Go to the meeting and speak up!

As I understand it, there is a parents' meeting on Friday at St. Augustine's, to discuss the ISI report.

If you are dissatisfied with the school's response to the ISI report, then I recommend that you go to the meeting and be prepared to speak and to ask difficult questions. Don't rely on others to do it for you.

As parents, you can chat amongst yourselves here or on the phone to each other as much as you wish, and nothing will change. Maybe you are OK with that. If you are OK that, then your daughters will go to the school you deserve. Unfortunately that might not be what they deserve, and you may find yourselves having to explain your inaction to your daughters in later years.

If you want things at the school to change, then you have to make your concerns known to those who have the power to do something about it. So you have to go to the meeting, and speak to Mrs Gumley Mason, and make your concerns known to her, and also to any governors and trustees who may also be present.

This is your daughters' safety we are talking about. The school's failings are in the field of child protection. If your child is harmed as a result of child protection failings, it will probably affect her much more than if she merely doesn't get a clean sweep of A* grades at A level.

I've spoken with adult survivors of abuse, and with members of their families. Believe me, you really don't want to risk this happening to your children. It wrecks lives and breaks up families.

You'll never get a better chance to make changes than now. If all of you who are concerned turn up, and don't rely on each other to take the lead, then you might achieve a lot at the meeting.

I can't guarantee that you will achieve what you want. But I can guarantee one thing. If you don't turn up, or if you turn up and are just silent, then you won't achieve anything.

Over to you.