Concerns & Complaints

If Something Has Gone Wrong

Your child’s experience is important to everyone in our School/Trust. We want to work together with you to ensure that your child is happy at school, and that they achieve their best. If you feel something has gone wrong, we want to hear from you.

Step One: Talk to us 

If you have any concerns, it’s always best to begin by speaking with your child's teacher or the Headteacher as soon as you can, letting them know what has happened and what you would like us to do to make it better. 

Where possible we will always endeavour to resolve any concerns or complaints informally. If there is still more for us to do after an informal conversation, you can make a formal complaint. Please see the Trust Complaints Policy for more information.

Step Two: Write to us 

If you still have concerns, you can write to us using our Complaints Form.

We will only accept complaints made using the required form.  

You don’t need to write a long explanation – in fact, keeping it short usually helps us reply more quickly. 

We will let you know we have received your query within 5 school days. If your complaint is unclear to us, we may request a meeting or call first to ensure we have understood your concern before responding in writing. We will tell you if we need any more information, and who will look after your enquiry. Wherever possible this will be someone not involved in the issues you’ve asked about.

After considering your complaint, we will then give you a formal reply setting out our response and any actions we have taken or plan to take, usually within another 25 school days.

For more complex concerns we may suggest an additional step of a joint meeting with someone from outside of the school to discuss the issue, to help understand and resolve your concerns.

Step Three: Meet with a review panel 

Where we can’t reach agreement, you can ask for a formal meeting to discuss your complaint, called a panel hearing.

The panel will include at least three people not directly involved in the complaint, including one person who is independent of the management and running of the school.

You will asked to attend this meeting and we will do our best to agree a time and date with you for the meeting, usually within 15 school days. The meeting will usually be in person, but it can be held online if that is more convenient for everyone.  You can bring someone to the meeting to help you, for example a friend or relative.

After the meeting, the review panel will send their recommendations to you and to anyone you have complained about.

For more information on how parents should raise complaints please visit the ParentKind Website 

You can use the following flow chart as a guide

Additional information on the process and procedures can be found in our policies below