

The results tables produced identify pupils’ perceived strengths and

weaknesses of the school. There are continued staff concerns regarding pupil

perception in relation to individual departments.

The school is now in the process of forming a school company with a

company called ‘World Ap’ with the intention of selling the survey to other

schools. Staff are very apprehensive of this as we have been informed that

pupils will now be reporting on individual teachers.

I am a little apprehensive at this stage on speaking to the media but I am

willing to discuss this further with advice from Branch.



I have a copy of the Kirkland Rowell Survey if required. I would be grateful at

this stage if the information contained in this communication could be kept

anonymous.

Case Study 212I work in a 13 -19 High School, which is going to become part of a two tier

system fairly soon. Senior Management is ambitious and panicky and is now

trying to make the school appear perfection in the making, thus avoiding

losing their jobs.

This involves weeding out "dead" wood in any way they can and with

complete ruthlessness, and "doing it in the best interests of the children",

which is patently not true. Their latest decision is to ask each teacher to ask

the students to do a survey, the contents of which include asking the children

if they feel demoralised, unhappy etc. and also if there is anything that their

teacher does that impedes the child's learning.

I can fax it, as there isn't anything that identifies the school, or I could add it as

an attachment, if you would like. The school has just appointed yet another

Assistant Head, who is particularly keen on the student's voice to be heard,

and will promote the use of children in teaching interviews and in lesson

observations but we were going that way anyway, so he is just the icing on

the cake.

We have bullying by Senior Management and they are definitely using

children as spies. A vile way to run a school, I believe.

Case Study 213Our department issues a twice-yearly questionnaire to all pupils. The sixth

form one is attached and a similar questionnaire is used for lower school.

Data is collated by the HoD though it is not shared with colleagues. There has

been some question about the purpose of the exercise and assurances that it

is only used for self-evaluation. In the past the questionnaire was given to a



sample of pupils though now the use of the 'Smart Response' electronic voting

system means that all pupils can complete the exercise at the start of a class.

In addition to questionnaires, the school use pupils at various stages of staff

recruitment interviews. Pupils show candidates around the school and a small

panel of sixth formers 'chat' with individual candidates while another group

have lunch with groups of candidates. All pupils who come in contact with

candidates, including those taught in sample lessons are asked their opinions

though none is present in formal interviews.

Case Study 214I work in a Secondary School- mixed 11-18 in the North East - where pupils,

especially at KS5 are asked to complete questionnaires on a regular occasion

effectively rating our performance as teachers. They are also regular used in

interview panels for new staff. The pupils views are often bias and more about

personality issues/ their lack of work & performance and senior management

prefer to believe pupil comments over staff. I have attached a questionnaire

as an example given to pupils in our school.

KS5 SCIENCE – Student Questionnaire.

SUBJECT: . YEAR : . This questionnaire is about the science course that you are studying.Put a circle around the number that best describes how you feel. Please answer all of the questions.

None Lots1. How much are you enjoying 1 2 3 4 5 the course?

2. How well did your GCSE science 1 2 3 4 5 Prepare you for this course?

3. How interesting have you found the 1 2 3 4 5 lessons?

4. How often are you told your working at 1 2 3 4 5 level?5. How often are learning objectives 1 2 3 4 5



shared in lessons?

6. How challenging have you found this 1 2 3 4 5 course?

7. How often do you get teacher feedback 1 2 3 4 5 regarding homework tasks set?

8. How effective do you find teacher 1 2 3 4 5 feedback?

9. How much have you learnt through 1 2 3 4 5 directed study time?

10. How much have you been 1 2 3 4 5 supported with coursework?

How could KS5 Science provision in this subject be improved? (All comments will be treated in the strictest confidence).

Case Study 215I attended an interview and had to deal with a student panel. I have always

been fundamentally opposed to the idea in any form, and my interview

justified my cynicism. Apart from obvious questions such as: “What do you

think of homework?” it was abundantly clear that the so-called students’

questions were in fact the creation of adults. I find this practice of

manipulating young people rather sinister.

Recently, Year 10 students were asked to join the college’s Student Council.

One of the privileges on offer was that students would get to interview

prospective members of staff. Our management subscribe to student

empowerment and are experts in undermining staff. If a member of staff

gives and account of an event and a student does the same, it invariably

follows that the student’s version is given priority. It’s quite commonplace for

members of management to comment “Oh so-and-so didn’t tell me that when I

spoke to him!” when they are appraised of the turn of events by staff.



