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Up to ten children at a Kent secondary school have been given iPhones to email feedback on their teachers' performance to school authorities during lessons. The step was taken as part of a 'quality assurance' programme intended to ensure the school was maintaining high educational standards.

The scheme was revealed by John Rivers, a secondary school teacher, at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference. Delegates attending conferences this weekend speculated that the project may be transferred to other schools, expressing their concern that schools are affording so much weight to pupils' judgements whilst denying trust to their teachers and eroding adult authority.

The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) already asks children to fill out a questionnaire evaluating their school's performance as part of the inspection process, and union delegates cited numerous instances of young students being consulted when schools were designing lesson content and appointing new staff.

In an address to the ATL conference, Rivers told members: 'I have no problem, generally, in asking pupils about how they felt about my lesson, it is just that I believe there should be clear guidance on how these observations should be conducted and reported.'

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