- admin@montpelier.ealing.sch.uk
- 020 8997 5855
Due to the COVID – 19 pandemic this procedure may be reviewed more frequently, particularly in relation to the timescales that the school can reasonably meet. Following the government’s decision to close schools again from 4th January 2021, this procedure has been reviewed and areas that may be affected by the impact of the pandemic have been more clearly highlighted.
Montpelier Primary School endeavours to provide the best possible education for all of its pupils in an open and transparent environment. We always acknowledge any feedback that we receive from parents, pupils and third parties, and we accept that not all of this will be positive. Where concerns are raised the school intends for these to be dealt with fairly, openly, promptly and without prejudice.
In order to do so, the governing board of Montpelier Primary School has approved the following procedure which explains what you should do if you wish to make a complaint about the school. Senior members of staff will be familiar with the procedure and will be able to assist you.
At all stages, the audio or video recording of meetings is not allowed, and any data gathered in this way is inadmissible at any stage, without the prior consent of all parties.
For the purpose of this procedure:
A concern may be defined as having a worry or doubt over an issue considered to be important for which reassurances are sought. Most concerns can be dealt with without resorting to the formal stages of the formal complaints procedure.
A complaint may be defined as an expression of dissatisfaction however made, about actions taken or a lack of action in response to a concern being raised.
Sometimes, the term “complaint” is used when the issue raised would be more accurately defined as a concern.
The school will work with parents and carers to resolve concerns quickly and provide any reassurance that may be necessary. The school aims to foster and maintain positive relationships with parents and carers through a timely response to concerns.
At Montpelier School, staff endeavour to respond to concerns rapidly.
The governing board of Montpelier Primary School encourages those who have concerns to first raise them with the appropriate person at the school (for example, your child’s class teacher, senior staff or the headteacher) and to work constructively with that person towards resolving them.
Where you have a concern about any aspect of the school or your child’s education or wellbeing speak to or contact a member of teaching staff, a senior member of staff, assistant or deputy headteacher or somebody from the business team. Alternatively, you can telephone the school or send a letter / email. The school is committed to resolving concerns, particularly those which may be a barrier to learning or children’s well-being.
The majority of concerns can be resolved without resorting to the Complaints Procedure. Ideally, your child’s class teacher or another member of staff will be able to address your concerns on the spot, or they can arrange a meeting or telephone call with you to discuss the issue.
The school always addresses concerns by speaking to parents/carers or third parties, monitoring, investigating and gathering actions. Concerns are often resolved when parents and carers work closely with teaching staff.
The extent to which this is both attempted and followed may be taken into consideration when assessing the reasonableness of a complaint during the formal stages of the procedure.
Having raised a concern and given the school an opportunity to take action, where dissatisfaction remains, a formal complaint can be made in person, in writing or by telephone. This may also be made by someone on your behalf, as long as they have your clear written consent to do so.
The formal stages of the procedure should be followed when attempts to resolve concerns informally have proved unsuccessful, and where individuals therefore wish to raise their concern formally as a complaint.
Complaints against school staff (except the Head Teacher) should be made in the first instance, to the Head Teacher via the school office. Please mark them as FAO Headteacher Private and Confidential either in a subject header or on a sealed envelope.
Complaints that involve or are about the Head Teacher should be addressed to the Chair of Governors, via the school office. Please mark them as FAO Chair of Governors Private and Confidential, again in the subject header or on a sealed envelope.
Complaints about the Chair of Governors, any individual governor or the whole Governing Board should be addressed to the Clerk to the Governing Board via the school office. Please mark them as FAO Clerk to the Governing Board Private and Confidential.
For ease of use, a Complaints Form is included at the end of this procedure to help clarify the issues of your complaint.
If you require help in completing the form, please contact the school office. You can also ask third party organisations like Citizens Advice to help you.
In accordance with equality law, we will consider making reasonable adjustments if required, to enable you to access and complete this complaints procedure. For instance, providing information in alternative formats where possible, assisting you in raising a formal complaint or holding meetings inaccessible locations on the school site.
Concerns or complaints, including follow-up correspondence, which are emailed to the school will be received by a member of the business team and will be dealt with in an appropriately confidential manner and in line with the roles and responsibilities outlined in this document. The school will decide upon the most appropriate form of communication it uses.
Where a complaint has been directed to the incorrect person, the business manager, clerk to the governing board, headteacher or other appropriate body will contact the complainant for clarification.
Informal concerns and complaints will be dealt with confidentially at all stages and at the conclusion of the procedure.
Confidentiality should be maintained at all times by everyone involved. The governing board of Montpelier Primary School requests that complaints are not discussed publicly, including via social media.
