School Complaints

[squealerwheeler]

My child is in a small church school that has split age classes. She thrived last year in a Y1/Y2 group being with the older children. This year has been a bomb and it’s like I have a totally different child. There are extensive behavioural and SEN needs in the other half of her year and this has meant 17 weeks of constant disruption and increasingly alarming incidents in the class. This has included violence towards my child and a few others. These have been played down by the school, and doubt introduced as to whether these even happened with my child painted as an unreliable witness/victim. However the latest response from the Chair of governors really worries me. In that she states that ‘the school cannot guarantee complete control of the class’. I’m astonished at such a statement. Surely this breaches keeping children safe in education guidance? Im minded to send this to the LADO and the governor team in the LA. Welcome thoughts and sense checking here!

It’s hard as it takes time to get the evidence gathered to get the EHCPs the kids with SEN need to get the support they need - it should improve as they get provisions in place but the cogs move slow!

Id consider moving them to another bigger school with classes with one year group and potentially more funding and more TAs. Small schools often seem to suffer with this.

It is unacceptable to say this. Forward the email from the Chair of Governors to OFSTED. A Church school will be be answerable to the local Diocesan Board. The school will also have a local link inspector. Forward the email to all three expressing your concerns.

I agree that the Chair’s response is badly worded. But as to whether you should take this further - can you be more specific as to the sort of disruption and alarming incidents? I’m not trying to minimise your concerns, but what might be viewed as constant disruption might be considered par for the course for some and the alarming incidents may be one-offs that have been resolved.

Unfortunately, you do get some tricky cohorts and the school may be very constrained as to what they can do. If you feel that it truly isn’t a safe environment then you may need to look for another school.

Thanks. My child reported that she was kicked in the face by the child. The governor investigation concluded that she may have been hit by a falling foot. Other incidents over the space of a week included strangling, hitting and biting other children. These have been shared with the LADO. It’s the ongoing environment of this that worries me - that it’s just a normal part of the day

I had a similar experience in a small, double year group intake, CofE school. My experience is such that if a school brushes things under the rug they will continue to do it. In my case the behaviour escalated. The governors are somewhat colluding with the HT, in their response. They should be holding the school to account. Contacting the diocese is a good shout and one I never thought of doing.

I echo the advice of another poster who says look at larger, better funded schools. Small schools sound good on paper but they are not that great in dealing with SEN and safedlguarding (imo and ime).

Controversial but I'd move my child to a school with below average reported SEN pupil number.

It's getting Ridiculous now how much these kids take precedence over everyone else in the class and school

That’s awful!

‘the school cannot guarantee complete control of the class’.

That's an outrageous statement from the CoG! Definitely forward it to the LA and Diocesan Office citing your concerns about your child's safety and welfare. See if you can persuade other parents to do the same.

Why has it gone to LADO, that’s for allegations against an adult

I said I was considering sending it to the LADO. Is it not the responsibility of the school staff to keep the children safe. If they can’t that’s a safeguarding issue hence LADO involvement

I don’t have children who are of school age yet but this is really concerning.

I’d be escalating this as high as you can. Non SEN children are just as important as SEN children and they shouldn’t be made to suffer. The schools lack of care towards your child is awful. Hit by a falling foot? That’s just ridiculous.

Have the other parents not said anything?

It is very poor wording but the reality is that no school can guarantee complete control of a class. They can put things in place to reduce a possibility of problems arising, but they can never guarantee a child will never dysregulate in a class and I would worry if a school said they could guarantee that.

Can we all hand on heart say our child has never misbehaved, never got upset and lashed out?

Now, some of the things the OP has said has happened in the class are worrying and I would hope measures were being put in place, but when funding is so tight and numbers of children with SEN being shoehorned into the current education system which doesn't suit some of them, it is a complete nightmare. For a child to be removed from school, schools have to show they have done everything they can before this action is taken, especially if SEN is involved.

So I would be asking what they are doing to safeguard the children. If they shrug their shoulders and say as we can't guarantee control so we aren't doing anything, if they are excusing violence by saying it was a falling foot, that certainly isn't good enough. But if they give examples of what they are doing, to say prevent triggers of this behaviour, extra supervision etc then work with the school.

Was the report from the Chair of Governors following a complaint going through the complaints policy?

A falling foot…. That’s a new one on me! Deffo report and the response from the chair is very poor

It rather makes it sound as though the foot was disconnected from anything else, which is ridiculous. Why was a foot ‘falling’ anyway.

There are some children whose behaviour can be unpredictable and who may suddenly exhibit behaviours that put themselves or others in danger. Perhaps that was what the chair of governors was trying to say when s/he mentioned not being able to guarantee complete control. It was a poor way to express it and that and the ‘falling foot’ would give me grave doubts about the school.

LADOs are responsible for allegations against adults. This isn’t that so they’re not going to help - they don’t have overall responsibility for safeguarding in schools. They oversee and advise on investigations into adults with allegations against them.

If that was the response from the Chair of Governors as part of a formal complaint then escalate as part of the policy. The next stage is likely to be a governor panel. You need to go through the stages before escalating anywhere and the complaints policy will tell you where to take it.
However, I’d move your daughter, they will follow the complaint through but I’m not sure what actually is going to change. The level of need is still going to be there, they may eventually get more funding but it could be a long road in order to get these children the support they need.

As a headteacher, it feels to me like there’s a bit of a confusion around the role of governors in this school. The incident with the ‘falling foot’ - why were governors investigating this? Governors should not be involved in operational matters, unless it’s part of a formal complaint. In this case, governors would be looking at school processes, and checking they were followed correctly. They should not be involved in the actual investigation of an incident.

The letter from the Chair is also very odd. I can’t understand why a school would make such a statement?

I think your concerns are genuine and that you have the right to know what the school are doing to keep your child safe. The LADO is not the right person as they investigate safeguarding concerns relating to adults. I would recommend a meeting with the head ( not the governors) to ask how the school is fulfilling their safeguarding duty, though you are sympathetic of the challenges they face. If you are not satisfied, then use the school’s complaints process to make a formal complaint.