School coming to home to view sick child - Normal?

I think every school in the local authority I worked for, had a family worker whose role it is (among other things) to make visits to parents for non academic concerns and support. So it seems as though this visit was from someone like that.

I completely agree. I am shocked to see 93% of voters think it’s ok to tell a school official to fuck off instead of letting them in to check on your child’s welfare. That is so depressing. It’s one small thing we can all do that will save the lives of dozens of children.

We are perfectly ok with being scanned and our bags being searched in order to save the lives of travellers every year from terrorist bombs and hijackings. If we get selected for extra searches or being swabbed for explosive residue, we go along with it as we know it’s important to keep everyone safe. We don’t get all offended and how dare they suspect me of being a terrorist! How dare they scan or search my bag and shudder at the thoughts of strangers seeing our knickers and prescription drug labels.

But apparently random spot welfare and safeguarding checks by schools doing home visits in order to save children’s lives- the response is all how dare the government violate my privacy as if I were a child abuser, how dare they not believe me, how dare they even want to do a check on my child.

Try doing that at an airport. How dare you ask me if I packed my bag. No, fuck off you’re not scanning me or my carry on, how dare you even think you can treat me like a potential terrorist.

I suppose a bit of privacy invasion for the greater good is ok when it’s your holiday at stake, but not ok when the lives of innocent children are at stake.

Really depressing. No wonder we can’t make progress on why we don’t catch child killing parents before there’s a dead body. People keep defending such behaviours that will continue block the wider social insight needed to save these children.

All during lockdown it was why aren’t teachers thinking of the vulnerable children. Now it’s nosey old teachers, why are they thinking about vulnerable children, it’s nothing to do with them

As an aside, those of you who think it's perfectly fine for a member of school staff to turn up unannounced at your door when you've reported your child off sick, I can imagine how you would feel if your employer did that to you. You wouldn't like it, because it's an intrusive invasion of privacy and potentially bullying. If you have genuine concerns about a child's safety or welfare then you should report it to the police or social services.
Otherwise, stay in your lane. Your authority beyond the school gates is no more than any other ordinary member of the public.
False comparison.
My employer doesn't have a statutory safeguarding duty towards me.

The fact you think safeguarding concerns should go straight to police and social services shows you don't have much awareness of schools' safeguarding duties.

Many schools have pastoral workers to help with pupil welfare. Schools are very involved with pupil welfare, it goes beyond school gates, has to. Many children have awful family lives for a variety of reasons. Schools have to take on this role due to lack of funding for other services (not that there is any funding in education either)

Op has said it wasn’t the teacher and many teachers / teaching ass have access to your address. They also have my work address and phone number. We had a visit when Ds started reception from both his teachers ,so they could meet and greet before he started .

“You are not a pupil at the school so you don't need to be doing as the teacher says.”

yep that’s a great attitude to have , honestly I see why communication between some schools and parents is so poor .

And not every home is a child’s safe place unfortunately!

Absolutely nailed it there @WalkingThroughTreacle .

What's with all the melodramatic "eyes on" nonsense? Do some in the teaching profession think they're in MI5 or something? When did you decide that words like "see" were no longer sufficient?

As an aside, those of you who think it's perfectly fine for a member of school staff to turn up unannounced at your door when you've reported your child off sick, I can imagine how you would feel if your employer did that to you. You wouldn't like it, because it's an intrusive invasion of privacy and potentially bullying. If you have genuine concerns about a child's safety or welfare then you should report it to the police or social services. Otherwise, stay in your lane. Your authority beyond the school gates is no more than any other ordinary member of the public.

I agree it's ridiculous, it's also offensive to the parents as sounds like they didn't believe them about their child being in hospital.

They knew he was in hospital! Yet they still came round. What in God's name was the point in that? They knew about his medical conditions (lifelong), and they knew the reason why he had been off school. They still managed to give his parents a letter demanding that his attendance needed to improve.

Sounds like they were doing a welfare check, which is probably a good thing in a lot of ways. More vulnerable children might get the help they need if issues are picked up this way.

Sorry this happened to you. Hopefully they were satisfied once they saw him.

@HoppingPavlova they are more likely wanting ‘eyes on a child’ not assessing whether they have chicken pox or some other illness

Fine for you to do that so long it’s also fine for the person answering phone when you call to tell them you’re child is sick to ask for YOUR medical qualification too then? Parents make decisions everyday as to whether or not their child is well enough for school. Do all parents have medical qualifications in order to make these assumptions?

I would have asked about their medical qualifications to assess him. They have none. How are they meant to assess whether a child is fit to be at school or not in a medical capacity, which is the case with chicken pox?

Laughable isn’t it @ChocSaltyBalls ?! Toe curlingly so

Tell me you don’t know anything about GDPR without telling me you don’t know anything about GDPR

This

and *and we live out of catchment so sometimes since DS started we are sometimes slightly late*how did you get a place if out of catchment?

and how far are you from the school to warrant being regularly late?

Far from normal. I've got 5 kids and been through countless schools over the years and never once had this happen.

I would ask for a meeting at the school to clarify.

This would stress me out a lot.

If the OP is regularly late then their attendance may not be as good as she thinks it is

Jaysus! Not in UK but I would have shut the door in their face unless it was a very well known teacher to me. Then I would have stepped outside and asked what the heck they were doing at my home? I love my son's teacher but this would drive me crazy. 4 days off and they send a teacher around? If you were being held hostage I'm sure they would be a great help!

You must have been a dinnerlady, then, if you believe that crock.

The law does not allow the school to say 'oh, that's OK then'. They are forbidden by law to remove the child from the register until the day that the new school confirms they have arrived in their building.

Which means, as they are not sick, you have an unauthorised absence in law and they have to process things as they have done - as a child potentially missing from education. Not a scrap of guilt is involved.

Unusual to home visit for a short term absence for a normally high attender. I can understand it for at risk children, those who have 1/2 days off a week etc, but that's not your son. For you, I would have expected a phone call to arrange a mutually convenient time, not just a knock on the door.

Not normal or abnormal.

Schools have a duty of care to check absence if they are concerned.

But it's quite normal for young children to be off this time of year with chicken pox and everyone knows they'll miss a whole week - because they have to!

I wonder if your DD made an innocent comment that made the school question it?

I know a boy who went to the senior school pre start open evening and got beaten up in the playground by some older pupils
He ended up in hospital for weeks and the school just sent emails about his attendance and eventually expelled him for his non attendance whist he was still in hospital.

what BS