Complaints about Schools

We can help parents and carers who have a concern about their child’s education or welfare at school by pointing them in the right direction to get the matter resolved.

The Local Authority (LA) has no legal right or duty to deal with complaints about schools. However, we do have considerable experience in working with schools and the range of services that support them, parents and carers. This means that, should you have a concern or a complaint about your child’s school, we can tell you how to go about getting it dealt with at school level, which is where most concerns and complaints should be, and are, resolved. The questions and answers below give more information.

We normally inform schools where we have received such a concern or complaint so that they can take steps to deal with it. This usually means forwarding any letter you send to us, to the school. Where appropriate, we also inform our own services, such as Education Welfare, so that we can support the child, the family and the school as necessary.

A You should firstly seek a meeting with the headteacher or the appropriate member of staff. The
vast majority of parents’ concerns are resolved in this way. If you wish to complain about the
headteacher you should seek a meeting with the school’s Chair of Governors in the first instance.
Details of how to contact the Chair of Governors/and the school’s complaints procedure will be
available from the school. The information will also be available in the school’s prospectus.

A If you wish to make a formal complaint you must write to the Chair of Governors of the
school and send a copy to Amanda Page in the Children’s Services Directorate, County Hall,
Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1UD. Your letter must begin stating ‘I wish to make a formal
complaint to the Governing Body of ...........School’. This makes it clear that the Governing
Body must respond and convene a hearing.

Q What happens when I have made a formal complaint to the Governing Body?

A The Chair of Governors will arrange for your complaint to be considered and investigated
under the arrangements approved by the governors. This is likely to involve a panel of
governors appointed to act on behalf of the governing body. If the Chair of Governors or other
governor has been involved in earlier discussions to try and help settle the disagreement. He or
she should arrange for another governor to take charge of the investigation and consider your
complaint. The governor in charge of the investigating the complaint may ask to meet you
personally so that you are able to clarify the nature and detail of your complaint. The governing
body will not normally be able to respond to your complaint at this stage. He/she should,
however, give you full details of how they will carry out any further investigation or formal
hearing and keep you-up-to-date with progress.

A Write to Amanda Page, Children’s Services Directorate, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight,
PO30 1UD (enclosing any relevant papers), asking for the complaint to be reviewed. A member
of the Directorate’s Senior Management Team will be asked to review the process and
procedures the school had undertaken when receiving the complaint. The Directorate cannot
undertake a review until after a governor complaints panel has fully considered the matter.