Complain about a school
Private schools
Contact your local council or call your local police on 101 if you think a child is at risk.
Call 999 if a child is in immediate danger.
Make a complaint
Follow the school’s complaints procedure - every school in England must have one. It should be published on the school’s website.
It should tell you what kind of complaints the school will deal with, such as bullying or bad behaviour.
You cannot complain directly to a private school if you do not have a child at the school.
Further complaints
The Department for Education (DfE) cannot investigate individual complaints about private schools. But it has certain powers as a regulator if the school is not meeting standards set by DfE for:
- education
- pupil welfare and health and safety
- school premises
- staff suitability
- making information available to parents
- spiritual, moral, social or cultural development of students
DfE will consider any reports of a major failure to meet the standards. It can arrange an emergency inspection to look at pupil welfare and health and safety, and make sure serious failings are dealt with.
DfE can ask the school inspectorates to take minor complaints into account when the school is next inspected.
You can complain to the DfE by filling in the school complaints form.