Dear Name
My name is (Full Name). I am the parent/carer of (Full Name of child) who attends (Name of school) in (Name of town/city) and is a student in Year (Year group) .
On (Date of Incident), my child was involved in an incident where they were assaulted/threatened with assault (Delete whichever is not applicable). The incident was reported to (Give details of who complaint was made to) and placed on record. This was the latest in a series of incidents where my child has been assaulted or threatened with violence (Delete this sentence if not applicable ie. Your complaint concerns a one off incident only). As a consequence my child has suffered (Give details of injury or illness including physical and psychological harm). I have attached (Give details of supporting evidence eg Doctor’s/therapist’s report/letter) as evidence (Delete if not applicable). The school has said they will ensure that action is taken to prevent further incident. Despite this they have been unable to guarantee that the incident or an even more serious incident will not happen again or explain what steps they intend to take to ensure a reasonable level of protection for my child while in school and prevent further harm.
Attached to this email you will find a statement from the Safer Schools campaign for your attention. The Safer Schools campaign is a National campaign made up of more than 150 families from the UK, that have lost children to suicide or had a child killed or suffer serious harm as a consequence of bullying, physical and sexual violence in schools. In some cases children have been lost to suicide after being pressured to return to school under threat of prosecution for non attendance, despite evidence they were at risk of further harm in doing so. Since 2015, the campaign has presented evidence to the Government, of failures both within Government and schools to properly address and respond to bullying and violence concerns, that in turn have allowed numerous incidents of harm and death to occur. This has led to an investigation by the United Nations into the issues, who accept that due to bullying and violence in UK schools, many children are potentially being unlawfully and unnecessarily left at risk of serious harm and death.
In light of the legitimate risk of further harm, I took steps to provide my child with a suitable education at home, until such a time that I could be confident that reasonable measures had been put in place to ensure their safety in school and that the chances of them being seriously assaulted or threatened with assault could be minimised as far as was possible. More importantly, given the subsequent mental health issues that the assault had resulted in, I took steps to provide my child with a safe environment where they could be provided with a suitable education, until such a time that they were mentally and physically well enough to attend.
The steps I took were in line with the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child article 18, which requires parents/guardians to be primarily responsible for their children and always consider what is in their best interests. The steps are also in line with UK legislation that requires that parents/carers take primary responsibility for the protection and maintenance of their child.
I asked that I be fully supported by the school in my efforts to ensure my child could recover fully from the incident, primarily by providing the required absence authorisation for any time off that may be needed in order to do so. I also committed to ensuring an appropriate return to school as quickly as possible and the fullest possible attendance, once the school were able to demonstrate that reasonable and appropriate safety measures had been put in place.
On (Date of notification) I received a letter informing me that due to unauthorised absence, I would (Details of sanction or action). This despite the request, as well as the information and supporting evidence I had provided to the school. As a consequence, I do not agree that the use of any sanction in this case is appropriate and would request that any current action be stopped. I would ask that all the information I have provided in this email and to the school is taken into consideration by anyone considering or making any potential decision, regarding the current proposed sanctions in my case.
Yours Sincerely
(Full Name)