School refuses to give out name of the Chair of governing body

[nialopes]

Hi a bit of advice needed.

I want to make a complaint about my daughter's primary school and the headteacher. I contacted the office and the admin person has point blank refused to give the name of the Chair of governing body of the school. She says she can not disclose such information and that I need to meet with Headteacher first. The complaint is about the headteacher so I refuse to meet with her.

So basically they can't tell me where to send my complaint and who to address it to? Can they actually keep this information a secret?

I have read the charging policy of the school word of word.

All they talk about is donations on a voluntary basis. Only if child is on a trip which involves over night stay on hotel etc then we have to pay. Which I have done in the past as they has a trip to London and stayed in hotel for 3 nights. Apart from that it is all voluntary

word for word *

I'm pleased to see you've find out the name, I was going to say it was totally ridiculous not to give you the name.

If this is an English state school they must have all governor names on the website with what type of governor they are. If you can find the names of the parent governors you might be able to give them the letter. The problem with giving it to the school is that you won't know if it gets to the Chair of Governors. Even if the school signs for the letter how you will you they pass it on?

Well I will address to the Chair by name....surely they were thought from early age not to open other people's post?

I will send it in the post, I'm not writing my name on the envelope so they would not know immediately that it is from me...unless they open it

Nialopes, it sounds like you have a valid complaint. Make sure you follow the school's complaints procedure. However if that's not on the school website, then you'll have to ask the receptionist for a copy.

The BHA might give you some advice if you need it. See here: humanism.org.uk/2015/09/03/bha-research-reveals-shocking-number-of-state-faith-schools-demanding-money-from-parents/

If you're worried the letter won't be given to the chair (although I see no reason why it wouldn't be), you can always include your email or telephone number and ask for acknowledgement that the letter was received.

Before I was given an email address by the school, they used to send me my (unopened) mail by post once a week.

If it contained an email or telephone number, I would contact immediately out of politeness to say it had been received (albeit late) and give an estimated in for the problem to be dealt with.

*estimated time

I'd like to mention that the name used in my post is a made up name ( it is not the real name of my daughter)

To the lady who private messaged me ....I tried to reply but for some reason my message is not sending.

Thanks for your message :)

The school are way out of order here in pushing voluntary donations into what is in effect a bill for you. They simply cannot do this legally but rely on the vast majority of parents not raising it as an issue. I hope that this is mis-communication in the school office about what they can and cannot do but given I have seen it happen numerous times before with church schools I am not holding my breathe on that.
I would not be surprised if the response that you get talks about the belief that as a faith school we get less funding than other LA maintained schools. That is also totally incorrect. There is no difference in the funding they get. They do have to pay 10% towards any capital work at the school but the school budget for the running of the school is exactly the same as a directly comparable LA maintained school.

Are they signing your daughter up for the trips without your agreement, then effectively emotionally blackmailing you into stumping up? That seems very out of line if they are.

IME you get sent a letter about school trips which makes it clear that attendance is voluntary for the expensive ones. For the ones that are during the school day and comparatively cheap (£3ish) then they tend to word it like the child will be put down to go, but the £3 is a voluntary contribution towards the school's costs. I doubt whether they bother chasing if people don't pay.

For the expensive ones if you do want your child to attend then there is often the option to pay in instalments if the cost is high. There is usually a sentence to the effect that if you want your child to attend but can't afford it then contact the office and they will see if the cost can be met out of pta funds or similar.

No they did not sign mu daughter for expensive trips without consent. They did write letters etc. That was fine but it is the other voluntary contribution they keep asking for....all the time

Admission what you said was spot on. They know exactly what they are doing but because no one says anything they keep pushing. After the receptionist told me how much my daughter has already received from the school (sounds like emotional blackmail) to me....I then wrote an email back to her as i wasn't really happy about her words and she then apologised in another email. She realised I'm not happy at all with this situation.

