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Original poster

What's the strangest call you've ever had from your child's school

522 replies

listsandbudgets · 17/02/2021 13:52

Pancake day always makes me remember this one.

You know that cold feeling when the phone goes and its school? Is my child ill, hurt, in trouble etc. etc.

A few years ago mine went on pancake day. The school receptionist said "we're sorry about this Lists but Lists-junior has been hit over the head with a frying pan"

(turned out thankfully it was only a very light, one and they'd been having a pancake race when he tripped, the boy behind him tripped and somehow in the tangle the frying pan whacked him on the head!)

Has anyone had a stranger call than that?

OP posts:
ViceVersa · 17/02/2021 21:22

I got an urgent call at work from my year 7 sons headteacher. He told me Ds had committed a level 5 Covid breach (the highest level) and was now in isolation for the rest of the week. When I asked what had happened I was told he had been caught licking his finger and wiping it on his own face Confused

When Ds got home I asked him exactly what had happened and he told me he had agreed to let his classmate draw on his face during a geography lesson Hmm Class mate had proceeded to draw a large hairy penis on DS’s cheek so he decided rather than ask the teacher if he could go to the toilet to wash it off and most likely get in trouble he decided to lick his finger and wipe it off!

Pippapotomus · 17/02/2021 21:24

In reception class they had eggs that hatched into chicks in the classroom. (I can imagine not much work was done as they were such a cute distraction)
DS had got it into his head that they had the chicks because the parents had died in a terrible accident. His teacher phoned and told me all she had said was that they would look after the chicks until they grew and could go outside into the school coop. He was so worked up he was inconsolable so I had to fetch him early.

morninglive · 17/02/2021 21:27

Call from a neighbour at 5 am. 'Do you know your DS (6yo) is fishing for tadpoles in my pond?'

He's sneaked out of the house and headed for said neighbours garden.

Councilworker · 17/02/2021 21:27

"Hello Ms Worker I'm ringing because mini worker had had a bit of a falling out with a class mate. I'm not sure how it all started but in the classroom miniworker threw back her head, howled like a wolf then pounced on the boy"
DD was in Year 1 and we had to have a long conversation about not being a wolf or indeed any other predator at school. She and her prey were and are very good friends

steppemum · 17/02/2021 21:29

My usual phone calls about ds was to say that there had been an 'incident' (2 boys having a fight, ds was always one of them)

But this time the class teacher called me appalled. There had been an incident in the playground. Ds was OK, but he has grazes on his face and it doesn't look great.
But she was calling to apologise profusely as the incident was that during pe she - the teacher - had missed and the basket ball had hit ds full in the face.

She was so apologetic and so embarrased.
I was just very glad that for once ds wasn't the cause!

Pippapotomus · 17/02/2021 21:33

@2pinkginsplease I was given the coveted job of school secretary in yr6. On Friday afternoons the real secretary, who was also the village Avon lady, would disappear into the library to sort her Avon orders into bags and handed out at home time to mums at the gate.

2 of us would answer phones and write everything down. We also added the football and netball match scores to the newsletter.

Pumpkinstace · 17/02/2021 21:33

When picking up DD from nursery when she was 3...

'We caught little pumpkin throwing sand today, when we reminded her we don't throw the sand she responded with 'I know, I was showing the others what they aren't allowed to do' and we weren't sure how to respond.

Serin · 17/02/2021 21:35

Wannabeacheerleader

We are in the North, but sorry if you went through similar.

itsgettingwierd · 17/02/2021 21:35

Not a phone call from school but one I had to make to a parent.

Their DD accidentally head butted my face and made my nose bleed. She was so upset and apologising completely and I asked parents if they could continue to reassure her a) I was fine and b) she needs to stop worrying as no ones cross with her!

Biscuitsneeded · 17/02/2021 21:39

Got a call about DS, then year 9, from the school's pastoral lead. Apparently they were concerned because DS had written a story about a severely depressed boy and they thought he couldn't possibly have those insights at his age without being depressed himself. When I got him home he confessed that they had had an assessment where they had to do a piece of creative writing. DS is quite clever but very lazy and loathes writing, but is also musical theatre mad, so he basically rehashed the plot of Dear Evan Hansen. Sadly the teacher and the pastoral lead were clearly not musical theatre fans! Same child in year 7, phone call from school saying not to panic but DS had been accidentally squashed by a lot of much bigger boys in PE and was saying he couldn't move his legs so an ambulance had been called. Tried to tell them he is an absolute drama queen but they wouldn't stand down the ambulance. Got to school, DS stretched on field having been told not to move a muscle. Ambulance arrived and checked him over - pronounced hale and hearty, much to my mortification. Apparently after he got squished they asked him if he could walk and he said no, hoping to be excused any further PE and allowed to sit on the sidelines, but instead the rather callow young PE teacher called an ambulance! This child has given me so many grey hairs.

pearpickingporky84 · 17/02/2021 21:42

I once had a call from DS’s Beavers leader asking if we’d left him to Beavers that night. He was very relieved when I said that he was at home because he wasn’t well. They had done a headcount and several of the other Beavers were insistent that they’d seen DS earlier in the evening, they’d searched the grounds and the building for him and then rung me!

