Complaints Procedure Student Friendly Policy

Feeling safe and happy at Lime Hills

At Lime Hills we want to make sure that you feel looked after, safe and happy when you are in and out of of the academy. Sometimes we don’t know if you are unhappy with something, so you need to tell us.

This policy is here to help you understand who to speak to if you are un- happy or need to be reassured about something in the academy.

The difference between a concern and a complaint

A concern is when you have a worry or doubt over something and you need to have someone reassure you.

A complaint is when you are not happy about something that has happened or has not happened yet. The important thing is that we want to make sure that concerns and complaints are sorted out as soon as possible

How to raise a concern or make a complaint

A concern or complaint can be made by you in person, or you can write it down. You can also ask an adult you trust to report it for if you want to and they can talk to the academy about it for you. If you have a concern then you can talk to any adult in the academy. If you have a complaint you should talk to your teacher, the Principal or any member of the academy staff that you feel comfortable talking to.

Time Scales

If you have got a complaint then you must try and raise it as soon as possible of it happening. However, we understand that you may find this difficult so we will always listen to what you have to say.

Sorting out Complaints

The main thing that the school wants is to make sure that the com- plaint is sorted out. We will do our best to offer:

• An explanation of how & why things went wrong.
• An admission that things could have been handled differently or better .
• A promise that we will try and make sure that whatever hap- pened to make you unhappy will not happen again - and explain how we will make sure this is the case (what will change).
• An apology.

Withdrawing a complaint

If you feel that your concern or complaint has been dealt with or you don’t want to carry on making the complaint, then you can always choose to withdraw it. We will ask if you can write down that you are doing that though.

Roles and Responsibilities

Everyone when talking about a concern or a complaint, or listening and investigating one, has some responsibilities. This is to make sure that the issue is properly sorted out and everyone is happy afterwards.

What is your role?

To make sure that your concern or complaint is dealt with and you are happy with the outcome, you need to make sure that you have:

• Told an adult what is concerning you as early as possible
• Worked with the school to try and sort it out
• Asked for help when you need it
• Treated everyone involved with respect
• Not gone on social media about it as this usually makes things worse.

What is the role of the person investigating it?

You can expect that the person looking at your concern or complaint will try and get to the bottom of it by:

• Looking at all the information in detail
• Being fair to everyone involved
• Listening to and taking your concern or complaint seriously.
• Talking to you carefully about what your concern or complaint is
• Making sure they talk to everyone involved (get the full picture)
• Asking you what you think would put things right

Unreasonable or unfair complaints

You need to make sure that when you raise a concern or complaint that it is not unreasonable or unfair.

What this means is:

• You should not be rude or aggressive
• You should not use threats, scare people or use violence
• You should not be making up the concern or complaint
• You should not say things that are not true If you are being unrea- sonable or unfair then the Principal would talk to you about this to try and understand why you are unhappy.