Hi there. It sounds from your question that you may have spent a lot of money on school fees, and feel like your child hasn’t really benefitted from it.

The action you are probably referring to in your question is a breach of duty of care. This is a common law action, and can result in damages being awarded. Duty of care is a requirement that a reasonable level of care is exercised by a caregiver in order to ensure the provision of a safe environment for people who are vulnerable. If this duty is breached, and someone suffers as a direct result, the person who has suffered may be eligible for damages. The most likely reason a teacher or school will face legal action for a breach of duty of care negligence is where a student has been injured while under the school’s protection. However, what you are concerned with appears to be the provision of such a low standard of education that specific issues the student had were not picked up and not catered for. This makes the action more complicated.

Generally speaking the decision to take an action for breach of duty of care is made in accordance with the amount of damage that has been caused as a result of the alleged breach, and if that damage is something that can be compensated for in a straight forward monetary way. Your child has not yet finished high school, and so it may be difficult to judge in monetary terms what the damage to them has been.

Alternatively, you may have an action for breach of contract with the school. This will depend on the terms of the contract, and specifically whether certain educational outcomes were promised as terms of the contract. If specific learning outcomes were promised (and from what you mentioned, have likely been breached) you may have a course of action for breach of that contract.