TEACHERS are being monitored on CCTV cameras in a bid to drive up standards.
But unions have labelled the move by four Salford schools as `Big Brother' tactics.
Microphones
The schools - Harrop Fold, Albion High, St George's, and the Oasis Academy - have installed cameras and microphones in special training classrooms. Salford council said they plan to roll out the technology to other schools.
The system allows teachers to get live feedback from their bosses by using a concealed earpiece. The 360-degree camera and five sensitive microphones will help prevent bad teaching and improve standards, say heads.
Enraged
But the move has enraged teaching unions who have labelled the scheme “intrusive” and “unnecessary”.
Each of the schools has set up a hi-tech classroom, in which teachers of all subjects are being asked to take part. The cameras are so powerful that observers can see what children are writing.
Record
The technology can also be used to record lessons. At Harrop Fold, teachers who carry out the best lessons will be put onto a DVD and shown to other staff.
Although taking part in the monitoring sessions is voluntary, headteachers say they expect the majority of their staff to participate. But union officials fear many reluctant teachers will be compelled to take part.
Guidelines
They said the filmed lessons could be used to get around existing agreements on how often senior teachers can sit-in during lessons.
Under national guidelines, teachers can be monitored only three hours a year following complaints that excessive monitoring was putting them off.
Dr Mary Bousted, head of the ATL teaching union, said she had “major reservations” about the technology being used to monitor staff.
She said: “It would be hard to see how teachers or support staff will behave naturally if they are being monitored. They are likely to be quite nervous if they feel they are being watched on camera. It does seem a bit Big Brother-ish. Although schools say that the process is voluntary, it would be quite difficult to stand out and say ‘no’ if other people are agreeing to it.”
'Appropriate'
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT union, said: “More and more schools are wasting thousands of pounds of tax payers money on CCTV cameras which all available evidence shows are not the most effective method of maintaining school security, neither are they an appropriate way of monitoring classroom practise.
“We do not support the use of cameras in this way and see no professional security or educational benefits to such systems.”
Praise
Bosses at Harrop Fold School, which won praise from former PM Tony Blair for transforming its results, say the coaching technology has already helped boost standards.
Antony Edkins, the superhead recruited to turn around the school four years ago, insisted the technology was not used to spy on teachers and that monitoring was ‘constructive’ rather than ‘judgemental’.
He said: “This is not Big Brother in any sense. We are using the technology as a coaching tool. It allows teachers to get the benefit of an extra pair of eyes. Having someone in the class can put off teachers. But allowing a coach to remotely watch everything that is going on and give feedback has been really useful.
'Useful'
“If a particular part of the lesson isn’t working or if the children are not responding, they can suggest asking more open questions or allowing the pupils more time to respond.
“I have used it, both as a coach and as a teacher, and found the feedback was useful. A number of staff have volunteered to take part in the coaching and the majority will use it on an on-going basis but we are certainly not forcing it. There is no point in people doing it who don’t feel happy with it.”
The school is now considering setting up a second camera to monitoring the teaching of hands-on subject such as music and PE.
When he first took the job, Dr Edkins flew from from his home in Brighton each week, before moving his family to Salford. Harrop Fold was praised by the government earlier this year as one of the fastest improving secondary schools in England.
Comments
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If teachers and parents had more control over pupils then this would not be an option.
AS someone who is not proud of how I treated peers during my school years I beleive things would be different if firm discipline was back in schools - Why cant anyone else understand until teachers / police and parents have the control then nothing will get children to understand who is in charge!
Anything which helps drive up teaching standards in this country, in particular the North West, can only be good and gets my vote.
'Thin end of the wedge' are the words that come to mind.
Do you trust your local council not to exploit the introduction of CCTV in the classrooms. ?
Oldham Council is the last local authority I would let loose with this new toy and I suspect Salford is not much better.
"Teaching unions...have labelled the scheme “intrusive” and “unnecessary”.
You bet they have. Completely unashamed by the end product of many schools, they won't want anybody to see just how truly useless they - and the education system - really are. God forbid that they might actually have to teach pupils the way it used to be done.....when it worked.
Teachers are all for having cctv watching the kids so they behave so why not point them towards the teachers to find out why kids come out of school hardly knowing anything?
