The school’s governors and the Headmaster are committed to providing the best educational experience they can for all pupils and parents of those pupils attending this school. We understand that when there is dissatisfaction and a pupil or parent wishes to express their concern or make a formal complaint we have a duty to listen, investigate and communicate and we recognise the value to all concerned of dealing fairly, speedily and effectively with any such issues. We anticipate that most concerns will be resolved quickly by an informal approach to the appropriate member of staff. If this does not achieve the desired result, we have a set of procedures for dealing with concerns.

We believe that children and parents are entitled to expect courtesy. We welcome suggestions on how to improve our school. We pride ourselves on the quality of the teaching and pastoral care provided to our pupils. However, we recognise that parents will, from time to time, have normal and legitimate concerns about the progress, achievement, behaviour or welfare of their son or daughter. Parents are encouraged to make those concerns known to staff so that they can be addressed in partnership with the school.

Aim

We aim to bring all concerns about the running of our setting to a satisfactory conclusion for all of the parties involved. To achieve this, we operate the following complaints principles.

• Take all concerns and complaints seriously
• Make every effort to deal with complaints informally and at an early stage
• Resolve all complaints within 28 actual working days of the complaint being received
• Ensure that complaints are dealt with in line with the procedures set out in our complaints policy document
• Ensure that complaints are resolved either to the complainant’s satisfaction or with an otherwise      appropriate outcome which balances the rights and duties of pupils
•  Ensure that, where appropriate, a full and fair investigation of the issue is undertaken
•  Ensure that no-one, including pupils, are penalised for making a complaint in good faith
• Keep a written record, for at least three years, of all complaints, the action taken and at what stage they were resolved (Note: this information is provided to Ofsted at their request)
• Review regularly at senior leadership level the written record of complaints and their outcomes
•  Keep confidential all records relating to individual complaints except where the Secretary of State or a body conducting an inspection under section 162A of the 2002 Act, as amended, requests access to them

A record of formal complaints and their outcomes is kept by the Headmaster and is reviewed regularly by the Headmaster, to identify whether review or change of practice is needed and so that patterns can be identified and appropriate interventions made.

This policy is applicable to all pupils in our school and is available on request from school. The school is fully committed to ensuring that the application of this policy is non-discriminatory in line with the UK Equality Act (2010). Further details are available in the school’s Equalities Policy document.