Amid a huge rise in vexatious complaints against schools and teachers, a headteacher has been awarded damages against two parents who conducted a campaign of harassment against him.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/feb/16/secondary-school-teacher-paid-damages-after-alleged-harassment-by-pupils-parents
An academy trust who provide sickness insurance cover will now also cover defamation https://schoolsweek.co.uk/cease-and-desist-trust-supports-staff-to-sue-online-trolls/
"Schools often end up dealing with the same complaint on multiple occasions. This is because parents wishing to complain about a school can submit their grievance to numerous agencies: the Department for Education, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), Ofsted and the Teaching Regulation Agency, as well as their MP and local media." https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/majority-school-leaders-see-rise-parent-complaints
"In the meantime, the NAHT is seeing school complaints policies “being ignored, and complaints being escalated straight to the DfE or Ofsted”, according to assistant general secretary James Bowen."
Generally, this rise in vexatious parental complaints is unmanageable for schools at a time when services are already stretched to breaking. So if you have a genuine complaint about a teacher or the school
- follow the school complaints procedure (this should be on their website).
- do not fire off the complaint to multiple agencies at the same time
- do not try to whip up a frenzy among parents on social media
- do not defame teachers on social media
- do not stalk and harass teachers or their families