RuledbyASD · 17/02/2021 21:44

@Canitbemagic

Another one was being phoned by the class teacher as "Your DC keeps correcting me" -about what? I asked "She tells me my facts are wrong and I need to cross check them"
  • ok, can you give me an example? I asked
"I told the class butterflies drink when thirsty. One of the students asked how and I told them, with their mouths like we do. Your DC said it wasn't called a mouth but a probiscus" - I replied -she's right I said but I'll have a word when she gets home.

"No, need.she can hear you I've phoned you on speakerphone to the class" -

I mean WTAF?
FFS not even confidential.

😲

I would've mentioned that one to the Headteacher. How childish of your DD's Teacher! "I'm calling your Mum in front of everyone!"

HelpIcantfindaname · 17/02/2021 21:50

DD phoned me at work to say there was a message on the answerphone from DSs teacher. DS, then yr 7, was on an end of year trip to a theme park over 2 hours from our home.

The teacher's message "DS has absconded at the theme park, you need to drive down to get him because we have to get the bus back to school"

I had no idea how to get there. And wouldn't get there for at least 2 & a half hours.

Ds had got in a bit of trouble with some older boys, panicked at getting wrong & ran off. The staff did find him & brought him back on the bus.

MollysMummy2010 · 17/02/2021 21:56

Pulled aside by a TA at pick up who had overheard my reception child telling a YR6 that she was allowed to say fuck off, no idea where that one came from ...a call from nursery saying that my DC was told not to lock another child in the playhouse in the playground...so she then decided that the way forward was to lock the teacher in the playhouse. Then another time she told a worker at holiday club that daddy hit mummy and mummy fell over. We were all messing around and I pretended to die. Got a SS call for that one but I suppose I can understand that one just in case.

RuledbyASD · 17/02/2021 21:58

@Bettyboop3

Starrinthesky, she was 14! & i knew for a fact she had her period at the time but it was a very shocking phone call to receive! That was 7 years ago, think things would be different now!
What made them think she was?!?!?!?!
RuledbyASD · 17/02/2021 22:00

@KickAssAngel

DD was in the school I teach at, and a colleague told me that she'd managed to start a small fire in class that day.

I'd had a really bizarre day with endless things going pear-shaped, and Dd starting a fire in school didn't even make it into the top 3 bizarre things of the day. It's amazing what kids can do even without trying.

PLEASE share what scenarios were in the top 3!
hansgrueber · 17/02/2021 22:01

A Headteacher friend got a call from the teacher who had taken the school ski trip.
Do you want the good news or the bad news?
Give me the bad news.
A girl's broken her arm on the slopes.
What's the good news then?
It's your daughter so I don't anticipate any trouble from the parents!

Thecazelets · 17/02/2021 22:02

To come and pick her up from after school club immediately as the building was closing and the staff needed to go home. Cue flurry of phone calls to our (admittedly sometimes a bit ditzy) au pair as I was at work 10 miles away.

She had been picked up an hour before - it was another child with a similar name.

BlowDryRat · 17/02/2021 22:03

Baby DS' nursery were going to call an ambulance as he had a black poo (sign of massive internal bleeding). When the manager had a look at it, she said he'd just been eating blueberries. The staff in the baby room had never seen a blueberry nappy and were panicking, thinking he was going to die. They just called me to let me know. I was amused. DS was fine.

DD went through a long phase of disliking wearing knickers. I checked she was wearing them before leaving for school but sometimes I'd be rushing and forget and would get a call from the school to say she was going commando again. She's now in year 3 and mostly over it.

steppemum · 17/02/2021 22:04

phone call to collect dd1 who had thrown up.
year 5, dd1 veyr sensible, no sign of illness right up until the moment she threw up.
Teacher was traumatised, kept saying - she just threw up, all over her maths book, just no warning, everywhere, all over the table.
teacher, (who was generally fab) was nearly in tears at this unexpected moment in the day!

SmudgedWardrobeHamster · 17/02/2021 22:05

@LynetteScavo

I had a call when DS was in Year 4 to tell me he had deconstructed a picnic bench. Apparently he'd found one loose bolt on the bench, and then wanted to know if the others were also loose. Apparently they were, and before he knew if he had a pile of planks instead of a bench.
Deconstructed a picnic bench, so, so good. Grin
MzHz · 17/02/2021 22:07

Hearing the head of year say the words “Fart Spray” and NOT laugh took every ounce of my being.

Anycrispsleft · 17/02/2021 22:08

This was nursery, but one day I got a phone call that went "just to let you know, your DD2 bit another child today, due to confidentiality we can't tell you what child it was... [knackered sigh] also I have to let you know, that today your DD1 (DD2's twin sister) was bitten by another child at nursery today, due to confidentiality we can't tell you which child..."

MzHz · 17/02/2021 22:12

Sorry no... it was the words “Liquid ARSE”

PollyannaWhittier · 17/02/2021 22:12

My mum had a few of these with me Blush
Y5 : please can you come and collect Pollyanna from (school trip to local manor house) - we'd just got off the coach and I threw up when we were queueing for the loo, and continued to do so until mum arrived to get me and most of the rest of the day. Apparently one of the boys in the class later fainted during the guided tour, and these two events were the highlight of the trip for most of the kids Grin

Y8 - please can you come and collect Pollyanna - she's tripped over a bin and hurt her arm. I'd broken my wrist and ended up having to have it pinned, and I still get laughed at during conversations of 'have you ever broken a bone'.

Brownies aged about 9 - mum was actually there as she was a helper, but she had to take me outside because I was freaking out because I'd discovered a very large, very squished spider down the leg of my jogging bottoms Shock