Dc absent from school, so school called police

[angelinheaven]

Hi all, wasn't sure where to post, so posted here for traffic.
My dc was absent from school today, and I wasn't well either so at 7:10 am I emailed school so didn't have to think about ringing them at 9am.
Anyway where I live I get no mobile phone signal if downstairs, and the school tried calling me twice, and then called my mum, who was at work so did not answer her mobile either. So the school then called the police to say they where concerned that dc wasn't at school and they couldn't get hold of me.
So I then had a police officer knocking at my door!!!!!!!
Head teacher said she was worried and the reason why they didn't read my email was because the receptionist was off ill and no one else can access the school emails.
I am in shock that this has even happened, is this normal. My dc is never absent from school, and before anyone asks we have no issues with care of my dc or social services etc.
So just really confused, teacher did apologies, but still!!!!!! X

Message from MNHQ: We've been asked to put a trigger warning on this thread because there's some distressing content further down about a recent news story involving a child.

I had never heard of police doing this. My dc are 6 and 10. And we only have 32 in our school and I live 2 mins from school. Have always been told to email or ring, either is fine. Wont ever email again. And can see the the point of the little boy dieing but how long was he left, I had police at my door before 11 am. Would have been easier to send a teacher as only 2 mins from school,
I was just really shocked that the police where at my door, better safe than sorry xx

Be grateful that the school cared enough about you and your child to actually investigate what was going on. But don't let that get in the way of criticism.

I understand why you are annoyed OP and frankly the school need to sort out the email issue. However this would be considered to be a safeguarding issue and since Victoria Climbie the onus has been on school's to tighten up their process. The incident in Hackney showed where a school did not do so and my expectation would be a swift visit from Ofsted and straight into Special Measures for a spectacular Safeguarding fail.

Now I understand that you would feel embarrassed by this, especially as you have made the effort to contact the school but in future use your house phone to call. Then talk to the Head and get them to sort out access to the email or create a dedicated email for absence. Although I would imagine they will remind parents that a call rather than an email is the preferred method of communication to prevent this happening again.

As a former Inspector, I would have been failing their safeguarding if they had not taken this course of action.

And just to add, the school did not just call the Police, they tried a number of methods to confirm yoUr children were safe.

I agree with better safe than sorry, especially as they tried to call you and your mum. Personally, I always leave a message on the school answerphone, even if I call at crazy o'clock in the morning.

A couple of months ago I got myself locked in the garage. I didn't have my phone (was just going to the freezer), 7yo DD and 1.5yo DS were in the house and DH had just left for work. DD didn't know I had gone outside and garage is at the bottom of the garden. No idea how long she would have stayed watching TV for before thinking to look for me. Luckily I managed to hook the catches open on each side of the door and get out. So although sending the police around to check is embarrassing, I'd sure have been grateful for them if I couldn't get out of the garage.

Absolutely ridiculous that the school has neither an answerphone nor a access to the email account.

Oddly enough, in many unexpected situations when a child is not going to be in school that day, the parents will not have phone contact at 9am either. If my child is having an asthma attack in the early hours of the morning and I have to phone for an ambulance, I know full well that come 9am we are going to be in a hospital ward with my DC on oxygen and no mobile signal, and I am not going to leave DC to go down to the cafe to make a phone call. I will, however, phone the school and leave a message whilst waiting for the ambulance.

Other good reasons for not being able to phone at 9am could be being at the GP surgery, on hold trying to get a GP appt, driving (e.g. to a hospital/close relative in hospital) or on a plane - SIL's flight back at the end of the school holidays was delayed by 24 hours, so instead of arriving at 10am Sunday, they arrived at 10am Monday. They emailed (with photos as evidence!); just as well their school checks emails or the police would have been round at 10:30, to be told by the neighbours "oh we haven't seen them for a week, think they went abroad"...

It is a waste of police time to call them out before checking all methods of communication.

Quite right to send someone over if no contact at all ( although it shouldn't be the police in my view) but totally unreasonable to call the police out when they have an unread email sitting there.

If I was the force that took that call, I'd be having words with the head about their processes.

Well both the secondary school my DC attended until last summer, and the tertiary college my DD is at now, have Email as the ONLY method of communicating an absence! I assume the absence email is monitored better than Ops, but occasionally there will be something slip through. I don't think you were unreasonable Op, if email is a valid form of informing school.

I was once called by the 6th form admin, about lunchtime, asking where DS was. Since he wasnt likely to miss school I did worry, however as I frantically called his mobile, the admin lady walked passed him in school! Seems a teacher had marked the register wrongly.