Teachers make me sick! They complain all the time, get lots of time off, get paid a decent wage and yet they can't get kids to spell correctly or educate them to a reasonable standard.
Hypocrits....shut up teaching union!!
The problem is Drew that there's no teacher in that class.
Kriss Kross, put bluntly, you're wrong. Teachers teach all pupils as best they can!It is the pupils who dont want to learn or think it's 'cool' not to know anything and mess around. Not once have I ever seen a teacher frustrated because their pupils are learning too much.
However, I do agree that it is a good idea to have the CCTV on teachers, that way when the pupils make up false accusations of the teacher saying/doing something they shouldn't be, there will be evidence to show what really happened.
They will help keep social order in the classroom, at times accusations start flying around about teachers, you have the blame game when there is disputes, this will put an end to classroom disputes.
I would have thought working as a teacher amongst Salford's ill-bred, badly behaved and barely literate youth was bad enough without some jobsworth none entity from the town hall spying on you.
The way to raise standards is to make kids listen, behave and try harder. This can be achieved simply by dishing out draconian punishments for bad behaviour.
JAB Mancunia....You are wrong! It is the job of the teacher to enthuse and inspire children.
Teachers are always shouting and demanding respect but they too must earn that from the children. It is a two way process.
The more strict teachers are just instils fear and loathing. Try respect like young students get in college or as the do in the Netherlands. Adopt that model into schools. Bring out resposnibility in children not demonise them by threats all the time.
Teachers are atrocious in this country!
The problem with this teacher monitoring scheme is that it is pointless. Teachers in a school have little control over the standards in that school. The parents of the pupils do, but all too often they produce badly behaved, disruptive, ill-mannered pupils with poor social skills for schools to cope with, especially in 'challenging' areas like Salford.
No amount of classroom CCTV in Salfords's schools will improve standards unless it is used solely to identify disruptive children so they can be quickly expelled.
I teach in state schools. I wouldn't voluntarily teach in the majority of Salford's schools while I can get employment in nicer areas. Salford Council need to address the fundamental reasons for the low achievement in its schools, and teacher performance is not one of them.
What is Salford going to do if it finds teachers who can't educate children up to the standards of the leafy suburbs where childrn are generally more motivated and better behaved? Sack them? What'd be the point? Who will they get to replace them? Salford is not top of the list for most teachers looking for a job and the best in the profession are hardly queuing up for a job there. And even if they were they wouldn't be able to do much with the pupils available.
The TV cameras would be better placed in Salford's council offices so council taxpayers can see what its employees are doing while at work, why it needs so many of them to do it and why they often do it so slowly and inefficiently.
Kris-Kross, Ashton Under Lyne: The things you suggest are at the root of the problem. Listen to and treating children as if they mattered is what has caused the problem. I went to a very strict grammar school where the teachers clearly hated the boys. They got fantastic results, good behaviour and churned out model citizens.
I agree in some respects Been B4 having visited a similar school myself but this sort of ploy doesn't work with a typical comprehensive in Salford or Oldham where many pupils know no discipline in their own homes. What does work is the big question to be honest. I seriously suspect we'd be better letting a large proportion of children do menial jobs from the age of around 14 and giving them a voucher for the time lost so they can go back into education later if they decide they want to learn something after all.
If we can't help these young individuals who run around acting crazy and they won't settle in school then I would suggest putting them to work at an early age in the demolition industry. Give them a sledge hammer and they can take their frustrations out on brick walls.
Whichever school installs these cameras must order any member of the leadership team includinh heads and deputies to 'perform'with a class of tough kids.
It would probably prove they cant do it and have their jobs under false pretences!!
Its no secret that many ;eadership teachers cant actually teach but often sit on judgement on others.