Other ugly developments at our college include post-16 students being asked

to rate their teachers and management not informing a member of staff that

she was the victim of a particularly unpleasant Facebook assault until the

evidence had been removed. She was initially kept in the dark as to its

happening and was not involved until the head gave 200+ students a talking

to. She was subsequently denied access to the names of those responsible

of the worst material (the best ways of killing her) because management were

concerned about her picking on students. Unsurprisingly she has been off

work with stress for nearly two months now.

Case Study 216Re the misuse of pupil voice. The head here has a habit of getting a member

of the SMT to do a student voice when he thinks that a member of staff is

underperforming. We are a Kent school and he thinks everyone should be

getting a and a* for every GCSE. These pupil voice reports have very unusual

language, I forget the details, but they seem to go ' I (the pupil) am

disappointed that I am not able to access the higher grades...' This is the sort

of language that pupils use every day, of course. It is obvious that the SMT

person is suggesting responses to negate pupil opinions. Another factor is

that the questions are slanted to give negative responses. Or supportive

questions are just not asked.

Case Study 217This is widespread at xxxxx School in Bristol. I will email you about this again

over the weekend with some examples when I have some time to do so. It

shows how weak the management is in my view, and how misguided in their

view of running schools.

Case Study 218When I was looking for work at the end of my PGCE I went for an interview at

a Nottingham school where part of my interview was with a panel of students.

As a new teacher, the whole interview process is quite stressful anyway; that

put an extra dimension on it.



I can see why a school may want to tick the box regarding getting students

involved in the process but am not sure how relevant their input is regarding

staff selection.

I now work in FE.

Case Study 219When is my profession going to stop viewing student voice with suspicion and

value it as an integral part of our work? When are we going to stop

condescending to the children we teach and start valuing their opinions about

what we have to offer? Every other 'human interface' profession in the world

canvases opinion of its customers on a regular basis and uses it to shape

output...why shouldn't we? More importantly, what chance have we got of

engendering confidence, purpose and initiative in those we teach if we don't

show them that we value their opinion?

Why stir up opinion against this important movement when there are far more

appropriate targets for our professional ire?

Case Study 220In my school, (mixed, 11-18), as from last October SLT have been asking

students to fill in questionnaires about homework set (how often, how much

set, how often marked and quality of feedback). I have a copy of proforma

somewhere and will look it out. I was so disgusted by this move I spoke to my

union rep about it as I saw it as the students being asked to 'check up on' the

teachers which is surely a job for management, belittles the teachers' status

and is open to abuse. I can also cite other examples where 'valuing student

voice ' is used as an excuse to believe students' accounts of events over

teachers. Happy to talk to the media.

Case Study 221I work in a comprehensive school 11 – 16.

I have been involved with student voice through interview panels,

development of policy and on a superficial level lesson observation. This

process has been overwhelmingly positive; in what other field would an

organisation be so arrogant that it would ignore the views of the very people it



is hoping to reach. In interview panels I have never come across a situation

where students have made a wrong decision when compared to other

interview panels. It is essential to be effective that we use student voice; of

course this should not be the only driving force behind decisions but a

fundamental part of partnership.

I assume that you will ignore these positive views of student voice and instead

focus on the comments from the embittered and disillusioned who blame

everything but themselves for their current plight.

How will you use this example of membership voice? I hope not by editing the

returns to represent a biased view of an essential part of the future of

education.

Case Study 222I'm not really sure if this is helpful or not but I am currently involved in Student

Voice at xxxxx and we attend a student voice course where we can share

practise and things we have done. Our kids have done observations however

they have always been very positive and look for things that pupils enjoy and

are briefed that they are not looking for negatives or monitoring behaviour etc.

They have also been involved with plans for BSF and enjoyed this very much,

however when my colleague and I attended the last student voice course to

share practise the xxxxx had organised a questionnaire by sixth-form students

that was particularly unpleasant in style and what was being looked at. Pupils

from the sixth form were observing teachers and looking for things that my

colleague and I felt was inappropriate, for example how often books were

marked, how many times pupils were off task or talked. The vice-principal of

xxxxx was one of the two staff members there and mentioned that some

teachers had not welcomed the idea and gave me the impression that she

was displeased with their unwillingness to be observed. Whilst I don't really

have the specifics of this it might be a good idea to try and contact staff at the

xxxxx in Ramsey and ask their opinion. There is to be a 'showcase' of practise

on the 30th of March at the xxxxx which they will attend with some students as

well as some primary schools from the area.



Case Study 223Just realised that your survey closed at 5:30 pm yesterday but would like to

record my experience of being observed, monitored and interviewed by pupils

(for a teaching post - this was this basis for short listing 2 of 4 applicants for a

proper interview; the school needed to appoint 2 only). I would be prepared to

be interviewed and talk to the media if necessary.

