Introduction 
 
Oak Green School is committed to working in close partnership with all members of the school community and providing the best possible education and support for all its children. The school places great value on the role which parents and carers can play in supporting children’s learning. Staff and governors actively encourage a positive relationship between the school and the families of children who attend the school. We also desire to have good relations with our neighbours and the wider community. However, we appreciate that there may be times when the school has not met expectations. The complaint procedure is designed to ensure that concerns and complaints are properly investigated and are given careful and fair consideration. 

Our policy is to:  

• provide a fair complaints procedure which is clear and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint; 
• allow swift handling with established time-limits for action and keeping people informed of the progress 
• publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that people know how to contact us to make a complaint;  
• make sure everyone at Oak Green School knows what to do if a complaint is received;
• make sure all complaints are investigated fairly and in a timely way;  
•  make sure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that relationships are repaired;
• respect people’s desire for confidentiality, wherever possible (some information sharing may be necessary to carry out a thorough investigation)  gather information which helps us to improve what we do.  
• address all points of issue, providing an effective response and appropriate redress, where necessary
• Where any concerns are raised we aim to resolve these as quickly and as efficiently as possible

Usually concerns that are raised can be resolved very quickly through the school’s day to day communication between parents and staff. However, for those situations where this is not the case, we have a more formal process to investigate and deal with complaints which is detailed on the following pages.  

 
We will try to resolve every concern, difficulty or complaint in a positive way with the aim of putting right a matter which may have gone wrong and, where necessary, reviewing the school’s systems and procedures in the light of the matters raised.  This procedure will apply to most general complaints received by the school. It is not intended to cover those matters for which there is a specific statutory process to object, complain or appeal. 

In all cases, we will put the interests of the child above all other issues. 

Who can raise a complaint?  
 
Complaints may come from any person or organisation that has an interest in the school.  
 
Timescales for submitting a complaint  
 
To enable a proper investigation, concerns or complaints should be brought to the attention of the school as soon as possible, usually within three months. This time limit does not apply if it can be shown that there were good reasons for not making the complaint earlier and it is still possible to investigate the complaint properly.  

When complaints are made out of term time, we will consider them to have been raised on the next school day. 
                                                                                  
 
Confidentiality  

All complaint information will be handled sensitively, telling only those who need to know and following any relevant data protection requirements.

For our full Policy including the stages of making a complaint please see https://www.oakgreen.bucks.sch.uk/policies/