What hypoctites
would it be fare to say there is a possibility that the cameras could be used by paedophiles if they are working within the system
This one has certainly stoked the fire of reaction! Im surprised that such a thing is acceptable. In educational research we have to enlist the permission of parents before you take photos or film footage and as for showing the footage elsewhere, thats almost a case for a legal contract. Some of you mentioned the town council but this seems to be the unilateral decision of the school head, maybe with agreement from governors; I cant see such a head asking for permission from the council! There is no doubt that audio-visual evidence of our own looks, speech and behaviour/performance/work routine reveal things of which we were unaware and might want to improve. The same is true when we see/hear footage of others; other parents, other motorists, other cooks. There is a lucrative section of the media industry built on our instinct for voyeurism, watching the way other people do things. Is this then the way forward for teaching and learning? Will we be seeing more TV programmes of disruptive classes and inadequate teachers, on the lines of SuperNanny? Will there be media opportunities for celebrity teachers and ed psychs to move in there and turn things around in a 30 minute slot on Tuesday evening and be invited onto chat shows as experts? If that takes off, will you agree to the children in your family being the participants? Or would you prefer that they went to school to learn and experience a whole range of subject material and social /emotional skills, taught be intelligent, trained and experienced professionals who know their job and their students?
What a sad world in which we are bringing up our children, acclimatising them at such a young age to the constant surveillance that will intrude into their lives forever, if this government has its way.
Is there no area of life the Labour Party can leave alone? Who really benefits when we are catalogued, observed, ordered and kept on a database for officials to poke around with like the local busybody?
Classroom observers who intimidate teachers should simply be re-trained. A CCTV is no substitute for a human being, and that goes for so-called "security" cameras as well.
Mary Bousted should be ashamed of her comment "it would be difficult to stand out and say no if other people are agreeing to it." She should be encouraging her members to do exactly that - say no to this nonsense before they turn your classroom into a panopticon. And if you don't know what a panopticon is you should probably read more, or Wikipedia it!
Abraham Lincoln said "to stay silent when they should protest makes cowards of men." Teachers, don't be afraid to defend your rights.
More surveillance!
I am bemused as I could not take a film on my 'cam corder' at my nephew’s school sports day. When I took it out of the bag a stern faced teacher said it was not allowed due to some 'child protection' law/act or whatever.
However, they (the powers that be) can put cameras in class rooms?
I personally think teachers should not stand for this; their job is hard enough as it is and the league tables put them under enough pressure. Now cameras to watch their every move is just asking for trouble in a failing, over legislated and ‘ranked’ education system already!
Any number of things have ruined the education system of today compared with the past. Teachers have to use the 'standard system' no matter how wrong it is. We did long division and multiplication amongst other straightforward teachings during our schooldays. Some years ago I attempted to help my son with his maths homework. He couldn't believe how simple the old system was compared with the totally confusing system by which he had been taught. He was actually marked down for using the wrong system even though all his answers were correct. This is the fault of the education authorities - not the teachers. The biggest problem however is the removal of all the old disciplinary methods which we avoided at all costs in our schooldays and were the perfect deterrent as well as a good reason to perform well.
This is BRILLIANT!!!!!
In a society where kids no longer want to be doctors, scientists, lawyers or accountants but want to be a 'celebrity' this is just what we need to reduce truancy.
We now tell the kids that it isn't going to school but going to reality tv training.
There will be no 'homework' - it will now be tasks (we all know how unpopular people are who don't pull their weight in BB tasks or bushtucker trials)
Every week people can be pleased that they have avoided eviction and can stay in school (sorry - reality training) for another week.
And just as reality stars are pursued by a range of magazines, tv programmes and agents when they leave, the best reality pupils will also be pursued by organisations such as colleges and employers.
A magnifying glass or a new pair of eyes?
It's a difficult quandary, where does the exciting use of new technologies to enhance teaching and learning move over into something more negative, more like big brother?
To my mind complaints surrounding privacy can be completely upheld if recording equipment is used in an invasive, directive and secretive way. However I think the heart of the argument comes down to who owns the data. Is it the teachers themselves - using it to improve performance, or as a shortcut and a blunt instrument for monitoring. I've seen many successes where the former is the case.
I'm currently working with teachers to build an unobtrusive recording solution using webcam technology to enable and empower the teachers to record themselves and their lessons whenever they wanted and reflect back on them afterwards and share their comments with colleagues. Both sets of our evaluation to date have shown that rather than using cameras as just another inspection, but giving the power to the teachers to reflect back via self-observation and CHOOSING whether to share this with others or not, they can really maximise the potential of new support and development technologies available in other sectors.
Athletes, do it all the time, as do actors why not teachers - the key is who owns the data.
If you want to see the reports, happy to share, get in touch. www.reflectionskit.org
Bean B4 you forgot to add "present company excepted"or was it edited out?
Ronkey
How true is that.