If Things Go Wrong

Foreward

We urge parents and carers to contact us at their earliest convenience if they are unhappy with any aspect of their child’s schooling.

We much prefer to know people’s concerns, find solutions together, and build relationships that will serve a child throughout their education with us.

For this reason, the informal raising of concerns can often be the best way to first alert us to a problem.

Informal Complaints

Informal complaints or concerns can be raised by telephone, email, in writing or in person. All staff email addresses can be found on the school website – we have a link on our home page, or you can click here.

If you are unsure of the name of the person you should contact, simply call school reception and they will be able to help you.

Formal Complaints

Formal complaints, to the Headteacher and above (stages 4 to 6 on the Ladder below), should always be made in writing.

Before doing so, please do make sure you have read this page fully and are familiar with our complaints procedure, which is available to view both at the bottom of this page and in the “Parent and Student Policies” section of our full policies page (accessible here).

Our Complaints Procedure "Ladder"

Below is what we have found to be the best steps to both notify us of, and resolve, any complaints you may have.

We encourage all parents and carers to begin at the first stage, only moving up to the next stage if you remain dissatisfied with the resolution in place.

Stage Who To Contact
1
  • Form Tutor for pastoral or behaviour issues
  • Subject Teacher for subject specific issues

E-mail addresses for all staff are available at this page.

2
  • Head of Year for pastoral or behaviour issues
  • Subject Leader for subject specific issues
  • SENCO for SEND Issues

E-mail addresses for all staff are available at this page.

3
4
5
6
  • ESFA (Education and skills funding agency)

What to expect

Our complaints policy provides more detail on timescales and methods of investigation. However, we strive to listen carefully to complaints and to work through them with families in order for suitable resolutions to be found.

Whenever possible we hope to speak to the concerned parties face to face so we can better understand the nature of the issue and the outcomes desired.

Important point to note

When families work through the complaints procedure laid out above it enables us to best understand an issue and ensure that the concerned parties are involved in a resolution.

We have found families who proceed to the top rungs of the scale immediately can actually limit and compromise the work we are able to do to find the best resolution.

Finally

Unfortunately, we do have to remind all parties that complaints of a vexatious nature, or those conducted in an abusive or aggressive manner, will be paused until an appropriate way forward can be found – as set out in our unreasonable complaints policy.

Our unreasonable complaints policy is available both below and in the “Parent and Student Policies” section of our full policies page (accessible here)

Our Complaints Policies

Code Description Version Published Review
PAR-02 Complaints 2.4 November 2023 November 2024
PAR-101 Managing Serial and Unreasonable Complaints 1.0 November 2022 November 2023
PAR-101 Managing Serial and Unreasonable Complaints 1.1 November 2023 November 2024