Case Study 224In Confidence, Just found out yesterday, via students, that they are being

trained on Monday to observe teachers to “Ofsted Standards”! That is what

they said! Not sure if they get to grade us or what – but I am not sure what to

do – I only know they are NOT qualified to observe me! Teaching has gone

observation barmy – no wonder everyone wants to leave!

Case Study 225Hi. I know this is late and I'm sure you have plenty of volunteers but we have

had it all! Pupil Questionnaires, students on interview panels, students at

departmental meetings and students at governors meetings! We also have a

group of students that are selected to meet with SMT to talk about the

department! If you need further information please let me know. We are

presently taking this and many other issues up with the SMT so consequently

very busy at the moment. We are receiving much needed assistance from

NASUWT!

Case Study 226I was in charge of student voice for two years at my previous school and have

had no negative experiences of the kind that NASUWT is suggesting.

Involving students in the recruitment of staff improves the rigour of the

selection process and benefits everyone. I have been closely involved in

developing this initiative and have only positive experiences to report. I have

also faced several student panels and have no concerns whatsoever about

them.



It is also good practice for students to observe teachers teaching and to

provide feedback. I have not used this internally but I did face this at a recent

external interview, and even though my application was eventually

unsuccessful I feel that the students’ involvement was appropriate and

welcome.

Students should be encouraged to provide critical feedback on teacher

performance in a professional and formal way. Management which does not

take the student experience directly into account is poor management.

Student voice does need regulation but the suggestion that it is widely abused

is absurd.

Case Study 227I know this is beyond your deadline but just to advise you of one instance in

my school just [in case no one has reported this one?]. We are currently

facing redundancies and SLT has decided to reduce the MFL faculty by one

teacher. SLT tend to rely heavily on survey monkey for faculty reviews etc and

to coincide with the run up to this decision student surveys for MFL, by

language and key stage, were placed on the intra-net for staff to take students

through in tutor time. The vein of the questions was very much along the lines

of 'which teacher do you like the best', 'which lessons do you enjoy the most',

'is your work marked regularly', 'are the lessons fun' etc., etc. The surveys

were removed from the school intranet and the request went cold after our

union reps made a formal complaint to SLT. It remains the case that a MFL

teacher will be made redundant this week and the deputy head has done a

'report' on MFL as a contributory part of the process.

I am not happy to be named in this instance as the regime at my school is

largely bullying and intimidatory and I would certainly be the next in the frame

if I did so.

Case Study 228I have worked as a science teacher (and second in department) at the xxxxx

for the past 4 years. I am leaving the country and moving to Canada so I have



no particular axe to grind, however during my time and especially recently I

have become increasingly concerned about the use of 'pupil voice' in the

school. My concerns are shared by a number of my colleagues. Over the past

year I have experienced students being asked during 'learning walks' if they

like their teacher. On one occasion, a colleague was absent from work due to

illness and a pupil led a delegation out of the cover lesson and complained

that in her opinion she was not being taught properly by the absent teacher.

The pupil was given a hearing by the head of department and the assistant

headteacher during which the class's books were scrutinised and this

evidence was used to criticise the absent teacher. Myself and colleagues

have also noticed an increase in dissatisfied students making comments

about individual teachers and lessons using terms which sound suspiciously

like OFSTED-speak, for example, "I do not feel safe in your lessons", "This is

not the way I learn" etc. We have had for a number of years as part of the

interview process pupils being asked their opinion of demonstration lessons. I

have long wondered about the value of these exercises but feel that

especially during the last year that this is now creeping into the every day

running of the school and performance management as well as being used as

a way of gathering evidence against teachers. This is leading to a shift in the

balance of power between pupils and teachers and is in danger of creating a

culture of mistrust.

Case Study 229I have just read your email regarding the use of students in interview

procedures. I understand this email may have come to you late, however I

feel compelled to respond.

Last summer I was interviewed for two permanent infant posts. As part of the

day I was to be interviewed by members of the school council for which I was

asked to bring "an item of interest" to share with the 5-7 year olds.

I thought it through greatly and in the end took my snowboard and a film clip

of me boarding on my laptop (as I thought this would give them an insight into

me as a person outside teaching)



I felt the whole day went really well. After teaching the children how to stand

and move on a snowboard and answering well their questions they seemed

quite happy.

When I didn't get the job I was informed that the reasons were my lesson

plans/photos could have been taken out of my file when presenting and the

school council didn't like my object.

