Headteacher problems

[bornnosy]

I am so stressed about this it has woken me in the middle of the night. DC is in year 7 and his headteacher is a nightmare. She is aware that I am looking for a new school. DC has been bullied, it has continued for months because the head is so incompetent at dealing with it, I have been told by other members of staff that they are aware of the bullying, and the gang who is bullying has bullied other children, the situation is fairly well understood, yet the head teacher apparently called DC into a meeting yesterday and after rambling - DC repeated the words she had used and it sounded to me almost as though she had been drinking - and she basically accused him of lying about the bullying. He has had enough, he can't really cope with much more, I do need to step in and protect him, he rarely lies and I have no doubt he has been telling the truth here. What is likely to happen if I ask a head to not meet with a child on their own at the school but to call me so that I am present at every meeting, does anyone know? Am I able to do that, or do I need to remove him instead? Thanks

I would suggest going over the Principal's head to the school governors and ultimately to Ofsted.

Speak to the head, find out the outcome of the meeting. Ask head/reception for details of complaints process to be emailed to you. Formal complaint to the governors about a failure to safeguard your child.

Thanks for advice, I will escalate concerns about head after my dc has left the school. I don't want to make things worse for them in the interim. My question here was - what is likely to happen if I ask the head to NOT meet with DC on their own at the school but to call me first so that I am present at every meeting, if a meeting is necessary, does anyone have any experience of this? Thanks

Have a look at the school's complaints procedure and submit a formal complaint. As part of this, you could ask that as an interim measure while the complaint is resolved, that the head is not able to meet 1 to 1 with your child. This would be considered reasonable if there is an ongoing complaint about their behaviour during a similar meeting.

Thanks - I don't want to submit a formal complaint or escalate until DC has left the school. My question is, how would a head likely react to being told by a parent that she is not to meet 1 on 1 with a child, and for the parent to be there?

The head is aware that I am looking for another school for next year. I will move DC before that if necessary.

Submitting a formal complaint is the only way to register your concern. There would be no detriment to your child, indeed it would effectively add a layer of buffering between your child and the head in everything else. Effectively the formal complaint is a way of telling those involved that your concern is a serious one and needs to be taken seriously. Without it, your request will not be taken seriously.

The main things which will help DC at the moment are the various measures which I agreed with the head at our last meeting to do safeguarding. These are the best solutions at the moment, in our circumstances, they basic aim to avoid any problems, and I want to focus on them not on complaints.

I have now emailed the head with a diplomatic way of checking the measures are in place and saying please include me in future meetings because DC is fragile at the moment etc and I also asked DC to ask the head to call me if she does call him into another meeting.

Complaining isn't always helpful. Sometimes it causes more problems and distracts people from what is needed to be done. It depends. We live in a small community and I doubt a complaint will help at this stage just because of how things work.

Thanks for your advice.