I will be writing my complaint tomorrow

Oh I see, it's like a general ongoing 'donation' to extracurricular school funds that they are pushing you to make?! An odd way to go about it - schools usually do this through organised fundraising events via pta or similar. I would have thought that it's illegal to just bill parents for extracurricular fundraising on an ongoing basis.

Honestly? It's May. You say your daughter is moving to secondary school in September, so you're involved in this school for a another eight weeks. Bin the emails, let the whole thing lie, and come August you'll never have to have anything to do with the school again. Any complaint won't be resolved until next academic year anyway, and by then you don't care. The receptionist, whether on her own initiative or on instructions from the school, is behaving poorly, but there's little point in trying to do much about it with so little time remaining.

But look at whether you're eligible for free school meals, because schools desperately need the pupil premium money.

Schools also have to have a payment policy - might be worth reminding them of this statutory requirement and what they can and can't ask money for.

It is worth finding out if you're eligible for free school meals, even if you continue to send in packed lunches anyway. I did this, and all sorts of other goodies appeared as well as general extra money for the school.

If you are eligible, you should be able to access some funding towards the secondary uniform costs too.

My dds fell into a sort of second level band of eligibility when my business started to make more profit, but still not a massive one. So FSMs stopped, but they still got help with uniform and school trips.

thank you all for your advice

I slept on it and this morning was thinking ok it's May and she is soon leaving the school do i bother at all. Then I get another snotty email from the receptionist.....I am not sure whether I will address it as a complaint but I will certainly write to the Chair of governors to say it is not the right way to do things

Even if it's May, I would raise this. They obviously aren't going to stop sending these emails and there may well be other parents with children further down the school who are also getting the hard sell.

Out of interest, what do you think would be the result if you asked them to remove your email address from their records as you've stopped using it and no, you can't provide them with another one.

It sounds like they know full well that parents whose children are leaving soon will be disinclined to succumb to their emotional blackmail unreasonable requests for 'voluntary' cash, and are turning up the pressure!

If you have the energy, it's worth a complaint and suggestion that they raise extracurricular funds in a more above-board and genuinely voluntary manner.

Some schools have a hardship fund for parents who can't afford things. Is it worth checking whether yours does?

Schools are obliged to publish the names of the governors on their website. I believe they are not obliged to publish their addresses; correspondence is via the clerk to the governors, but if I were you I would address it to the chair by name, then put via clerk to governors underneath. I would write PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL on the envelope. I am chair of the staffing committee of a governing body and copying in to the equivalent at your school might also be an idea. There should also be a complaints policy which must also be in the website.

On the FSM Pupil Premium issue, there is a measure called Ever6. If you have been entitled to FSM (even if you didn't claim) then your child is entitled to pupil premium funding for 6 years after they were last eligible for FSM. Lots of schools have charging policies which cover ever6 pupil premium pupils meaning that these children get free or reduced (usually about 50%) trips, extra curricular clubs, music tuition etc. I can't recommend highly enough checking out whether you have ever been eligible. The 6 year period can straddle primary and secondary, and could mean some help with the costs of secondary uniform / kit.

Schools have a right to ask for voluntary donations in line with their charging and remissions policy. Constant emails are not acceptable. However most schools make it clear that if insufficient numbers of parents donate, then the trip may be cancelled. It sounds like there are possibly too many trips or they just hound parents for money without reviewing their educational trips and parents' ability to pay. You could also say your DC will not go on trips that are not educational. I also think some faith schools are more zealous about this than other schools. Parents are supposed to show how grateful they are in hard cash.

You should just ignore the emails. They have no right to send them and I rather think you will not get anywhere with a complaint. Leave this battle to others with younger children.

When my children went to a church of England primary and there was no pressure at all to pay afaik and nothing about being grateful.

Maybe it's a catholic trait rather than a faith one. Out of interest OP will your daughter be going to a catholic secondary, you might find it doesn't end in July