• Parents made more than 5 million formal complaints about their child’s school in the last year according to new research, leaving head teachers dealing with at least 5 complaints every week

• 1 in 4 parents say there has been a ‘breakdown of trust’ between parents and teachers at their child’s school

• 1.4 million parents admit to posting complaints about their child’s school on social media.

A new parent poll, published by the charity Parentkind, today shed new light on the “broken social contract” between schools and parents.

Parentkind, the UK’s largest parent charity, commissioned Censuswide to speak to 2,000 parents on a nationally representative basis between 5th and 10th June this year. The polling agency, a member of the British Polling Council, asked parents about their views on schools, teachers and the process of complaining when things go wrong.

The charity, that exists to build bridges between home and school is calling for better support for schools and classroom teachers to help them work constructively with parents before problems flare up and “a more balanced picture of what is happening at home and at school.”

“tsunami” of parental complaints:

New research suggests there has a been a “tsunami of parental complaints” in the last year with more than 5 million formal complaints about schools lodged by angry parents.

While almost 8 in 10 (78%) parents said that their child’s school respect parents, the nationally representative poll of parents found that 2.3 million parents (or 38%) have made a formal complaint to their school in the last year, but three in ten (29%) parents say they are “fobbed off” by schools when they do raise issues.

More than two million parents have “raised concerns” with their child’s school or teacher at least twice in the last year (equivalent to 33% of parents), with 670,000 (11%) saying they have “raised concerns” more than 4 times in the last year.

The most common reasons for parents complaining were: bullying (30%), safety or safeguarding concerns (15%), behaviour and discipline policies (15%), homework or other workload (14%) and teachers’ behaviour or approach (14%).

The social contract between school and home has broken down:

The polling lays bare the frustration of parents and the extent to which the social contract has broken down between home and school. A quarter (25%) of parents saying there has been a breakdown of trust between parents and teachers at my child's school.

A third (34%) of parents with children at secondary school say teachers have become less approachable, compared to a quarter (26%) of parents with children at primary school.

A fifth (20%) of parents feel head teachers don’t welcome contact from parents, with little difference between primary and secondary schools (19% vs 22%)

Most parents told the pollsters they were positive about their child’s school:

The charity is calling for a more balanced approach to the debate. The same survey shows more than three quarters (78%) of all parents say “my child’s school respects parents” while 8 in 10 (81%) parents say they “trust my child's teacher(s) to act in the best interests of my child.”

When parents do raise complaints three quarter (74%) of parents say they are happy with the way problems are dealt with at their child’s school. Overall, three quarters of parents (74%) say teachers and senior school staff are “approachable”.

The worrying rise of parent WhatsApp groups and social media:

Social media and parent WhatsApp groups have become the new battleground for parental complaints with almost two thirds (62%) of parents now signed up to class WhatsApp groups.

1.4 million parents (23%) parents admit to posting public complaints about their child’s school on social media, something the charity has warned parents against and is calling on parents to stop doing.

The survey found that 4 in 10 (39%) parents on WhatsApp groups see complaints about individual teachers at least four times a month. Approaching half (42%) of parents on WhatsApp groups see other parents complaining about their child’s school at least weekly, with a similar number (39%) seeing parents complaining about individual teachers at least every week.

Parentkind boss, Jason Elsom, a former teacher turned charity leader has written to Bridget Phillipson offering to organise a “peace summit” between schools, parents and the government to sort this issue “once and for all.”

Among the measures proposed by the charity is a new “parent friendly schools fund” to help train teachers and a new TLR (a special teacher payment for additional responsibility) so every school has a senior teacher focused on helping schools to become “parent friendly”.

Previous research from Parentkind showed just 6% of state schools provided any training to teachers in handling parental complaints, while 16% had a member of staff responsible for improving parental engagement.

Commenting on the poll, Parentkind Chief Executive, Jason Elsom said:

“This is never about pitching teachers against parents or creating a them and us between schools and parents. We need to work towards a great relationship between parents and schools, so children benefit, we need more balance in this debate and a respect on both sides.

“What these worrying findings show is parents are under enormous pressure with a cost-of-living crisis and ever increasing challenges at home, this sometimes spills over into the classroom with parents complaining to schools about what they are hearing from their children and on WhatsApp groups.

“We are seeing a tsunami of parental complaints, but it is never right to name and shame a school on social media or engage in social media or a WhatsApp pile-on, but schools need to make sure they have thought through how they engage parents to nip issues in the bud by listening to parents and communicating effectively with them, if only to apologise for being under-resourced or overstretched themselves.

“Our research definitively shows that the most welcoming schools see the fewest complaints and this is something every school now needs to build on.

“This breakdown has been years in the making, and we encourage The Secretary of State for Education to explore how her Department can help every school to be a parent-friendly school as a matter of urgency. We’ve written to the Secretary of State today offering to host a peace summit to bring leading stakeholders together to collaborate in sorting this issue out once and for all.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Contact: Frank Young, Chief Policy Officer - frank.young@parentkind.org

Methodology:

The research was conducted by Censuswide, among a sample of 2,000 nationally representative UK parents (19+) who have at least one child aged 4-16 in school. The data was collected between 05.06.2025 - 10.06.2025.

Censuswide abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Censuswide is also a member of the British Polling Council.

Parentkind carried out the analysis and reporting.

Estimate of parental complaints

UK families with school-age children (4-18): 6,261,473

Mean average formal complaints per family in past 12 months (excl. 'Not sure'): 0.9

Number of UK schools, state and independent: 28,854

Number of school weeks per year: 39

Estimated total volume of formal complaints per year = 5.64 million

(6,261,473 x 0.9)

Estimated average formal complaints per school per school week = 5.01

(6,261,473 x 0.9) / 28,854) / 39

We have taken data on the number of families with dependent children aged 0-18 from ONS data on family and household types.

Using separate ONS data on the number of children aged 0-3 and family composition, along with WHO data on child spacing, we have estimated the number of

families of school age children (aged 4-18)

Data on number of schools is taken from the school census by the ONS and national equivalents across the UK nations.

About Parentkind:

Parentkind is the UK’s largest parent charity, working with more than 23,500 Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), schools and Parent Councils across the UK.

Parentkind’s network of 13,400 PTAs raises more than £130 million a year for schools.

Parentkind is the voice of parents in education through regular parents polling and the National Parent Survey, the UK’s largest annual parent poll.

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