I was gutted and couldn't believe the children's voice had made such a huge

impact on my chance of gaining a job! The head teacher actually told me that

she liked the item and if it had been another group of children it may have

been completely different! Of the two people that got the jobs - one took

balloons! And the other a didgeridoo. Maybe I should have taken a Nintendo

Wii or some sweets to bribe them! Ridiculous!

Case Study 230I am very concerned about the abuse of student voice in the form of course

review 'focus groups'. I am a full time classroom teacher of Business Studies

and Economics. In our department a member of staff has been put on a

capability procedure, seemingly based on student comments made in a 'focus

group'. 7-8 students were selected to represent the voice of around 140 AS

level students. The focus group was conducted by a senior manager who

does not teach. As teachers we do not know what questions will be asked and

are not allowed in the room. It lasts for about 30-45 minutes. Questions along

the lines of 'do you feel you get enough support' and 'is homework set

regularly and feedback given?' (Which are reasonable questions in

themselves). In this particular group students in two teachers' students were

full of praise but another teacher was singled out by the students as not

acceptable. Usually when this happens, students will come back and tell us

but there was no indication this time.

This member of staff has been bullied by the HOD since September. He is

well liked by his colleagues and his students and his AS module results were

good and in line with the rest of the department. We receive a written copy of

what the focus group has said and it seemed suspicious that this teacher was

singled out in the comments made as not doing his job properly. I was asked



to swap my BTEC classes for his AS classes but refused. The next week the

capability procedure was started and he has been off sick since early

February with stress.

Last year, students apparently came back from focus groups and told staff

everything was fine and no one said anything negative. However, when staff

received the written feedback it was quite critical. A department restructure

swiftly followed with the existing course leaders being returned to classroom

teachers and a new external subject leader appointed. I was on maternity

leave for most of last year and cannot comment on this incidence too much.

I showed the results of another focus group to students who were there and

they were upset that what they said had not been recorded properly and the

views of one disaffected student had been disproportionately represented. I

am concerned that this is being used to 'get rid' of teachers whose faces 'don't

fit' and to implement changes.

I'm not sure I would want to talk to the media at present, however I am looking

for another job and if successful I would be happy to talk anonymously to the

media.

Case Study 231I left xxxxx at Christmas to begin work at an independent girls' school. I had

been there for a little over a year and I left partly due to, what I perceived, as

over privileging students' voices. Students were asked their opinion of

candidates' lessons on interview and this seemed to set up students as being

judges of teachers and their lessons. On one interview day the Head of

Department and the Head of Faculty spent half an hour discussing the merits

and demerits of the candidates' lessons. The students as a body had a very

critical perspective of the staff and I felt that the interview process was partly

responsible for this.

On Review Days both students and teachers had space on the database to

enter comments. I felt undermined by the experience of having students



commenting on my teaching on review days - whether positive or negative I

didn't feel that this was acceptable. The management's position seemed to be

that if a student complained then the student was right. For instance one

teacher was accused of not giving enough assistance with coursework - the

Head of Department took the student's side without investigating the

complaint. If students were disruptive teachers were held to blame because

students said they were disruptive because their lessons weren't good

enough.

I decided to leave the state sector as I did not feel comfortable in a system

which encourages a culture of complaint and where my and my colleagues'

professionalism is constantly being questioned. The staff committee at xxxxx

was disbanded in the year I was there due to a lack of interest from staff in

contributing to it. I considered that to be a statement on how disempowered

the teachers felt themselves to be in this particular workplace.

Case Study 232I am sorry but I just don't agree with the NASUWT stance on this. I believe

that the use of pupils on interview panels can be very informative.

Case Study 233I got in touch with the union about this nearly two years age, with documented

evidence where students were being asked to ‘inform’ on teachers teaching

ability etc and were being primed on how to ‘report’ on teachers. My staff and

I were poo-pooed by the union representatives who came from your exec.!

We now have a new Head teacher and students are still on interview panels,

do observations of lessons etc practices which I believe as a teacher with

35years experience, is designed to intimidate and undermine young teachers.

I intend to leave the profession this year, taking early retirement and one of

my reasons for doing so is the climate in which teachers find themselves

today and the lack of support they receive from their union. I now have

nothing to lose and thank God that the majority of my teaching career was



when teachers were not so cowed and bullied as to feel helpless and

ineffectual!

Regards

Case Study 234I know this late but as a Subject Leader I find Pupil Voice to be an extremely

useful tool and it isn’t used in an underhand way at all. Teachers are part of

the selection process of nominating students to partake so it’s a fair system

and allows me to identify further areas for development with use of resources,

learning and teaching styles and curriculum changes.

Just wanted to ensure a balanced view was given.
