Best Practice

Handling difficult parents

Legal advice
Schools often have to handle high expectations and demands from their parents, but what happens when things get out of hand? Helen Otty and Andrew McGregor look at what lessons can be learned from a recent legal case involving a private school.

All attentive parents want the best for their children and schools depend on their support and assistance. Teachers and pastoral staff understand the anxiety that parents can feel when trying to ensure a good standard of education for their children, but on occasions, mothers and fathers can move past dutiful concern and become demanding and potentially hostile. 

In the recent case of T vs Hall Schools of Wimbledon LLP, the trial judge made various observations in respect of two parents’ unreasonable conduct. 

The matter concerned a breach of contract dispute against an independent private school. The claimant parents sought damages and an injunction against the defendant school. 

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