Active discussions

Help end medical misogyny. Sign our petition.

Help end medical misogyny.
Sign our petition.

Sign the petition

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

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:
Lemoncurd · 17/02/2021 19:50

I had a call to say that my daughter (aged about 6 or 7) had eaten a buttercup and could I please come and collect her.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 17/02/2021 19:59

When I was at Secondary school, parents got a phone call asking why I hadn't attended school any Tuesday Afternoons all term. They asked me... And I confirmed I had been on school all term. They went back to the school, asking a) why it hasn't been noticed sooner, and b) why was I marked absent when I was there.
Investigation found I wasn't on the register at all for Tuesday afternoons... Parents not happy at that situation!

wouldyoubookyet · 17/02/2021 20:01

My mum years ago, when I was about 11 on guide camp ...

'Do we have permission to cut your daughter's hair? She's stuck to the tent'

I had somehow on trying to get into the tent, got my hair tangled in the zip - think it was my fringe, it was a solid mass , and was completely stuck on all fours, bum half out the tent, head inside . Was stuck there a good half hour whilst the guiders tried to untangle me ...

Gotheeunicorns · 17/02/2021 20:02

I had to call to pick my dd (7) up as she'd got a black eye. It transpired that she'd put a skittle on the end of a balance board and jumped on the other end to shoot the skittle in the air. Except the skittle didn't shoot in the air it went straight in her eye. It was an absolute corker of a black eye.

starsparkle08 · 17/02/2021 20:03

@heartcurrent1 that’s terrible

MargaretThursday · 17/02/2021 20:05

Ds had a bumped head letter saying he "fell over while hugging his friend and bumped his head" he was indignant when I laughed.
He has managed two bumped head letters in one day-and he had an appointment first thing so was only in half the day.

I did have a call for a splinter once. In fairness to the school, dd2 is missing her hand and it was in a little fold where her little thumb can be seen.
I was thoroughly unsympathetic and told them to put some cream and I'd look when she got home. She is tremendously dramatic and very good at getting the school to send her home.

starsparkle08 · 17/02/2021 20:05

@Prokupatuscrakedatus aged 6 how did he manage all that alone. Shocking and worrying

Serin · 17/02/2021 20:06

God there were loads;

DD has been sick and fainted at the sight of blood, not her blood, someone else had lost a tooth!!

DS1, will be late home, he has found a dog and is taking it to the vets. His phone wasnt charged.

DS2, Has eaten houmous, ambulance on way! I was mystified as he has no allergies but for some reason they had written allergic to chickpeas on his forms. I'm just glad they didnt EpiPen him.

DS2 says he was locked in the attic all weekend, we live in a dormer bungalow, we have no attic.

And the worst:

DS2, via text, Dear Parents, if you have seen the news DO NOT PANIC, we are all now out of the building with only minor injuries and shock.(Italian earthquake 2016).

mootymoo · 17/02/2021 20:10

First day at school in the U.K. (we lived overseas prior) and got a call saying dd was crying and refusing to go into her classroom because it had the wrong number on itHmm I had told her she was in year 1, she didn't fancy class 3 therefore!

Anyway to keep the peace they had let her go into class 1 (a reception class) and she was complaining to the teacher school was too easy in the U.K. and trying to leave to catch a plane Grin. We went home (11am) and she went into the correct class happy the next morning because the lovely class teacher had stuck a printed year 1 on the door! She is autistic.

Flywheel · 17/02/2021 20:13

I got a phone call from the principal at 10 am saying she was outside my house with my 8 year old who had run away from school but she had tracked him down. She wanted my permission to put him in her car and drive him back to school.

2pinkginsplease · 17/02/2021 20:24

Not a call from primary school but a call to the school.

I phoned to let them know dd was unwell and wouldn’t be at school and it was P5 child (so 9years old) who answered the phone. They said they were on office duty and no adults could speak to me and they would pass on a message! Very efficient for a 9 year old but all very bizarre! 😂😂

Yorkshiremummyof1 · 17/02/2021 20:28

Can you come and collect little Yorkshire as he’s crying about head butting his cousin last week. He was 9

Prokupatuscrakedatus · 17/02/2021 20:33

@starsparkle08
Nothing really to worry about (not in the UK). Kids are used to making their way to and from school on their own and people are used to see them about. They do get mobility training, too. So all fine there.
And DS special interest at the time was his town's public transport system (4727 stops - I was never allowed to forget). So all fine there, too.
But I needed to comfort the poor attendant, she was beside herself.
So we got him a phone and explained about the effect his behaviour has on other people.

