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Students relish chance to grade their teachers
TEACHERS will be the first to grumble that they are over-scrutinised, so a new playground craze where pupils can judge their performance in online forums has been met with alarm.
If clipboard-wielding Ofsted inspectors were not enough to fray nerves, Westminster students can further unsettle the staff room on the RateMyTeachers website – awarding teachers marks out of five for various aptitudes as well as posting their (often disparaging) comments.
A cursory glance at the website reveals that out of Westminster’s nine secondary schools, pupils at the Grey Coat Hospital school in Pimlico have been bitten worst by the ratings bug.
The all-girls school has over 357 ratings for 70 of its teachers with Quintin Kynaston school in St John’s Wood and Pimlico School hovering around the 50 mark. But teachers are warning that the site is more than just a bit of harmless fun, claiming the naming and shaming of teachers could amount to “cyber bullying”.
Last week the French courts banned the naming of teachers on an equivalent website.
Pimlico School teacher Padraic Finn said: “As teachers we can’t afford to pay too much attention to it. It’s mainly just disgruntled students sounding off.
“It is potentially dangerous because teachers could take it personally and it could be perceived as bullying.”
A survey of the website reveals a number of teachers who are told to “get a life”. |
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