Teachers should treat pupils like restaurant diners by asking for their feedback after lessons, one of Britain’s leading head teachers said yesterday.

Sir Dexter Hutt, speaking at a conference in Singapore, said it would improve teachers’ skills if they were assessed by children.

The executive head teacher of the Ninestiles Federation in Birmingham who is credited with turning around a formerly failing comprehensive, made the comments before he addressed the World Convention of the International Confederation of Principals.

He said growing numbers of schools were asking children to complete surveys of lessons.

The practice has been condemned by teaching unions for giving children too much power over teachers.

Sir Dexter said it should become more widespread. “Students are giving feedback to teachers on the quality of their teaching, and what they found interesting or engaging,” he said.

“When you go to a restaurant, someone asks you how was your meal. Why wouldn’t a teacher do the same and ask how was your lesson? It takes confidence, but teachers need to get over the barrier of pupil assessment. Some pupils are going to be silly or critical but most are sensitive and take their learning seriously.”

“Pupils then take more interest because they’re beginning to own the lesson.”

Sir Dexter, who is chief executive of a consultancy linked to his school and was knighted in 2004 for services to education, said that schools in the 21st century needed to focus on skills and creativity, rather than teaching children to absorb facts.

He said: “I think the only future for the West is in creative jobs. Education has to change to put greater emphasis on being creative.

“In England that is happening but only in patches, not nationally. Instead the focus is that you have to pass English and maths - there are possibly creative people who could fail maths but make a contribution to the future of the country. Many people in history may have been brilliantly creative but failed maths.

“Education needs to enable students to have the self-confidence to face change. Nowadays if you want to know something, you go on to Google, but you need the skills to access it. The balance between knowledge and skills is becoming quite an issue.”

Sir Dexter said that children at his school were taught from the age of 11 to give presentations to large audiences every few weeks, as it was a key workplace skill.

“If they do that regularly over five years they become very good, they can stand on their feet and argue their case. It’s a skill and it doesn’t develop by chance,” he said.

Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “We have to make a distinction between any system of formal assessment and a proper dialogue about how pupils feel their learning is going. There is a place for young people to discuss constructively with teachers about lessons and what is and isn’t working in the classroom.”

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said it opposed the imposition of pupil participation without agreement from school staff.

“ATL believes that for pupils to participate effectively in decision making at school level there must be no imposition of pupil participation without agreement from staff, and no imposition of methods of feedback for monitoring or performance management purposes,” a spokesman said.

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