Hoppinggreen · 17/02/2021 20:35

Just remembered another one from DDs school when she was in Y10.
I had a please call us message so I phoned to be told
“Mrs Hopping, junior Hopping and some of her friends have found an injured pigeon and she said you would know what to do”
I replied that I was at work an hour away but if it was still alive by the time I got home I would come and get it. Sadly it died before I got there and DD made the caretaker dig a grave and they held a funeral. I think they were supposed to be in lessons

Cissyandflora · 17/02/2021 20:37

I still remember the sick feeling I got when my child’s school called me at home and told me that my son had had an accident and I would need to collect him and take him to see a nurse. And “unfortunately his knee has come out”. I felt absolutely sick and panicked. It turned out that she meant he had ripped his pants.

SneezyGonzalez · 17/02/2021 20:47

Much more disgusting than strange...I got called in once to collect DD because she’d been sick. They’d abandoned her in the sick room and she was literally covered head to toe in vomit 🤮

BornOnTwelthNight · 17/02/2021 20:54

Not once but twice got a phone call to come collect Dd from school as she’d fallen asleep in the home corner. (Two different classes and year groups!) First time she was sickening for a bug. Second time was right as rain by the time we got home...just turned out she was bored and tired so decided to go for a kip to pass the time!

Lost count the amount of times dds and Ds2 secondary contacted me to ask why they were absent....only for me to ask them to double check where they were supposed to be and if not there call back. Were always located in correct lessons, could only enter school premises with a swipe which registered them as present but that system seemed to fail every other week.

RuledbyASD · 17/02/2021 20:58

@Prufrocks

“Good afternoon Ms Frocks, we need to have a chat about little Pru. We’ve had new security cameras installed in the playground and he’s taken to flashing his willy at them.”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wannabecheerleader · 17/02/2021 21:03

@Serin

God there were loads;

DD has been sick and fainted at the sight of blood, not her blood, someone else had lost a tooth!!

DS1, will be late home, he has found a dog and is taking it to the vets. His phone wasnt charged.

DS2, Has eaten houmous, ambulance on way! I was mystified as he has no allergies but for some reason they had written allergic to chickpeas on his forms. I'm just glad they didnt EpiPen him.

DS2 says he was locked in the attic all weekend, we live in a dormer bungalow, we have no attic.

And the worst:

DS2, via text, Dear Parents, if you have seen the news DO NOT PANIC, we are all now out of the building with only minor injuries and shock.(Italian earthquake 2016).

AFSouth?
babybythesea · 17/02/2021 21:04

@Svrider

The school called whilst I was at work, and told the receptionist the NEEDED to speak to me ASAP

DS aged 5, had joined the wrong lunch queue

He had taken sandwiches, but had joined the dinner queue with his friends, and had had a school dinner. 😱

That’s very common! Children forget they’ve bought lunch and ask for school dinner... I’ve also had children tell me they haven’t got school lunch (small school, the children sit down and we bring food for them as the kitchen is tiny, the canteen is a classroom we wipe down while the kids are in the playground and there’s no serving hatch!) - you check and they are down on the list for packed lunch but if they haven’t got any food you can’t let them starve so you give them a plate of hot food, and then are alerted by the giggling that in fact, they have seen what the dinner is when their mate gets it, really fancy it and hide their sandwiches ... I’ve also had a child put their lunchbox on the wrong peg, not be able to find it, have to be given a school lunch (very upset) and then found it at home time when the cloakroom is empty and their lunchbox is now very visible and not hidden under someone’s PE bag.
Dilbertian · 17/02/2021 21:05

@sadpapercourtesan

I like your ds Grin

ForeverInADay · 17/02/2021 21:07

"Can you come in for a chat please, small forever has taught the other children the A, B, C, POO" song. We tried moving him to the other side of the circle but he then corrupted that group of children" (he was 3!)

Jellykat · 17/02/2021 21:11

An early evening return call from DS1 age 18..

Me - 'where the hell are you?'
DS1- 'you're not going to believe this, but i'm on a boat surrounded by fish, in my boxers.. but dont worry we managed to get the car keys back'..

Its a long story Grin

babybythesea · 17/02/2021 21:13

@CanIGoHomeNowPlease

Had a call last year to say that my DS(6) had licked his mates face. I suspect that it’s not normally a phone call, but being in the middle of a pandemic it was less than ideal
Can’t believe they rang home for that. Last year I had a child who licked another. I simply got out my best stern look and said “Come out from there please - we do not lick other people’s knees under the table.” I did tell both parents at pick up but it never occurred to me to phone home. Maybe I am lax.
HelloDaisy · 17/02/2021 21:17

When ds was in year 5 I had a call asking me to collect him straight away. They had just started sex education classes and ds had been sick and then fainted! Oddly enough his cousin had been the same the year before...