Banadir Language School
Complaints Procedure
Banadir Language School
Version 1.0
Date published: TO BE COMPLETED: date this procedure goes live on the website
Next review date: TO BE COMPLETED: date 12 months after publication
Owner: Omar Ahmed, founder, headmaster and director
Anyone may use this procedure: a student, a parent, a guardian, a teacher, or anyone else. It is written in short, plain sentences on purpose. If you would like it read to you, or explained in Somali, please ask us using the details in Section 8.
1. What this is for
If something is wrong, we want to hear it. A complaint is not a nuisance. It is the fastest way we find out what is broken.
You may complain about anything: a lesson, a teacher, the timetable, the platform, a payment, a refund, how you were spoken to, how your data was handled, or how an earlier complaint was dealt with.
Four promises before you start.
- Nobody is punished for complaining. Not the student, not the parent, not the teacher. A student who complains keeps their place, their class and their teacher's full attention.
- You get an answer in writing. Not just a conversation.
- We tell you our deadline and we keep to it, or we tell you before it passes and say why.
- You can go outside the school at any time. Step 4 does not need our permission and does not need you to finish Steps 1, 2 and 3 first.
2. Read this first if a child may be at risk
If your concern is that a child has been harmed, or is at risk of harm, do not use Steps 1, 2 and 3. Do not wait for a reply. Go straight to the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead, or the Deputy, or the independent outside contact in Step 4. Any of the three is enough. You may use all three.
If the concern is about the founder, use the Deputy or the independent contact. The founder takes no part in receiving, deciding or reviewing a concern about himself.
3. Step 1. Raise it with your teacher
Most problems are solved here, quickly, by the person closest to them.
Who: your teacher, or the teacher of the class the problem is about.
How: speak to them after class, or send them a message on the school channel. You can say it in Somali or in English.
What to say: what happened, when it happened, and what you would like done about it. That is enough. You do not need to write it formally.
Our deadline: the teacher replies within 3 working days.
What the teacher does: fixes it if they can, tells you plainly if they cannot, and writes down that you raised it. If the complaint is about the teacher themselves, they must tell you to go to Step 2 and must not try to settle it privately with you.
If a child is complaining: a child may go to their teacher, but a child may also ask their parent to complain for them, or go straight to Step 4. A child is never told to sort it out with the person they are complaining about.
4. Step 2. Put it to the director, in writing
If Step 1 did not solve it, or the complaint is about a teacher, take it to the director.
Who: Omar Ahmed, founder, headmaster and director.
How: in writing. Email info@banadirschool.com, or send a written message to TO BE COMPLETED: school WhatsApp number. A voice note is accepted if writing is difficult, and we will write it down and send you our version to check.
What to include:
- the student's name, and your name if you are the parent,
- what happened, and the dates,
- who was involved,
- what you already did at Step 1, and what you were told,
- what you want to happen now.
Our deadlines:
| What | Deadline |
|---|---|
| We confirm we received your complaint | 3 working days |
| We tell you who is looking into it and what they will do | 5 working days |
| We give you our final written response | 10 working days from your written complaint |
What the director does: reads your complaint, speaks to everyone involved, looks at the records, and writes to you. If any part of it touches a child's safety, it stops being a complaint and becomes a safeguarding concern, handled under that policy.
If the complaint is about the director himself, skip this step. Go to Step 4. Do not send a complaint about a person to that same person.
5. Step 3. The final written response
This is the school's last word. It comes in writing, from the director.
Deadline: within 10 working days of your written complaint at Step 2. If we need longer, for example because a person involved is away, we will tell you before day 10, give you a new date, and that new date will be no more than 10 further working days.
What the final response must contain:
- what you complained about, in our words, so you can see whether we understood you,
- what we found, and how we found it,
- whether we agree with you, in whole, in part, or not at all,
- what we are changing, and by when,
- what we are not changing, and why,
- an apology where we were wrong, said plainly, without excuses,
- a reminder that you may still go to Step 4, with the contact details written out in full.
We keep a record. Every complaint is written down with the date, what was said, what we decided, and by whom, whatever the outcome. We keep these records for TO BE COMPLETED: number of months complaint records are kept, recommended 24 and we review them when we review this procedure, so a repeated problem cannot hide.
If we miss a deadline in this procedure, that is itself a reason to use Step 4, and you do not have to wait any longer.
6. Step 4. Go outside the school
This step does not go through the school at all.
It exists because a complaint may be about the director, and because no organisation should be the only judge of itself. You may use this step at any time. You do not need to finish Steps 1, 2 and 3. You do not need the school's permission. You do not have to tell the school you are doing it.
Who:
Salim, TheJamah
Email: hello@thejamah.com
Phone or WhatsApp: +1 631 417 0416
Why him: TheJamah built the school's systems. Salim is not employed by the school, is not paid a salary by the school, and does not report to the founder. He has agreed to receive complaints and concerns from parents, students and teachers independently.
Use this step whenever:
- your complaint is about the founder, the headmaster or the director, who are the same person,
- you have been through Steps 1, 2 and 3 and you are not satisfied,
- the school missed one of its deadlines,
- you are afraid of what happens if you complain to the school,
- you simply prefer not to speak to the school first.
What Salim will do:
| What | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Confirm he received your complaint | 3 working days |
| Tell you what he can and cannot do | 5 working days |
| Give you a written outcome | 15 working days |
He will look at what you tell him, ask the school for its records, and write to you with what he found. Where a child may be at risk, he acts under the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy, which may include reporting to the police or the child protection service in the country where the child lives, whether or not the school agrees.
What he cannot do. He is not a court and he is not a regulator. He cannot order the school to pay you money. What he can do is look at the school from the outside, tell the school in writing what it got wrong, and say so to you honestly if the school was right.
Your other routes stay open. Nothing in this procedure stops you from going to the police, to a child protection service, or to a data protection authority, at any time, before or during or after a complaint to us. If your complaint is about your data, the authority to contact is named in the Privacy Policy.
7. Complaints made anonymously
You may complain without giving your name.
- We will look into it in the same way.
- We cannot write back to you, so we cannot tell you the outcome. That is the only difference.
- We will still record it, and it still counts when we review this procedure.
If you give your name but ask us not to tell the person you are complaining about, we will do our best, but we will tell you honestly if we cannot look into it properly without naming you. We will not reveal your name without telling you first.
8. Contact, all in one place
Step 1: your teacher
On the school channel, or after class.
Step 2 and Step 3: the director
Omar Ahmed, founder, headmaster and director
Email: info@banadirschool.com
Phone or WhatsApp: TO BE COMPLETED: school phone number
Step 4: independent, outside the school
Salim, TheJamah
Email: hello@thejamah.com
Phone or WhatsApp: +1 631 417 0416
Safeguarding, if a child may be at risk
Designated Safeguarding Lead and Deputy Safeguarding Lead, named in the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy. Use the Deputy or Salim if the concern is about the founder.
9. Related documents
- Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
- Teacher Code of Conduct
- Privacy Policy
- Terms and Conditions
- Refund and Cancellation Policy
All are published on the school website. Ask and we will send you a copy.
10. Review
This procedure is reviewed at least once every 12 months. At each review we read every complaint from the year and ask one question: did anything happen twice? If it did, we change the school, not the wording.