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A complaint or grievance is an expression of dissatisfaction made to the school about an educational and/or operational matter relating to services provided by the school or the behaviour or decisions of a staff member, contractor or volunteer, including misconduct.
If a parent/carer or student has a concern about the conduct of a staff member, they should raise their concern with the school. If a complaint that concerns the behaviour of a staff member may constitute reportable conduct, the matter will be addressed in accordance with the school’s Child Protection Policy. Please refer to the school’s Child Protection Policy for information about reportable conduct. Complainants are not required to assess whether their concern meets the threshold of reportable conduct before making a complaint. Any concern about a child’s wellbeing may be reported under this policy.
Complaints may be made by a student or parent/carer.
The school will seek to resolve complaints informally where possible but acknowledges that in some cases a person may wish to make a formal complaint.
Informal complaints may be raised by a complainant directly with the person involved. However, if the complainant does not feel comfortable doing so or the matter is one where it may not be appropriate to do so a complaint can be made to the Director of School, CareMaker and/or Conductor. Any complaint about the conduct of a staff member should be raised directly with the Conductor in the first instance.
Should the matter not be resolved through informal processes, the complainant may raise the matter formally with the school. A formal complaint can be made in writing to the Conductor via email complaints@living.school
Where a person wishes to make a formal complaint concerning the Conductor, the complaint should be made in writing to the Chair of the Board via email Chair@living.school. In this situation, the references in this policy relating to the role of the Conductor should be read as references to the Chair of Board.
The Conductor and/or their delegate will generally acknowledge receipt of a formal complaint in writing as soon as practicable.
The Conductor and/or their delegate generally will assess the complaint and determine:
The Conductor and/or their delegate generally will manage a formal complaint by:
There may be circumstances where some of the steps outlined above are not appropriate and the school will determine, on a case by case basis the most appropriate method of handling the complaint.
A complainant and the relevant parties that the complaint is about may choose to have an appropriate support person present at any meeting with representatives of the School about the complaint. However, the School maintains the right to determine whether the person’s preferred support person is appropriate and may not approve the attendance of a support person where they are determined by the School to be inappropriate.
If you have any queries about this procedure, you should contact the CareMaker for advice.
Living School must notify the regulatory authority within 24 hours of any complaint alleging that a serious incident has occurred while the child is educated and cared for or complaints alleging that the Law has been contravened (Section 174(2)(b)).
Living School must notify the Office of Guardian of Children within 7 days of becoming aware of a circumstance arising that poses a risk to the health, safety or wellbeing of a child (Regulation 175(2)(c), Regulation 176(2)(c)).