Summary
Ms C complained about the primary school her child (Child A) attended. She complained that she was not updated about Child A's academic progress; that Child A was unreasonably given access to scissors; that there was an unreasonable failure to record incidents with other pupils; and that there was a failure to communicate reasonably with her regarding her concerns.
In relation to Child A's academic progress, we found that there were appropriate pupil progress reports and that these had been discussed with Ms C at parents' evenings. We considered that this was reasonable and that although there was no record of other discussions about Child A's academic progress, this was appropriate as it was not something which appeared to have been raised. We did not uphold this aspect of Ms C's complaint.
With regard to Child A having access to scissors, we were not able to establish that this had occurred and we did not uphold this aspect of Ms C's complaint. However, we noted that there appeared to have been some inconsistencies in the way an incident was recorded, and we suggested that the council may wish to reflect upon this.
We found that the council's recording of incidents with other pupils was reasonable and in line with policy, and therefore we did not uphold this aspect of Ms C's complaint.
Finally, in relation to communication, we found that on one occasion, there was a failure to pass a letter that Ms C had handed in to the school to the appropriate person. We considered that this was likely to be a one-off failure, however, we upheld the complaint about communication on this basis.
Recommendations
What we asked the organisation to do in this case: Apologise for the failure to pass on Ms C's letter to the class teacher. The apology should meet the standards set out in the SPSO guidelines on apology available at www.spso.org.uk/leaflets-and-guidance We have asked the organisation to provide us with evidence that they have implemented the recommendations we have made on this case by the deadline we set.
Related reading
View Decision Report 201807567 as a PDF (25.18 KB) Updated: August 21, 2019