Community-run help and advice for parents · Slough
Every school in Slough answers to someone. Most parents are never told who.
WeTheParents is an independent, parent-run space for families across Slough to describe their real experience of our primary and secondary schools — and to find out exactly what rights they already have, and how to use them.
Learn what you should know to protect your family from institutional overreach.
Our stance
We are not anti-school. We are pro-accountability.
Slough has hard-working teachers doing an extraordinary job in difficult conditions. Nothing on this site is aimed at them. It is aimed at the people who make decisions about our children — and who are already bound, by law, by regulation and by their own codes of conduct, to explain themselves.
Praise for a good school is as welcome here as criticism of a bad one, and we publish both.
Right of reply offered to every schoolWhy this exists
Schools are public bodies spending public money on our children.
The people who run them — headteachers, governors, academy trustees — hold public office. They are required to be open, accountable and honest.
Public office, public duty
Headteachers, governors and academy trustees hold public office. Openness, accountability and honesty are not favours they grant — they are duties they already carry.
The standards they're bound by →Know your rights
The Nolan Principles. The complaints ladder. Exclusions and school records. Admissions and SEND. Access to information. Plain-English guides to the rights you already hold.
Open the rights hub →Say something. Have your voice.
Your say, shared safely. We anonymise, we check, and we always offer the school a right of reply — so what gets published is fair to families and schools alike.
Share your experience →Know your rights
The rights you already hold — in plain English.
Four guides that turn statutory rights and public-life standards into steps you can actually use.
The Nolan Principles
The seven standards of public life that everyone running a school is bound by.
How to complain — step by step
Letter templates and the full escalation route: informal, formal, governors, DfE, Ofsted.
Your legal rights
Your family life has legal protection that no school policy can simply override. Article 8 of the Human Rights Act protects your private and family life, and where a school or council interferes with it, they must be able to show it was lawful, necessary and proportionate. This guide also covers school records — what's held about your child, and what you're entitled to see.
Getting information out of a school
Subject Access Requests (SAR) and Freedom of Information (FOI): how to ask, and what they must give you.
The Seven Principles of Public Life
The Nolan Principles
Everyone who holds public office in England — including the people who run our schools — is bound by these seven standards. Knowing them is the first step to holding anyone to them.
Selflessness
Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.
Integrity
Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
Objectivity
Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.
Accountability
Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.
Openness
Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
Honesty
Holders of public office should be truthful.
Leadership
Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.
Watch
See it explained
How to complain — step by step
The complaints ladder
The full escalation route for a Slough school. Each rung has to be climbed in order — skip one and you hand them a reason to send you back to the bottom.
Informal — the school
Raise it with the class teacher or head of year. Keep it in writing so there's a record.
Formal complaint — the school
Follow the school's published complaints policy exactly. Every school in England must have one and must publish it.
Governors' panel
If you're not satisfied, escalate to a panel of governors, who consider the complaint independently of the head.
Ofsted
Ofsted can consider complaints that point to wider or safeguarding failures across a school.
Department for Education
Academies and trusts answer to the DfE / ESFA; maintained schools may go to the Local Government Ombudsman.
Put it in writing
A phone call won't prove what was said; an email will. Schools often ring rather than write — always ask for the details to be confirmed in writing.
Follow the procedure
Every route above the school will ask you to show you completed the school's own process first. Get the complaints policy and follow it to the letter.
Our schools
A page for every Slough school.
Each school listing will carry parents' experiences, a link to the school's own complaints policy, and the school's right of reply. We're building these one school at a time.
Western House Academy
The first school profile on WeTheParents. We put five statutory requests to the school and its Trust in July 2026 — and published every answer, checked against the law.
Parent Audit published · 18 failures identified Read the Parent Audit → View school profile →Not listed yet?
Tell us about your child's school and we'll open a profile for it. The more parents contribute, the fuller the picture.
Suggest a schoolAbout us
Who we are
WeTheParents is run by a parent in Slough. It is independent. It is not affiliated with any school, trust, political party, council or campaign group. It has no funding and no advertising. Nobody is paid.
Your child gets one shot at school. Slough parents deserve to know what they're walking into.