Information relating to school dog

The request was successful.

Dear Cheney School, Oxford,

On April 24th 2019, the following letter was sent to parents and guardians of children at Cheney School:
https://www.cheney.oxon.sch.uk/wp-conten...

The document explains that the school was looking to introduce a dog for pet therapy. It also raises a few questions and as such please would you provide the following information:

An itemised list of costs related to the school dog.
Minutes of meetings in which the school dog was discussed from January 1st 2019 to 29th September 2019.
Your school dog policy (it is mentioned in the above letter that this would be available on your school website, however I have not been able to locate it).
Risk assessments related to the school dog (and animals on site in general).
A count of dogs which the headmaster has allowed on site and the reason(s) for doing so.
Please provide information (and results/feedback) related to any consultations with parents/guardians and staff members relating to the school dog.

Yours faithfully,

Robert Tibilder

Dear Mr Tibilder

Thank you for your email which has been forwarded to Mr Moreton, Head.

Kind regards

Mrs Warland
Receptionist
Cheney School
Cheney Lane
Headington
Oxford
OX3 7QH

Telephone: 01865 765726
Email: [Cheney School, Oxford request email]
Website: www.cheney.oxon.sch.uk

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Victoria Hathaway,

1 Attachment

Please find information requested below:

 

1)      An itemised list of costs related to the school dog

a.       £388.50 – fencing

2)      Minutes of meetings in which the school dog was discussed from
January 1st 2019 to 29th September 2019:

a.       All staff /governors briefed in briefings

b.       Guidance and notices in year group assemblies to each and every
student

c.       Minutes of meeting with RMR attached.

3)      Your school dog policy (it is mentioned in the above letter that
this would be available on your school website, however I have not been
able to locate it):

a.       It’s on the policies page of our website.

4)      Risk assessments related to the school dog (and animals on site in
general)

a.      
[1]https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TMW8o9...
– this document is a working document and updated regularly

5)      A count of dogs which the headmaster has allowed on site and the
reason(s) for doing so.

a.       Three  - as per the policy guidance, for educational purposes

6)      Please provide information (and results/feedback) related to any
consultations with parents/guardians and staff members relating to the
school dog.

a.       Governor consultation by email – decision to proceed with
answered questions/concerns about governors:
[2]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UhAj...

b.       Parent community emailed and asked to reply with concerns within
a certain time frame.

c.       The school has collected information about students/staff who may
have specific issues relating to the school dog and the school dog’s
timetable has been formulated taking these into consideration. These names
are kept on file.

 

Kind Regards

 

Vicky

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Dear Victoria Hathaway,

Thank you for your response to my request.

I wanted to confirm a few of items if that is okay?

1) The letter sent to parents suggests that the school may incur additional costs with regards to the school dog, to confirm, the only cost that Cheney School have spent related to the school dog is £388.50 on fencing?

2) You mention that ‘All staff / governors [were] briefed in briefings’, are these meetings minuted? If so, please provide a copy as per my request of any such meetings where the school dog is mentioned.

3) Your school dog policy suggests that a risk assessment must be undertaken for all dogs that are permitted on site. In my request I asked for ‘risk assessments related to the school dog (and animals on site in general)’. Please would you provide a copy of these as per my request?

4) You have said that the ‘parent community [were] emailed and asked to reply with concerns within a certain timeframe’ did you receive any responses or feedback? If so, please provide a copy of them as per my request.

5) You have indicated that ‘the school has collected information about students / staff who may have specific issues related to the school dog’. My request asked for ‘information (and results/feedback) related to any consultations with parents/guardians and staff members relating to the school dog.’ If this list contains feedback, please provide a copy.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Tibilder

Dear Victoria Hathaway,

It has now been 13 days since my last message, please would you provide a response to my questions?

Yours sincerely,

Robert Tibilder

Dear Cheney School, Oxford,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Cheney School, Oxford's handling of my FOI request 'Information relating to school dog'.

I am unsatisfied the response given, in addition to the lack of communication offered when I asked to clarify the information you provided.

I feel that the information which I requested was not fully disclosed as references were made in your response to documents and research held by Cheney School that fall within the scope of my request.

A previous message highlights the areas where I have particular concerns: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

Yours faithfully,

Robert Tibilder

Dear Mr Tibilder

Thank you for your email which has been forwarded to Mrs Hathaway, Head of Communications.

Kind regards

Mrs Warland
Receptionist
Cheney School
Cheney Lane
Headington
Oxford
OX3 7QH

Telephone: 01865 765726
Email: [Cheney School, Oxford request email]
Website: www.cheney.oxon.sch.uk

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Victoria Hathaway,

4 Attachments

1) The letter sent to parents suggests that the school may incur
additional costs with regards to the school dog, to confirm, the only cost
that Cheney School have spent related to the school dog is £388.50 on
fencing? - Yes - as per original response. There are no additional costs
to the school

 

2) You mention that ‘All staff / governors [were] briefed in briefings’,
are these meetings minuted? If so, please provide a copy as per my request
of any such meetings where the school dog is mentioned. – Governor minutes
are online for your reference:
[1]https://www.cheney.oxon.sch.uk/minutes-o... , and FAQ document
which was formulated by email is attached for governors to note their
concerns. Meeting minutes with Head attached. Staff briefing minutes only
kept for 2 weeks after meeting so these are not available. There was a
message that went on staff news which can be seen below:

 

 

3) Your school dog policy suggests that a risk assessment must be
undertaken for all dogs that are permitted on site. In my request I asked
for ‘risk assessments related to the school dog (and animals on site in
general)’. Please would you provide a copy of these as per my request? I
shared it previously:
[2]https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TMW8o9....
This would be adapted in terms of title for any other dog on site.

