How to take complaint further?

[Natty41]

A teacher called my son a thick idiot today at school for not doing his homework correctly. Son spoke to his form tutor who said if it's happens again they will then address it. It's not the first incident with a teacher speaking to children like this. Head teacher doesn't deal with complaints and just fobs me and other parents off. Im not sure how to take it further past the head teacher. Any help or advice please?

The school will have a complaints policy. It will tell you how to officially complain and the route to take to appeal any outcome. I agree with you. It’s 100% wrong and offensive. Don’t accept any excuses about overworked stressed out teachers. They are professional people and have professional standards.

Son spoke to his form tutor who said if it's happens again they will then address it.
This is awful. It shouldn't have happened at all, much less wait and see if it happens again! Your poor son, that is totally unacceptable. I would escalate, in writing.

Yes we are way overworked, no this is not any kind of excuse for saying something like that 😱 that’s appalling.

The most effective way I found to complain about a teacher, was to go to management team, and , as neutrally as possible, describe what happened, and then say " Are you ok with that?"
Because it's v hard for them to say yes.

Go online, or via phone if necessary, and find out what the school's complaints policy is.
levels: teacher involved, senior management, Head, Governors, LEA.
Keep going. Keep calm and objective. Don't 'slag off' or attack the teacher.
Make the onus on them to defend the indefensible.

Think carefully about what you want to achieve from this first.

Do you want an apology?
Do you want the teacher fired?
Do you want your child moved class?
Do you want the teacher spoken to and everyone moves on? (probably already happened re being spoken to).

Then come the next steps. There will be a complaints policy, find it on the website and use it.

I would always recommend speaking to a headteacher or head of department before going through the complaints policy. You may get the outcome you want without using the policy.

Has the teacher confirmed that he said it or has someone else been a witness to it?

School kids make up a lot of crap to stir up trouble...

A teacher did something I felt was wrong. I wrote to the head, told him what my child had told me and asked him to confirm whether the teacher’s version of events was consistent with his account. I wanted to go in all guns blazing but I didn’t feel this would achieve what I wanted. In fact, I didn’t get the outcome I expected (the head backed the teacher who I’m
pretty confident didn’t tell the truth but can’t prove) but the head knows I’m keeping an eye on what the teacher does now and my relationship with the school hasn’t broken down - I think it would have done if i launched straight into a complaint.

The Complaints Policy is there to be used. Ofsted look at complaints lodged. If you hush it up, it’s never known about. The OP has been ignored when it should have been dealt with. No investigation has taken place. The only course of action is to follow the complaints policy. If there is evidence that the Head has also not followed up complaints, complain about that too. If a complaint is about the Head, it usually goes to the Chair of Governors.

It’s not up to the OP what happens to a teacher. The op cannot demand they are disciplined. She might be sensible to accept an apology and DS too.

What she can expect is that the incident(s) is/are investigated with witnesses being interviewed and a report written detailing findings. The DS might have been wrong, but equally completely truthful. We don’t know and neither does the school if they don’t investigate. I would also complain about non investigation.

If nothing happens, take it to the Chair of Governors.

www.gov.uk/report-teacher-misconduct

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/education/sorting-out-school-problems/

#this happened.