Actions taken in relation to school staff that arise as a result of the complaint will remain confidential to the school and the member of staff concerned.
Written records taken and used throughout the complaints process, including correspondence, notes of meetings, telephone calls etc., will be kept securely and in accordance with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018.
Complaints received outside of term time: We will consider complaints made outside of term time to have been received on the first school day after the holiday period.
If other bodies are investigating aspects of the complaint, for example the police, local authority (LA) safeguarding teams or Tribunals, this may impact on our ability to adhere to the timescales within this procedure or result in the procedure being suspended until those public bodies have completed their investigations.
If you commence legal action against Montpelier Primary School in relation to your complaint, we will consider whether to suspend the complaints procedure in relation to the complaint until those legal proceedings have concluded.,
Where a complaint is about the headteacher, the complainant should notify the clerk to the governors (see contact details at the end of the document). The stage one process (see the formal stages below) will then commence, but with the chair of governors as the individual responsible for the investigation, rather than the headteacher.
Where a complaint concerns a governor, the complainant should contact the clerk to the governing board. The clerk will then determine the most appropriate course of action, seeking advice as appropriate. This will depend upon the nature of the complaint.
Notification of a complaint should be given as soon as possible after the issue or event that directly led to the complaint has occurred, and after informal attempts to seek resolution have proved unsuccessful during this period. Complaints that are submitted after three months since the issue occurred, that led to the complaint, will not usually be considered under this procedure. Sometimes, however, there are exceptional circumstances which mean that it is appropriate to extend the timescale. The school will consider these circumstances and decide whether it is appropriate to extend a timeline and, if so, will confirm the new timescale.
During the pandemic, complaints should still be made in line with the above information and the school will also endeavour to handle the complaint in line with the given timescales where the availability of staff and resources allow.
The majority of concerns can be dealt with without resorting to the formal stages of the procedure. If you need to raise a concern, then please do so with the relevant member of staff who will be happy to talk to you and seek to resolve it. If there is dissatisfaction after raising a concern, a formal complaint may be raised.
There are two formal stages of the complaints procedure.
Formal investigation by headteacher (it may be appropriate to delegate this to a senior member of staff)
1. A request for a formal investigation of a complaint by the headteacher (or chair of the governing board as appropriate) should be made in writing to the school’s general email address, or by completing the formal complaints form that is included as Appendix 1 of this procedure. In either case the complainant must be specific about the complaint and what action they feel would resolve their complaint.
2. The headteacher (or chair of the governing board as appropriate) will acknowledge the request in writing no later than 10 full school days (full working days excluding those that fall in the school holidays) of receiving it. The written acknowledgment will, as far as possible, explain how the complaint will be investigated and the timescale for completing the investigation. Where a complaint is received within 10 full days of a school holiday, the acknowledgement may be sent after the break but within the 10 full school day limit.
3. A log of all correspondence in relation to the complaint will be kept in accordance with Data Protection Principles.
4. The headteacher will consider all relevant evidence. This may include, but is not limited to:
a. obtaining statements from the complainant and those involved with the complaint
b. meeting with the complainant and those involved in the complaint
c. reviewing correspondence and other documents relating to the complaint
5. After considering the available evidence, the headteacher can decide to:
a. uphold the complaint and direct that certain action be taken to resolve it
b. uphold the complaint in part (in other words find an aspect or aspects of the complaint to be valid, but not the whole complaint) direct for certain action to be taken, or
c. dismiss the complaint entirely
6. The headteacher will inform the complainant of their decision in writing, the grounds on which it was made, and any actions taken as a result of the complaint.
7. This will be within 20 full working days (excluding those that fall in the school holidays) of having issued written acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint (see 2 above).
8. The written notification shall also advise the complainant of their right to escalate the complaint to stage 2 of the formal complaints procedure if they are not satisfied with the outcome at stage 1, including the contact details of the clerk to the governing board (see contact details below).
Review by a panel of the governing board of Montpelier School
The complainant is entitled to request a review of the decision taken at stage 1 and the actions taken. The review is carried out by a panel of the school governing board at a meeting convened by the clerk to the governing board.
Requests for a review of the decision taken at stage 1 should be made in writing to the clerk (see contact details below) no later than 4 weeks (28 days) after written notification of the decision taken has been received.
The request to the clerk must include a brief summary of the complaint, specify why the complainant is dissatisfied with the outcome of stage 1 and the outcome they are seeking.
The clerk will fulfil the role of organising the time and date of the review meeting, inviting all the attendees, collating all the relevant documents and distributing these 5 full school days in advance of the meeting.
