Complaining - best way forward

[PJ100]

Hello,
If one has an issue with the school, what's the next step. There are quite a few parents unhappy with the way classes are being arranged for next year (being in different classes for morning/afternoon, mixing groups across KS1 and KS2 etc).
The head seems pretty fixed that this is the way it's going to be and that's that. Where's best to go next - another parent has tried the local council but hasn't much help and they say contact the governors. Anyone got experience of trying to challenge decisions like this?
Thank you!

Are they trying to stream?

well... have you asked them why they are doing it?

i think i would first make an appt with the head teacher and get him/her to tell you why they are doing it- generally I trust our school to know what suits and benefits the children best, even if i think it sounds crazy!

if you are still unhappy with it then talk to the governors and see what they say

No they're splitting by age.
Which means there are parents concerned at both ends!
They're planning to split Year 3 for the afternoons, with half going with Year 2 and half with Year 4.

It would be nice to be able to get an appointment with the head... !!

you are entitled to book an apoointment with HT. A letter should have gone out explaining of the new drastic proposal with a meeting to attend and air your views. Not sure why this has not happened tbh.

well call the school now and arrange one, don't take no for an answer

We got a letter on Friday afternoon. When I went to the office this morning I was told there would be a meeting but no date as yet. A friend was told there was no point in asking for an appointment!

How about waiting to see if it works (or fails) before you complain?

Looks like they're having to shed staff. I bet they don't really want to do it either.

I would suggest that you ask for a meeting with the head in writing/email and keep a record of the response you get. If its a negative reply try and get that in writing too.
If you are still not happy write to the chairman of governors, again keep records of everything. If relevant make sure that you say you hasve tried to speak to the head but were unable to.
If it does end up that you need to make a formal complaint, which hopefully it won't, you will be on much stronger ground if have kept notes as it pretty likely that the school won't have done.
I'm not recommending overreacting, I do agree with waiting to get more information but it won't hurt to be prepared from the start.

Thank you all for the very helpful comments. They're not shedding staff, I think it all boils down to student numbers - some classes with 20 pupils.

Classes break even financially at approximately 27 or 28 pupils. The school may be doing its best to organise classes within a limited budget. Schools just simply can't afford to run classes of 20, without making massive cuts elsewhere.

At my dd's school, the children are in single age classes in the morning, but mixed age classes in the afternoons.

Schools have finite budgets for staffing costs. No matter what parents feel about the staffing and class organisation, the school may simply not have any leeway.

Wait until the meeting to find out what's going on.

Schools have only just found out how many pupils they are going to have in September, and this dictates their staffing and class structures.

Thanks Littlefish.
We don't know when the meeting is, it is certainly not until half term. I asked today but there is no date set.
I can understand mixing classes, it's how they've done it I can't get my head round.

Out of interest Littlefish: does your school mix key stages?

Many thanks

My dd's school doesn't, but I went to visit one today which does, and I also visited one last week which has done so in the past.

When you are talking about schools with variable numbers in classes, then the organisation of classes can change each year.

I've taught a mixed Rec/Y1 class before, because of a low number of children in Reception, but then the following year, it reverted to a Reception only class.

My DS was in a mixed KS1/2 class for two years. It was fine. There was extra staffing in the morning so they were taught in two year 2 and two year 3 classes, then amalgamated into three mixed classes in the afternnon. So literacy and numeracy were set within years, and then topic stuff and science and the foundation subjects were mixed. DS therefore learned for example what he was supposed to learn in year 2 science in year 3 and vice versa, but it wasn't a problem.

The school really had little option given the class sizes. DD is unlikely to be a mixed class as there are 60 in her year group. The flip side of that is of course that DS was ina reception class of 18, DD of 30. Swings and roundabouts I reckon.

The worst thing a school can do is to send out a letter like this without having a follow-up meeting arranged. Although they might not have thought it was that contentious I suppose. Wait for the meeting and listen to their reasoning first.

Thanks all. I'll wait until we get a meeting date. I do think they should have had a meeting arranged when they sent the letter out. Everyone had the weekend to stew about it and as there is still no meeting date, we don't know any further. I know of two parents who've already made arrangements to move their children to different schools.
I think if it had been handled better this might not have happened....
Let's see what happens at the meeting (whenever we get it).

Still no meeting date. But it now looks as if half the parents of this class year (that we know of so far) are unhappy with the situation so it's not just a couple, and they are with kids on both sides of the "split", not just parents who feel their children will be "held back".
I'll let you know what results. We're going to try to organise ourselves so that the school does listen to our concerns.

This is a very simple situation. The head is in charge of the day to day management of the school based on their professional capability. The class structure for next year is their responsibility and as such there is absolutely nothing that the LA can and will do about it.

The governors are responsible for the strategic management of the school and again would not get involved in such a day to day management decision. Where the head and now the governors are guilty is in their inability to get the message across to parents and now this messing around over a meeting. That is just poor management and shows a lack of respect for the parents and a lack of good judgement over the likely reaction to the changes.