School denying me right to see or discuss 11 y/o son's work

[dazed]

I have full PR to my son who has just turned 11 and has just finished Y6 at School.

Prior to April 2021, there were never any issues discussing my son's work. I was well known to the school and fully engaged with my son's education.

Because there had been no parent's evening, I had discussed seeing some of my son's schoolwork, which would normally have been - and were - made available at those meetings.

I have shortened the emails below to just the main points, but I am very concerned as to how things went from "yes of course I can scan some of your son's work" to "it would cause your son mental harm for you to see it".

I am even more concerned as to

• Why was a child who had just turned 11 put in this position of being asked?
• By whom was he asked?
• When was he asked?
• What was the question he was asked?
• On whose advice?
• Are all other pupils in that year group put in that same difficult and stressful position?
• If not, then why [son] in particular?

As you can see below, these are questions I asked both by telephone and email. To be absolutely clear, I have absolutely NO child safety or welfare concern records or convictions, and I have never been arrested, and never been charged or convicted with any crime related to children, domestic violence etc.

What can I do?


9th July 2021 - FROM Class teacher (School)
Please find your child’s annual report attached. To acknowledge receipt of the report, please reply to this email. Should you wish to discuss the report with your child’s class teacher, please reply by email to arrange a convenient phone conversation.

9th July 2021 - TO Class teacher (School)
Can I please book an appointment to discuss [son]'s work and also to to see a variety of [son]'s work across subjects, or get a sample of work across subjects scanned and emailed to me?

12th July 2021 FROM Class teacher (School)
Yes of course I can scan some work and email it to you. However, I'm not in school until Wednesday when I'm teaching all day, so I probably won't get them to you until later in the week.
14th July 2021 - I chased as no response

15 Jul 2021 FROM Class teacher (School)
I am so busy today with varied activities that we have put on for year 6. Would you be able to put any questions that you have regarding the report in an email.

16 Jul 2021 TO Class teacher (School) , [headteacher] (Headteacher)

I am acutely aware that it is the last day of term today, and it has now been a week since I asked. May I come down, perhaps at the end of the school day, and be given perhaps 30 minutes to look at some work OR to be able to take some of the work home with me, which I will return to the school for their records before the start of next term.

16 Jul 2021 FROM [headteacher]
Following advice from the local authority, I am not obliged to provide you with copies of [son]’s work as [son] does not want them to be shared with you.

16 JUL 21
Phone call with headteacher Mrs [headteacher] in which I politely but repeatedly asked why my son had been asked, when, by whom and on whose advice. Mrs [headteacher] refused to answer any of those, except to refer me to XXXXX XXXX "Manager for Education Services and Designated Safeguarding Lead for Education".

16 Jul 2021 FROM (LEA safeguarding)
The description given to me indicates that [son] has what is termed Gillick competency, i.e. the ability to make an informed judgement and give/withhold consent.[...]
Even if classwork were to be included as part of the educational record, there are circumstances in which the record can be withheld. As your son has specifically stated that he does not wish you to have access to his work, my advice as Designated Safeguarding Lead for Education is that it is appropriate to withhold his classwork from you as it may cause serious harm to his mental health were it to be provided.
As classwork does not form part of the educational record, and there are legitimate grounds to not disclose that classwork in this circumstance, I advise that any formal complaint would be dismissed on receipt as being without merit.

21 Jul 2021 TO (LEA safeguarding)
Why was a child who had just turned 11 put in this position of being asked?
By whom was he asked?
When was he asked?
What was the question he was asked?
On whose advice?

21 Jul 2021 FROM (LEA safeguarding)
I am not aware of the circumstances in which your son was asked his opinion about you having copies of his schoolwork. I only know that the was very clear that he did not want you to have it.
Of course, I am not saying it definitely would result in mental harm, but the guidance states that it applies where it “may” cause such harm.

21 JUL 21 TO: (LEA safeguarding)
> The description given to me indicates that [son] has what is termed Gillick competency, i.e. the ability to make an informed judgement and give/withhold consent.

That's not really relevant here if that test does not apply where consent should not have been sought in the first place.
Are all other pupils in that year group put in that same difficult and stressful position?
If not, then why [son] in particular?

27 JUL 21 - I chased for a reply

27 JUL 21 FROM (LEA safeguarding)
I have been dealing with and will continue to be prioritising other issues. I will try to respond to you as soon as possible.

...no further responses.

[echat11]

Hi Dazed

Here's some information (I can't answer directly) -

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...responsibility

[dazed]

Thank you SO much - this is EXACTLY what I needed, and I'm surprised I didn't find it before.

These passages cover EXACTLY my situation:

Everyone who is a parent, as recognised under education law can participate in their child’s education.

School and local authority staff must treat all parents equally, unless a court order limits a parent’s ability to make educational decisions, participate in school life or receive information about their children. (Note: This does not apply as this no order that bars me from this]

Example
A non-resident parent who has limited contact with their children, contacts the school to find out how well they did in their exams. Both the children and the resident parent do not wish to share that information and they inform the school of this. The school refuses to release the information on the basis that the children are old enough to control access to their personal information. The school has therefore breached education law by failing to provide information to which the non-resident parent is entitled.

I had previously quoted the following to the school, but had just been met by the "Gillick competency" response.

https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters...s/pupils-info/

Wales
In Wales, schools are regulated by The Pupil Information (Wales) Regulations 2011. Those with parental authority can apply to the school to view an education record or receive a copy.

Under the Welsh regulations, the right applies to maintained schools and all special schools, including those which are not maintained by a local authority.

https://childlawadvice.org.uk/inform...o-information/

Under section 576 Education Act 1976, “parent” includes a child’s natural parents, anyone with Parental Responsibility for the child or anyone who is caring for a child.

If the child attends a maintained school, the parent or carer will have a right to access the child’s educational records and information about the child.

https://www.bullying.co.uk/bullying-...-school-record

Your right to a copy of your child’s school record
The Department of Education (DFE) makes it clear that state school parents have a right to a copy of their child's school record if they put a request in writing to see it and on payment of photocopying costs. It is illegal for parents to be told that there are conditions to meet before they get a copy of the record. The school cannot insist that parents attend a meeting to receive it. If the school refuses to allow you to have a copy of the file, you can print out information about your rights from the Information Commisioner's Office website and send it to the school.

[echat11]

Let us know how you get on.