Sorry Miss, but You are the weakest link

It is an enthusiastic debate by pupils who have been elected by their peers and have been given the responsibility to discuss changes in their school.

Hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits are all suggested. Trouble brews when the younger ones say they want a parrot and maybe a horse.

Listening to children's views and giving them responsibility to make real decisions, like here at

St Joseph's in Warndon, Worcester, is the direction education policy is going. No more "Do as I say", more "What do you think, kids?"

And it may even soon extend to asking them to choose their own teachers.

People in the know say this sort of responsibility makes them better citizens and teaches them to have respect for themselves.

It has not gone that far at

St Joseph's but it's not just lip service either. The children have been asked how the school should be redecorated and which charities should benefit from fundraising.

"The school council comes up with ideas and, after discussing them, we ask the rest of the school if they like them," says Liam, aged 11.

Nine-year-old Amy has loved her time on the council.

"Sometimes the infants come up with things we can't actually have, like a horse, so we have to give them reasons," she adds.

But just how far should this go? This week, the UK's first children's commissioner, Professor Al Aynsley-Green, said pupils should even be allowed to pick their own teachers, raising the prospect that students could turn Anne Robinson and make teaching into a survival of the fittest sort of affair.

"There is increasing evidence that engaging children in what matters makes it better for everyone," he said. "I have gone through the wringer in my interview process and talking to the young children afterwards, they felt incredibly proud of the fact they had been listened to."

From September, the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) is to introduce questionnaires to ask children to judge the performance of their teachers.

A similar scheme is already happening at St Joseph's where pupils are asked every year to rate what they like and dislike at the school. The headteacher Marian Jay is a passionate advocate of the school council, and she is proud that it was one of the outstanding features of their latest Ofsted inspection report.

"We want to bring children up to be informed adults and feel that their contribution can make the world a better place," she says.

"Children need to feel that they can approach the school staff with concerns or even complaints and they won't just be told to go away."

She stops short of agreeing with Professor Aynsley-Green, believing the selection of teachers is something better left to the professionals. "It's probably not a good thing, any more than we don't give parents that power," she says.

"They haven't got the professional experience. Everybody thinks they are an expert in education because they've all been to school."

Understandably, perhaps, the idea that teachers could live or die by what their pupils think is something that gives the unions the jitters too.

"Of course it is right that children should be respected and listened to, but it simply does not follow that this means that they should be involved in activities for which they have neither the necessary maturity or experience," said Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters and the Union of Women Teachers.

Mr Keates says "fair and clear boundaries" need to be set to keep the right balance between children and teachers.

It may be some time before pupils get the chance to do more than just decide that a horse is impracticable as a school pet.

But one day, the way things are going, they may well be saying: Miss. You are the weakest link. Goodbye.

HOW TO SET UP ELECTED PUPIL BODIES IN SCHOOLS

New children's commissioner

Al Aynsley-Green says schools are too "hierarchical and authoritarian".

Independent charity School Councils UK is trying to redress the balance by advising schools about how to set up elected pupil bodies.

It says the benefits include:

l Developing important life skills such as listening skills, work as part of a team and problem solving.

l Improving behaviour by moving responsibility for maintaining it away from teachers and towards the pupils' peers.

l Reducing stress because children and teachers are working towards the same goals and communicating.

Building the school community because older children communicate with younger ones.

BLACKBOARD

No home alone for suspended pupils

PRIME Minister Tony Blair has suggested parents should be forced to stay off work with their children if they are suspended from school.

"Nothing should be ruled in or out at this stage," said Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters and the Union of Women Teachers.

"His suggestion is an illustration that parental support and involvement is absolutely crucial.

"However, we need to be cautious about a measure which could potentially compromise a parent's ability to meet their contractual obligations with their employer."

Primary positions

NEWLY qualified primary school teachers are having difficulty getting jobs in time for the start of term in September.

Figures published by the Teacher Training Agency reveal that many newly trained primary teachers are still looking for school posts six months after qualifying.

Fewer secondary-trained teachers experience problems and, nationally, nine out of 10 teachers who qualified in 2004 were in the classroom within six months.

Fields of dreams

THE number of playing fields in England has risen for the first time in at least a decade.

The Government says this is a major step towards building up Britain's sporting facilities in readiness for hosting the Olympic Games in 2012. Between 2003 and 2004 72 new playing fields were created, although this amounts to a net gain of 20 because there were 52 successful bids for development during the same period.