The following steps are taken at stage 2:
This is the final stage at which the school will consider the complaint. If the complainant remains dissatisfied and wishes to escalate the complaint further, they should refer to the following:
If you believe the school did not handle your complaint in accordance with the published complaints procedure or they acted unlawfully or unreasonably in the exercise of their duties under education law, you can contact the Department for Education after you have completed Stage 2.
The Department for Education will not normally reinvestigate the substance of complaints or overturn any decisions made by the School. They will consider whether the School has adhered to education legislation and any statutory policies connected with the complaint.
You can refer the complaint to the Department for Education online
Stage 1
Stage 2
Montpelier Primary School will endeavour to complete the formal stages of its complaints procedure in a timely manner and within the timescale for each stage that is referred to above. However, this timescale is dependent upon the school’s staff and resource capacity to meet it. Where it is clear that published timescales cannot be met, we will notify the claimant and send details of the revised timescale together with an explanation of the delay.
For the purpose of this procedure, a complaint may be viewed as serial and/or persistent if it relates substantially to the same issue that was the subject of a previous complaint (made by the same complainant) which has already been through a formal complaints procedure in which the complainant has been notified of the outcome.
In such cases the headteacher/chair of the governing board/clerk to the governing board (as appropriate) will consult with relevant parties and may decide that the complaint is not considered under this procedure. The complainant will be notified in writing that this is the case and that Montpelier Primary School will provide no further response.
For the purpose of this procedure, a complaint may be viewed as unreasonable if it contains threatening, abusive or offensive language and conveys unrealistic outcomes beyond all reason.
Montpelier Primary School defines unreasonable behaviour as that which hinders its consideration of complaints because of the frequency or nature of the complainant’s contact with the school, such as, if the complainant:
Complainants should try to limit their communication with the school that relates to the complaint, while the complaint is being progressed. It is not helpful if repeated correspondence is sent (either by letter, phone, email or text), as it could delay the outcome being reached. Whenever possible, the Headteacher or Chair of Governors will endeavour to discuss any concerns with the complainant informally before applying an ‘unreasonable’ marking.
If the behaviour continues the headteacher, chair of governors or clerk to the governing board will write to the complainant explaining that their behaviour is unreasonable and ask them to change it. If they excessively contact Montpelier Primary School causing a significant level of disruption, the school may specify methods of communication and limit the number of contacts in a communication plan. This will be reviewed after six months.
In response to any serious incident of aggression or violence, the school will immediately inform the police and communicate our actions in writing. This may include barring an individual from Montpelier Primary School.
Where the complainant persists with defamatory and unsubstantiated content in their communication, Montpelier Primary School may seek legal advice with a view to pursuing action to address such behaviour.
Queries regarding any aspect of the complaints procedure should be directed to the clerk to the governing board at the admin@montpelier.ealing.sch.uk marking the email or letter as “FAO Clerk to the Governing Board Private and Confidential”.
This correspondence will be managed and forwarded, by the Business Team.
You will receive a more effective response to the complaint if you:
The investigator’s role is to establish the facts relevant to the complaint by:
The investigator should:
The Headteacher or complaints panel will then determine whether to uphold or dismiss the complaint and communicate that decision to you, providing the appropriate escalation details.
The complaints coordinator should:
The Clerk is the contact point for you and the panel and should:
The panel’s chair, who is nominated in advance of the complaint meeting, should ensure that:
Panel members should be aware that:
Careful consideration of the atmosphere and proceedings should ensure that the child/young person does not feel intimidated.
The panel should respect the views of the child/young person and give them equal consideration to those of adults.
If the complaint is made by a child/young person, the panel should ask in advance if any support is needed to help them present their complaint. A parent should be asked which part of the meeting they would like the child/young person to attend if the child/young person is making the complaint. However, the parent should be advised that agreement might not always be possible if the parent wishes the child/young person to attend a part of the meeting that the panel considers is not in the child/young person’s best interests.
A concern may be defined as having a worry or doubt over an issue considered to be important for which reassurances are sought. Most concerns can be dealt with without resorting to the formal stages of the formal complaints procedure.
Please contact the school immediately if you have a concern or worry, by telephoning the school first on 020 8997 5855 or emailing admin@montpelier.ealing.sch.uk marking the subject header “Concern”
A complaint may be defined as an expression of dissatisfaction however made, about actions taken or a lack of action in response to a concern being raised.
Please complete and return the complaint form to admin@montpelier.ealing.sch.uk for the attention of Miss Power, School Business Manager who will acknowledge receipt and explain what action will be taken. (This form can be requested for electronic completion from admin@montpelier.ealing.sch.uk and returned to the same address)
For the Complaint Form PDF version – click here.
Montpelier Primary School Complaints Procedure