Former Education Secretary Alan Johnson accused sites such as ratemyteachers.com of encouraging a culture of cyber-bullying. Now the blameless Clarissa Farr, High Mistress of St Paul’s School for Girls, has become the website’s latest victim.
Although St Paul’s students (fees £6,257 a term) are known for their exceptional results, can Ms Farr have let the side down with a shockingly low 40 per cent approval rating on the website? The site encourages schoolchildren to anonymously award star ratings and offer praise or criticism of their teachers. Ms Farr has been head of the school for six years but it seems she has still to win the loyalty of some of her students.
Yet on closer inspection it appears that she has only a handful of critics on the site. They accuse her of being self-promoting, driving away good staff and not bothering to get to know the children in her care. “How many personal and professional lives need to be destroyed before someone makes a stand about all of this?” demanded one critic of the “Farrist regime”.
Defenders of ratemyteachers.com say it provides a useful service. Ms Farr, who is clearly taking it all in her stride, was “too busy” to talk to the Londoner. But the school’s academic results speak for themselves. This year the alma mater of Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, Carol Thatcher and deputy Leader of the Labour Party Harriet Harman, recorded its best ever GCSE results, with the proportion of A* grades at an all-time high of 89.2 per cent and 49.1 per cent of A-level entries achieved an A*.
