Any school governors on here?

[stickysticks]

I have a serious complaint about a school. As expected the headmaster was dismissive so I'm now writing to the governors.

Do school governors get many complaints? I've been told schools close ranks when it comes to complaints - do you think this is true? Any tips on how to get the best outcome for everyone? Thanks

Be clear about what you are complaining about, and what you want to happen. We ((as in, the school I'm a Governor of) get few complaints, to be honest, but it's always easier to deal with something when you know what the complainant actually wants to get out of the process of complaining.

We don't close ranks, I promise, but I can't vouch for all schools!

Depends on the school. Boards of Governors aren't all the same. I was a parent governor for a very short period of time. For that school, the Board of Governors was a whitewash - the Head and the local authority governor did what they wanted with the aid of a few "pet" governors (staff and friends of the head/LA rep). Us "outsiders" were basically ignored except for trivialities. The last meeting I attended took 5 hours and was discussing some important changes to the school structure - at the end of 5 intensive hours when it was clear that the majority wouldn't approve the proposals, the LA rep said there was no choice anyway as the LA had decided to do it and they funded the school, so that was just a waste of 5 hours for what the LA wanted to be a rubber stamping exercise. I and another couple of parent governors resigned at the end of that meeting! Our replacements lasted 2 or 3 months before they resigned. If you're lucky and get a "proper" Board, then fair enough, but if it's full of cronies, then you're wasting your time.

You need to get hold of the complaints policy (should be on website) and follow the correct procedure.

I'm a governor. We don't receive many complaints at all, but we would certainly try to deal with any that we did receive in a fair and transparent manner. There would definitely not be any closing of the ranks, but having said that, we wouldn't just take the parent's perspective as gospel either. We would take the parent's feedback seriously, listen to the school's response and then make a balanced decision based on all of the evidence available.

I have been a governor in the past as primary level, I think there were 2 complaints during my time but obviously that has got nothing to do what other schools get, it's not any kind of predictable thing.

Each complaint is unique, I can't see how you could generalise on the outcomes. With the proviso that this is nothing by my personal experience and will have no bearing on what happens to you the complaints were heard in full, properly discussed and the parents were given a full opportunity to make their case in person. They might not have agreed with the result but they would have had no grounds for saying the proper procedures weren't followed

Thanks everyone. It's too late for the school to fix anything for my daughter, her mental health is now far too damaged as a result of her time in the school and she's now in a special school, but I am just so angry that it happened and the school didn't care.

In terms out outcomes I just want the school to be held to account. An admission that they could have handled it better and maybe even an apology would be great. Even if I don't get this I hope it will raise awareness in the school and stop it happening again.

It's good to hear, assuming the board of governors is one of the 'good' ones, the complaint will be given consideration.