This procedure isn't limited to parents and carers – anyone using our facilities or services is welcome to raise a concern or complaint with us.
Concern or complaint? What's the difference
A concern is an expression of worry or doubt about something important, where reassurance is what's needed. A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about actions taken, or a lack of action.
It's in everyone's interest for concerns and complaints to be resolved at the earliest possible stage, and many issues never need to go beyond an informal conversation.
Your complaint will be acknowledged in writing within 3 school days, and you'll receive a full written response within 5 school days of us receiving it. If the headteacher can't meet this deadline, you'll be given an update and a revised response date. The response will explain what was investigated, the decision made, and why – along with how to escalate if you remain unhappy with the outcome.
If your complaint is about the headteacher or the governing body, a suitably skilled governor (or an independent investigator, where the complaint concerns the majority of the governing body) will handle Stage 1 instead.
If you're not satisfied with the Stage 1 outcome, you can ask to escalate to Stage 2 within 10 school days of receiving the Stage 1 response. This is heard by a committee of at least three impartial governors with no prior involvement in the complaint, and is the final stage of our internal procedure. A meeting will usually be arranged within 20 school days, and you'll receive the committee's decision in writing within 10 school days of the meeting.
Once Stage 2 is complete, if you believe we haven't followed our published complaints procedure correctly, or have acted unlawfully or unreasonably, you can contact the Department for Education.
It's worth knowing that the DfE won't re-investigate the substance of your complaint or overturn our decision — they'll only look at whether we've followed education law and our own statutory procedures correctly.
Complaints should be raised within 3 months of the incident (or the most recent incident in a series). We may still consider a complaint made after this if there are exceptional circumstances.
If a complaint is made outside of term time, we'll treat it as received on the first school day after the holiday period.
Our full Complaints Procedure document includes further detail on how complaints are handled, along with a downloadable complaint form.