If you have concerns about something that has happened at your child’s school, you should make an appointment to meet with a member of staff at the school to discuss it. By sitting down and talking, most issues can be sorted out informally. The school will advise you on the best person to speak to.
If you have spoken to a member of staff and the problem can’t be resolved, you may wish to make a complaint to the school. You can ask a friend or relative to help you with this, if you want to.
Some schools have their complaint procedure on their website, or you can ask the school office for a copy. The procedure will tell you what you need to do and what you can expect from the school. Usually, you will need to put your complaint in writing and the headteacher or Chair of Governors will respond. If you feel the matter isn’t resolved you should write to tell the school why, and a panel of impartial governors will meet to consider your complaint. The school’s complaint procedure should give full details.
The headteacher and governing body, not the council, are responsible for dealing with complaints about their school. All complaints must go through the school’s complaint procedure and we only have a role in complaints about SEN provision. Those complaints must go through the school’s procedure first, but if you are concerned about what is being provided for your child with SEN, you can speak to a member of our SEN team at any time.
If you have reached the end of the school’s procedure but feel that the governing body has acted unreasonably, you can contact the Department for Education, or Ofsted. For academies, you can also contact the Education Funding Agency. For more information about when to contact these agencies and what they do, visit GOV.UK.