 

4) You have said that the ‘parent community [were] emailed and asked to
reply with concerns within a certain timeframe’ did you receive any
responses or feedback? If so, please provide a copy of them as per my
request – These are attached and anonymised for your information.

 

5) You have indicated that ‘the school has collected information about
students / staff who may have specific issues related to the school dog’.
My request asked for ‘information (and results/feedback) related to any
consultations with parents/guardians and staff members relating to the
school dog.’ If this list contains feedback, please provide a copy. – we
were not obliged to consult. This was a school decision, like any other
operational decision a school takes so no consultation was undertaken.

 

If you are still unsatisfied with what you have received we welcome you to
come to school and have a conversation about the school dog and policies.
We may, with real conversation, be able to answer your questions/concerns
better than over email.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Vicky Hathaway

 

 

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Dear Victoria Hathaway,

Thank you for your response and for again releasing more information.
For your reference, it appears that the data has not been completely anonymised - I’ll be contacting WhatDoTheyKnow for advice here.

I appreciate the offer of a face-to-face meeting, however I would like to politely refuse; my request was made under the Freedom of Information Act, and I would prefer to keep our communication via email.

I do still wish to peruse an internal review over the handling of my request, as I’m not satisfied with how it was handled, and I don’t feel that Cheney School has released all data within the scope of my original FOI request - I have already detailed why in a previous message: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

Please pass this on to the relevant person.

If you do not have an internal review procedure please let me know.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Tibilder

Robert Tibilder left an annotation ()

My thanks to WhatDoTheyKnow for removing the personal information in Cheney School's last message.

Dear Cheney School, Oxford,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Cheney School, Oxford's handling of my FOI request 'Information relating to school dog'.

It has been a while since I made a request for an internal review. This is now my third attempt and I have still not received confirmation from Cheney School.

A previous message highlighted the areas where I originally had some concerns: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

I now have further concerns relating to additional communication which I have received:

In a message to me, Cheney School said that
“Governor minutes
are online for your reference:
[1]https://www.cheney.oxon.sch.uk/minutes-o... , and FAQ document
which was formulated by email is attached for governors to note their
concerns. Meeting minutes with Head attached. Staff briefing minutes only
kept for 2 weeks after meeting so these are not available. There was a
message that went on staff news which can be seen below”

I believe that you may still hold a copy of relevant staff briefing minutes; if they are emailed to staff members then you may still hold these on your email system - though surely you must keep minutes of meetings for longer than two weeks, even just for posterity.

My original request asks for ‘risk assessments related to the school dog (and animals on site in
general)’ Cheney School said “ I
shared it previously:
[2]https://drive.google.com/file/d/13TMW8o9....
This would be adapted in terms of title for any other dog on site.” My original request should therefore cover these adapted risk assessments.

In a previous message, Cheney School indicated that “The school has collected information about students/staff who may
have specific issues relating to the school dog and the school dog’s
timetable has been formulated taking these into consideration” but later said that “we
were not obliged to consult. This was a school decision, like any other
operational decision a school takes so no consultation was undertaken.”

I am not satisfied with the way that my request has been handled and I again reiterate my wish to persue an internal review.

I don’t want to overstep the mark here, but I would like to send a link to the ICO guidance on internal reviews, as I note that no other requests on WhatDoTheyKnow sent to Cheney School have been through a review process: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...

If you do not have an internal review procedure please let me know.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/i...

Yours faithfully,

Robert Tibilder

Dear Mr Tibilder

Thank you for your email which has been forwarded to Mrs Hathaway, Head of Communications.

Kind regards

Mrs Warland
Receptionist
Cheney School
Cheney Lane
Headington
Oxford
OX3 7QH

Telephone: 01865 765726
Email: [Cheney School, Oxford request email]
Website: www.cheney.oxon.sch.uk

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Ben Hegedus,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Tibilder,

 

Your email to Cheney School has been referred to me for response. I will
review the concerns you have raised about the School’s response to your
Freedom of Information request under stage 1 of our Complaints Policy and
Procedure (a copy of which is attached) and will revert to you on having
done so.

 

Best wishes,

 

 

Ben Hegedus

Head of HR & Compliance

Community Schools Alliance Trust (CSAT)

 

01865 755 266

 

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Dear Ben Hegedus,

Thank you for your confirmation of receiving my request for an Internal Review.

If you require any further clarification as to my concerns I’ll be happy to provide this.

Just to confirm that I’ve correctly interpreted stage one of your complaints procedure, I believe that I should expect an outcome within five school days - I believe this to be Friday 6th December 2019.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Tibilder

Ben Hegedus,

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Tibilder,

 

Further to my email of 28 November, please see attached my response to the
concerns you raised by way of an email dated 26 November about the
School’s response to your Freedom of Information request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Ben Hegedus

Head of HR & Compliance

Community Schools Alliance Trust (CSAT)

 

01865 755 266

 

 
 
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