I doubt they would have called out the police straight away. There are other procedures that come first and as a last resort, the school informs the police. It must have been a shock but at the end of the day its your childs safety at stake.

I hope the school tells all parents to call in future.

Boney What I think about the school being wrong or right really depends on whether they give email as an acceptable way to inform the school that kids are off. (My kids school doesn't but they have a dedicated sickness line so no problems ringing.)

If they do then they really need to fix it so that they can always check it. A receptionist being ill is hardly a "1 in 200 year event". (I'm an actuary - we plan for things that happen every 1 in 200 years or more frequently.)

I'm going to sound very old fogey. I have an erratic mobile phone signal at home. So I also have a landline. Is this now unusual?

I think it is increasingly unusual yes nocool, but I agree that the reason I keep my landline is that my mobile signal cuts off at random moments when I'm at home. Every time a have a phone appointment with the GP I say "please ring my landline because you'll get no sense out of me on the mobile" and every time they ring on my mobile and I have to say "no, sorry, please ring me straight back on my landline because I don't want to get cut off just when you're telling me whether my blood test revealed a fatal disease".

When I was nearly four and my DB was a baby I accidentally locked my mother in the airing cupboard. Fortunately I was able to follow instructions and go to find a neighbour but I bet my mum would have been glad to hear from a policeman.

If the procedure in your school is to phone then you should phone not email. Email is not for urgent communication it is for things that can wait. As others have said it is too easy for children to fake. You can generally tell a kid pretending to be an adult on the phone. Stick to the school policy and there wouldn't have been an issue.

It isn't just the recent cases. Jamie Bulger might not have died is such awful circumstances if someone had checked where his killers were. They bunked school regularly, including the day they killed him.

I'm attendance officer and parents not ringing in are the bane of my life. I do sometimes get emails telling me a student will be off and I always check our general school email before I make any calls.
I check the registers, physically check for the student if they're not there we sent a text and email via schools coms and if I don't hear after that I call. I wouldn't call the police.
I did threaten it when 6 year 11's decided not to come back after lunch, left messages on their parents answer machines saying that unless I heard the we're safe in 10 minutes I was calling the police. They all called back.
If our students have siblings at other schools we'll contact them to see if their kids are in if we've not heard anything for a while.

I would eventually call the police if I'd not heard from a parent, but certainly not on the first morning, that's crazy!

What time did they call round, OP?

I know some think it's a bit 1984 to send the police round, the same day, for a child not turning up to school and maybe it is, it does seem a bit much if the child has never missed a day and no other issues but if you register with a school you have to abide by their rules.

Still think it should have crossed the schools mind that the emails they weren't able to access might have contained the info they required. Especially, as I said, if it's a permitted method of contacting about absence. Very poor indeed.

It does seem crazy on the first day, presumably within hours, and no previous attendance or other issues, Allice.

Sorry, have just seen your update that it was before 11am, OP! Just wow!

Yes, you should have phoned really. It is the usual system, and in many schools it is an automated system...
Perhaps, it's the usual system on the schools you know, but in my DCs school, email is stated as being an appropriate way to let them know (after the phones weren't working properly for most of a week, and no one could let them know about children who were ill).

Probably best not to make sweeping judgments on what is acceptable at a given school - unless the school has specifically said NOT to email, you'd expect them to be able to see their email every day, not to depend on one member of staff looking!

If the OP emailed a dedicated attendance mailbox then fair enough. If she emailed the generic school email address then I can understand how that would be missed. In the light of the recent tragic case in the news attendance is currently the focus of front line safeguarding and there is no room for complacency.

This happened to my friend she was away. Her son forgot to tell either parent that he had been ill in the night and she missed the call, her ex had no mobile signal so they phoned her other ex who for some reason was the third contact. He said she was away and school phoned the police. She then got a hysterical phone call from her poorly son who needed her to speak to his dad!

Better safe than sorry but they should be able to access the receptionist e mail. I am sure they will sort that out. :)

Seriously Angel, you should be SO grateful that "someone" did the sensible thing, when all other avenues were exhausted, and realised that there COULD have been a problem. As you say, the school have no issues with you, nor is your child hardly ever absent, so given that they missed your child, could not get hold of you, nor your mother, etc. etc. did the RIGHT thing, and I would be HUGELY grateful to the school! What if you were both lying comatose, due to a gas leak, or something similar??? If you had been, and the police visit saved you and your childs' life, you would be FULL of praise for the school! Accept that your school did a fantastic job, - thank them, and make sure you are more easily contactable in the future. Don't blame the receptionist who was off sick.... Try to imagine what the "story could have been" if the school had just decided to do nothing, and you were both found dead a day later! Well done that school!! Thank them, hugely, for their obviously genuine concern!