YES: Anne Longfield, chief executive, 4Children
With many schools moving to create extended opportunities, children are spending more hours in school then ever before. It is therefore necessary to create schools and places children can fully utilise and respect. Encouraging children to comment on their school allows them to give positive feedback and also participate in positive change. It is vital children believe, contribute and participate in change to improve their schools, community and opportunities available to them.
NO: Steve Sinnott, general secretary, National Union of Teachers The full Ofsted report is currently available within schools and to parents.
There's also a mini version of the report that is sent to parents and you start to wonder why there's going to be this additional distribution.
At whose expense is it going to be and who is going to do this work? Ofsted talks about language in reports not being accessible to children, but given they inspect schools for all ages, what language is it going to be in? This is an unnecessary and foolish development that wastes people's time.
YES: Dr John Dunford, general secretary, Secondary Heads Association
We welcome the move to include pupils in the inspection process. Many schools are already giving students a bigger voice in running their schools, including sitting on staff selection panels and commenting on the quality of their learning experiences. Ofsted intends to give pupils a brief, one side of A4, summary of the overall findings. Because of data protection, letters to pupils will have to be sent via the school, so we do not see this as a move to sidestep school leaders.
NO: Chris Keates, general secretary, NASUWT
Engaging pupils in the learning process is, of course, important. They are entitled to be provided with opportunities to express their views and to be aware of developments within the school. Schools already facilitate this through their routine working practices including individual pupil reviews, mentoring sessions and parental consultations.
Ofsted's role should be to check that schools engage pupils in this way, not to issue simplistic and totally inappropriate questionnaires and letters that are open to misuse.
