Deceitful behaviour from school - don't know where to turn

[godofthunder24]

Hi,

My son's school denied him access for 3 days last year due to his mum having COVID. Following our own research we determined that it was unlawful for the school to deny access for this reason.

Once we presented the legal advice to the school they changed their advice and altered their criteria for allowing my son back into school. It seems very clear to me that they were concerned about the repercussions of unlawful actions and tried to misrepresent their original instructions.

I complained to the school and I've gone through the complaints process with the chair of governors, a complaints panel and the DfE.

The governors have consistently provided inaccurate information during the complaints process which I strongly believe is their attempt to cover up the schools original actions. The governors have access to all of the evidence which is in email form but they continue to misrepresent that evidence.

The DfE have confirmed that the decision to deny access was unlawful.

The Local Authority are not willing to do any other than ensure the school is adhering to the complaints process from now forwards.

I am literally sick to death of feeling wronged by the school and not having a channel that will listen to me and go through the evidence in sufficient detail.

I don't really want to go down the legal route myself but feel like I'm running out of options. Would be great to hear any advice from someone in the know or someone who has been through something similar.

Many thanks,
Ian.

Schools did have a policy that, if children came into contact with COVID, they had to stay away from school for 3 days, presumably the school believed the policy was still required but amended their rules once the OPs “ legal advice” was raised. Yes, a mistake but hardly the crime of the century.

I suspect the kid pulled a fast one to get some illicit time off school, and Ian is furious with the school instead of the boy.
A full year later 🙄

Get over it. We had swine flu back at the start of July ‘09. My kid’s school wouldn’t let them back in for the rest of the school year and fumigated their classrooms. My DS was yr 6 and missed his leaver’s play/parties. It’s just one of those things!

Also you need to remember that if a member of staff has been sacked or disciplined as a result of this the school cannot disclose that to you (in case that’s what you are asking for)

Let it go.

Gently, this is quite embarrassing OP and all of those people that you’ve spoken to will feel the same.

Hold your head up high and let it go to keep hold of the rest of your dignity.

Presumably the school asked for the absence as they believed at the time it was needed to stop vulnérable students or staff dying from COVID. Whilst they might have been legally ‘wrong’, I can’t believe that you have spent time and energy and maybe even money on ‘proving’ that. What on earth do you hope to achieve other than confirm that, yes, you ATA.

And wasn’t this years ago?

Where is Ian’s wife? Can she come on here to confirm she faked COVID so as to isolate from Ian?

Huge overreaction

Man must be right.
Man must feel avenged.
Man must be HEARD.
Man must be bowed down to.

Give it up, Ian

I work in a job where I frequently have to deal with people who get utterly obsessive about wrongs that they perceive to have been done to them, allege all sorts of conspiracies and dishonesty and take things to the nth degree in cases when most often the truth is that someone has just made a human error. It’s good to raise it and complain so it doesn’t happen again and it’s not ideal your child has missed school when they shouldn’t (I’d be cross ) but bigger picture - what’s done is done, you’ve been through the complaints process, and if you’ve really lost confidence in the school then move your child.

I have a friend who does this it is her child who suffers from her obsessions. Relationships with 3 school
placements broke down and her behaviour is central to the issues.

So school made a mistake, you challenged it, they admitted they were wrong and changed their decision, son went back to school. They amended their policy.

Why was that not the end of the matter?

Have you never made a genuine mistake? We are all human after all.

What legal avenue are you thinking of going down and why? What are you trying to achieve apart from causing a huge amount of stress to yourself and quite possibly someone at the school.

Ian, mate
Just let it go now

All this over 3 days off school? You can't be serious?!

Here’s a little thought for you- I had a childhood illness and missed months of school, then had to go back part-time. My schooling was affected for years due to illness. My mother had to reduce her hours to care for me at a very stressful time.

If I were you, I’d be rather grateful that my child missed 3 days of school simply due to a Covid mix up than a life threatening illness, like some poor families end up having to deal with.
Get a grip.

What is the actual issue here??

You raised a complaint and they changed their practice. What more do you want? That to me was good complaint handling on their behalf. They realised they was wrong and quickly rectified the situation. You have no way of knowing or proving they were bothered about the repercussions so changed their policy to suit this.
Are you a serial complainer?

Go down the legal route to what end?
You aren't going to get those 3 days back. The school have corrected their policy. Many other kids will have missed more than 3 days being ill themselves.
This is one magnificent overreaction. Get over it, move on and let the school/LA staff get on with dealing with real issues.
You're on a whole new level of being 'that' parent.

OP isn't returning as they're busy getting legal letters drafted against everyone on this thread.

I'm looking for the school to admit that they could have handled the situation better and to apologise for causing all of this stress. It's been going on since July last year.

A whole year with this at the forefront of your mind…
Who told the school that the boy’s Mum had Covid?

They are not the cause of all your stress. They did one wrong thing, but your reaction and stress is your choice, not their responsibility.

As you can see from your thread, most others would let it go knowing that the people involved won’t do it again.

Why on earth are you still so stressed about not getting an apology? You know they were wrong, you showed them that, and then it was over.

Find places in another school and move on.

I can't imagine why you think it's worth pursuing this. It was 3 days. The situation has been rectified. How will your life be improved if you achieve some kind of "victory" here? You are making yourself look ridiculous.