A “trip advisor” style website that allows parents to rate their child’s school should be banned immediately because it is open to abuse, teachers warned today.
The Ofsted-run website ParentView allows people to grade a school on issues including bullying and behaviour.
The schools watchdog monitors the results and can use the information to decide whether to send inspectors into a school getting bad reviews.
But Robin Bevan, head of Southend High School for Boys, said there was no way of checking whether pupils themselves are rating their own schools.
Mr Bevan has written to Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw calling for the “immediate cessation” of the website. Teachers will debate a motion expressing “grave concern” over ParentView at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference in Manchester tomorrow.
Mr Bevan, a member of the union’s national executive, said: “It is simply unacceptable for Ofsted to be seen to be sanctioning a system that provides an avenue for malicious or mischievous commentary on schools and teachers.”
He said he has had to deal with the consequences of pupils commenting on teachers online and has tested the ParentView website by setting up false email accounts.
An Ofsted spokesman said: “Parents’ views provide a really important insight into how well schools are doing.
"Ofsted developed Parent View to allow parents and carers to give their views about their child’s school at any time of the year and the information provided helps inform decisions about inspection.
"When developing Parent View, Ofsted took account of feedback from its parents’ panel and headteachers.
"They raised a small number of concerns about potential misuses of the website and we put in place a balance of measure, including a registration process with password and email verification to help ensure the security of the website.
"We also made the decision not to provide an opportunity for parents to make direct comments about the school. Those we consulted agreed this treated schools fairly while making the website accessible for parents to use. In addition a range of systems were established to identify potential signs of misuse.“
