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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Visiting primary

17 replies

Anon24 · 05/10/2016 08:23

Morning all
Last night my lb come home from school with a letter -

On Friday 7th October, year 1 have been invited to visit 'a local primary school' for the morning. We are going to visit the 'local schools' year 1 class to look at their learning environment and see how it is similar to, and different from ours.
With your permission staff will be transporting the children to and from.

I have never heard of primary schools visiting another and with staff transporting?..
What are your thoughts on this? Is it 'normal'?
Tia

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gallicgirl · 05/10/2016 10:56

Interesting.

How's the school doing? Are they perhaps being mentored by this other school in order to improve performance? Even then, a visit by pupils sounds odd. Are both schools part of the same MAT?

Anon24 · 05/10/2016 20:50

The school my son attends is fine, the one they are visiting not so..
We have now been asked to send children to school with their car seat on Friday morning....
I'm finding this even more strange!..

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Anon24 · 05/10/2016 20:51

No, schools are not part of same MAT...

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gallicgirl · 05/10/2016 22:27

Are they putting kids in teachers' cars? I wouldn't be allowing that. Who knows if they're properly insured or will fit the seat correctly? I just can't see the need for this.

Anon24 · 05/10/2016 22:37

I believe this is the plan.
I am going to speak with the school tomorrow..
One thing for sure is I won't be carrying our car seat up to school with a newborn and 5 year old! It is far too big and heavy! And as for the children who go on a bus to school, how are they expected to take car seats?..
Urghhh...schools and short notice of plans!

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ReggaeShark · 05/10/2016 22:41

Yes to the visit. A definite NO to the teacher transport. Teachers are advised NEVER to transport pupils. Very odd.

Anon24 · 05/10/2016 23:07

Apparently teacher transport is pretty normal for school trips.... I wouldn't have said that myself!...

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gallicgirl · 05/10/2016 23:08

I think the whole thing is odd.

Anon24 · 05/10/2016 23:11

Me too! I will be having a chat with the head tomorrow

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ParadiseCity · 05/10/2016 23:12

Are you in England? I have two children of junior and high school age, and so far they have never been on a school trip to another school... they do go to other schools for sports tournaments or to watch drama sometimes though.

gallicgirl · 05/10/2016 23:15

Are you sure it's the whole class or just a few children? The only explanation I can think of is an expected ofsted inspection and a desire to remove children who may not perform or behave as well as school would like. Apologies for casting aspersions on your child OP, but you sometimes hear anecdotes of schools trying to manipulate inspections. I'm probably being overly cynical!

Anon24 · 05/10/2016 23:15

Me too! I will be having a chat with the head tomorrow

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Anon24 · 05/10/2016 23:20

Yes we are in England. I could understand if it was sports or an event happening but the letter just says 'have a look at their learning environment and to see how it is similar to, and different from ours'.
But still unsure on the staff transporting the children..
It is 100% the whole class

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Pengweng · 06/10/2016 10:31

Teachers are not allowed to transport children at our school and i would think the majority of schools and I wouldn't trust half of ours to install a car seat correctly as most of them don't have children. I wouldn't be allowing them to take my child and would write to the head teacher and chair of governors stating why it is not good practise to do so!

I'm all for teachers visiting other schools (in fact many come to ours as it is a teaching school and we often have visitors) to see how things are run but see no need for the children to attend. Sounds like a silly idea to me.

PatriciaHolm · 06/10/2016 10:43

We have done visits, but walking, definitely no going in teachers cars - how many children are there? they haven't got enough teachers to take 30 kids surely?!!

Anon24 · 06/10/2016 10:56

This is the bit I don't understand , why the children are going. I could understand teachers!..
There is probably 15 children in the class, so 4/5 cars..

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whatsitallabout1 · 06/10/2016 11:01

Our school has a special motor insurance policy that covers staff, governors and volunteers transporting children. It is fairly common in our small rural school for various people to be ferrying about, so that in itself wouldn't bother me. If I were you I would check your school has such an insurance policy or if they have checked all drivers personal insurance to make sure they are covered. The trip itself does sound slightly odd, I would be asking what the expected benefit/learning opportunity is for your child.

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