To be a bit ticked off about a "home visit" from DS's pre-school?

[wasabipeanut]

DS is due to start at a pre-school attached to a church school in September. He has been offered a place at the pre-school based on catchment. We will have to reapply to the school for a place the following year ? there is no priority given based on attendance at the pre school. Today I got a phone call following a letter that was sent a couple of days ago to arrange a ?home visit.? When I asked why this was necessary I was told that DS?s teacher wished to meet him prior to starting school. The only date available was a day that DS goes to a local nursery anyway (he will move from this to the pre-school in September) so I said I was happy to bring him in another time to meet the teacher.

I got a very firm ?no? in response. I was then told ?this is what we do.? In the end I agreed that I would keep DS at home that morning in order that this visit can go ahead. The subtext of the conversation seemed to be ?if you want your child to attend this massively oversubscribed pre-school then you will do as we tell you.?

AIBU to be a bit ticked off or are home visits the norm now? What exactly are they looking for? Will we fail if we aren?t godly enough??? We are not regular church goers and have never pretended to be. We applied for the pre-school based on catchment which is their main admissions criteria. Tbh I just like the idea of being able to walk DS to school.

I am genuinely not sure of IABU to be a bit miffed about them feeling the need to visit us at home. It just feels like they want an excuse to be nosey.

I had completely the opposite reaction when the deputy head and key worker from my DD's nursery offered us a home visit. It seemed like a great opportunity for them to get to know more about DD and where she was coming from, while I could ask lots of questions in my own time. It really helped DD too I think.
I never saw it as an interview and am fairly sure that all Dawkins books remained proudly in display. I do remember some frantic cleaning though!
OP yab a bit u.

Lots has been said here-just wanted to add as a nursery teacher in a CofE school we do home visits and are absolutely not checking up on people living at an address or how Christian they are.

A home visit for us provides (as many have already said) a useful way of meeting a child for the first time in an environment that they feel comfortable in. We ask some questions about things the child is interested in/enjoys discussing and maybe if they are recognising colours/shapes/their name etc. It gives us a general picture of their interests as a way in for providing appropriate learning experiences for them when they start school. It also gives parents the opportunity to talk to us about any issues/concerns/questions they have about their child starting school. Some parents feel more comfortable to do this in their own environment than they would at school initially.

I hope this provides you with some reassurance. I can't speak for the teacher that will be coming to you but I would never be looking for bibles!!- nor judging parents if their child pulled out the argos catalogue as their special book

I asked to not have a home visit as I hadn't told my daughter she was moving schools, I wanted to tell her in the school holidays not have all the wailing and crying in the last few weeks at her last school. The school agreed and were really nice about it, except they forgot and just came round one afternoon when I wasn't even there and talked with my mum who was looking after my daughter! I was mortified as the place wasn't of a visitor level of tidiness, but they didn't seem to judge.

But I think it's cheeky to have to visit you at home according to their timetable and I'm not sure all the 'we just want to see the children in their own environment' stuff at all, surely one visit won't tell you much anyway unless there are obvious problems (which is what I personally think the visits are trying to spot).

And as for tailoring teaching to the individual, that doesn't seem to happen in my daughter's class after them having her for a whole year. They are brilliant at whole class teaching and I'm very happy with the general ethos and playing and everything, but if they had checked, they would have seen she could do simple addition two years ago. She's still on the same sums as then! And her reading books have been equally slow to track her progress. I don't mind, I've actually given up expecting tailored teaching in her class of 30 (with quite a few 'troubled' ones) but it does make all this home visiting look a bit unnecessary.

We had a visit from DDs pre school teacher before she started. In September she starts reception at the same school and we are having another visit on Tuesday. I do think two visits from the same school is a little strange.

It does seem to be the norm these days.

In all seriousness though, bloody hell! That must cost an awful lot of money and time to implement. I had no idea.

Oh dear.
How did the children survive in school years ago?
In the term before my eldest dc started, she had one hour in the classroom with her future teacher whilst the parents were lectured talked to by the HT.
She settled in fine. No traumas. No problems because the TA didn't know her dolly's name was Marigold and the teacher hadn't met our cats.
To be honest, I'm glad that children are helped to settle in now with visits from Nursery and that parents are much better informed.
But I think home visits are overkill (and v. expensive - who's looking after the class?) and I would have resented one massively.

However, if there are issues, then surely the school needs to know about them long before the start of the Autumn Term, to try to have any chance of putting things into place (transtion work or resources or whatever)

Oh yes agreed, but if you had any queries about less serious stuff you could ask them at the home visit.