Did you see your DCs references for indie secondary school?

[banditqueen]

I'm sure I've read on here that if your DC is at a state primary you can ask to see any info they hold about them under either the freedom of information act or the data protection act (can't remember which...)

So have any of you asked to nose at references they have written and succeeded?

I've been told by DS' primary that they can't let me see these, so before I make a twat of myself and put it in writing quoting The Law, can you please reassure me that this is definitely correct and they will need to hand them over (even while understandably grumbling about it)

To be honest, we did not entirely trust our state primary to produce a reference that would really reflect the qualities in our DS that the indie he was applying to was looking for. We flagged this with the admissions tutor there and asked if any additional references would also be helpful. We were told they would be, and we got a reference from a consultant at the Good Schools Guide who had assessed DS for us privately, which we did see. We submitted this. Don't know if it made any difference but we did get the offer we hoped for.

As an aside, one of DS's classmates had to carry another DC's reference from the DC told its mum later: "Mum, it was ALL lies". Delivered with very round eyes and shocked look! Apparently, the reference was glowing BTW, but the head has personally been giving extra help to the child in question to give more context.

sorry - last should read had to carry the reference from the office to a teacher and then the DC told its mum