Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To be a bit annoyed with DD's school?

52 replies

Janel85 · 06/09/2017 10:58

I'm just wondering if I am being unreasonable to feel a little bit miffed this morning.

Phoned up Dd's school this morning as she is due to have a home school visit ahead of starting reception next week, chance to meet her teacher one on one etc.

She is going to school a 20 minute drive from where we live, basically we were in the conveyancing process on a house in the village where the school is and the house fell through, we are currently trying to find another buyer and another house in the village etc.

The school is aware of our situation. Anyway months ago we filled out a form to arrange this home visit.

I received a letter back a few weeks ago to say what time the teacher is coming Friday, in a moment of self doubt I wondered had I put in brackets that we would be living at the new address in the village by then, so stupidly I phoned the school to check, at which point the receptionist asks me where I live and how far away it is.

She tells me the teacher can't come out to us because she has other visits booked that day and it's too far, I said to her well where did the teacher think she was coming to on Friday then?

She says she doesn't know, I said you've sent the confirmation letter to my current address? Again the receptionist says she doesn't know and tries to get me off the phone.

I said ok look if you can't come out to us then can we come to the school instead? She doesn't know and will call me back, she hasn't.

I am quietly fuming, where they just not going to turn up? We're going away on holiday for a few days before school starts on Friday and we're leaving late because of this visit.

I know it's my fault for ringing up and creating this situation but I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't, in a moment of madness, put down the house address we were buying (and I definitely didn't because I asked the receptionist what new address she had for us and she didn't have it at all!)

OP posts:

Quartz2208 · 06/09/2017 12:11

Why on earth would they remove the place.

The home visit I think is simply a chance for the teacher and teaching assistant to meet the mum and child in a relaxed environment and answer any queries they may have.

They will be fitting in a lot of visits and try to do it so they have a short travelling time (so group together visits based on location). So from that angle you can see the difficultly in coming to you!

Missing it however will not cause any detriment to your daughter.

Original poster

Janel85 · 06/09/2017 12:12

Removing the place hadn't crossed my mind until someone mentioned it on here

OP posts:

2014newme · 06/09/2017 12:14

If you applied from the address you were going to move to but didn't move that could be a problem

Original poster

Janel85 · 06/09/2017 12:15

I didn't, they know the situation

OP posts:

ALittleMop · 06/09/2017 12:17

I doubt they'd do that unless they suspected you'd deliberately misled them and/or the school was massively oversubscribed.

Being a "stickler for good manners" is all well and good in terms of your own standards but its an admin error - the person timetabling the visits has assumed you are in catchment, but the receptionist has just spotted that you are not. It would have been equally bad manners to be late or miss the other people's probably unnecessary home visits.

It's probably a good job you rang, as they might have cancelled on the day. Now go on holiday!

WaxOnFeckOff · 06/09/2017 12:18

It's frutrating OP but agree the visit isn't that important. What you've encountered is in my experience the normal way of school offices.

My DC are 17 and 16 and i've yet to any contact with the school office that has gone simply. I do mean that not one contact I have ever had during 2 dc all the way through primary and high school has ever gone smoothly.I even got told randomly by a deputy head that my son had left school and I wasn't even phoning about him!

I've come to believe that I am either caught up in some random tv slapstick comedy programme and the entire nation is laughing at me or that my standards of what I should expect are out of sync with the rest of the world. I'm not a frequent contacter by the way, it's just normal stuff like looking for a meeting with a support teacher (email goes astray, messages not passed on, turn up and he is with another parent who he allows to run on using up my slot). Confirming as asked by them, that I want a ticket for awards ceremony, details taken but I'm not on the list. Phone in for sick child, randomly then get a text asking whre he is and also he gets an unauthorised absense recorded for an absense when they sent him home. I could go on. ANyway the point is that this is going to happen, regularly,

MrsJamin · 06/09/2017 12:19

I think YABU and need to lower your expectations. Schools are under immense pressure time-wise and budget-wise and you need to go with what they can do. And I would definitely keep up with the house hunting as they are at liberty to withdraw the place if you don't live as near as you said you would on the application!

unfortunateevents · 06/09/2017 12:19

I guess I'm a bit of a stickler for good manners and I consider this to be below par, by the sounds of it I need to suck it up and lower my expectations - good grief, you phoned this morning on the first day of school, the teacher is either teaching or out on other home visits! If she is in school, she has so far had a 15 minute break in which time she will have been dealing with a mountain of other stuff on day 1. It's got nothing to do with a lack of manners!

Tilapia · 06/09/2017 12:20

OP has said lots of times that she used the correct address on the application.

tiggytape · 06/09/2017 12:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JigglyTuff · 06/09/2017 12:25

I suspect they just didn't read the address properly. Really don't worry about it - it's just a settling in thing and not all schools do it.

TheColonelAdoresPuffins · 06/09/2017 12:33

they are at liberty to withdraw the place if you don't live as near as you said you would on the application
Op applied from her current address and got in from that address. Where she said she was planning to move to wouldn't have affected her application

Witsender · 06/09/2017 12:34

Honestly, this isn't a Biggie. They won't have twigged at the time that you are 20 minutes away and scheduled back to back. On looking today the lady realised. School has just gone back and they are doing a multitude of things, and may well ring back later. This isn't about manners or you having higher standards. It is just admin.

Yokohamajojo · 06/09/2017 12:42

Well 20 minutes isn't that far and our school in London has pupils further away than that! I totally get that you are annoyed I would be and home visits were done when my oldest now starting Y6 was starting so not particularly newish thing either. They should have checked where everyone was and timetabled visits from that. Seems schools are always excused on here they cannot do anything wrong

tiggytape · 06/09/2017 12:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

diddl · 06/09/2017 12:49

It hasn't been that long since you called, has it?

Why don't you just cancel the visit & go on holiday?

Appuskidu · 06/09/2017 12:50

The teacher is probably teaching or doing other home visits-give them a chance to respond.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 06/09/2017 12:51

OP, no need to worry about school (wouldn't it actually be the LEA?) removing the place if you applied from your current address - which you have confirmed you did.

The only problem would be if you'd applied originally using the address of the property in the village before you actually owned it (and then the purchase fell through). But you didn't do that.

Home visits happen at a few schools locally, but not at DD's school. Here the Reception teachers visit the children in their pre-school/Nursery or toddler group environment instead. We are also a village & everything is close together so this makes sense. What happens when a new Reception child doesn't go to either the local pre-school, day nursery or toddler group I'm not sure! I think they just manage without.

I'm sure not having a home visit won't be detrimental to your DD OP.

Original poster

Janel85 · 06/09/2017 12:58

What i didn't mention which is a big part of my annoyance is that I spent hours cleaning in preparation for this ha ha

OP posts:

tiggytape · 06/09/2017 13:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

Janel85 · 06/09/2017 13:08

Ha ha I hadn't bought them yet as they would have been decimated before Friday if I had!

OP posts:

TheColonelAdoresPuffins · 06/09/2017 13:22

I hate that when you spend ages cleaning and then get blown out, although i then think "well at least the house is all shiny now - for a couple of hours...

WaxOnFeckOff · 06/09/2017 13:31

This isn't about how busy the staff and teachers are to be able to allocate the time t do the visit is that they didn't look at the address prior to allocating the appointment. It's not rocket science to ahev a look at the addresses when you are booking appointments to try to get the closest ones together so that the teacher isn't running back and forward across the area.

It a failure to apply logic to the job allocated.

If they had done this then they would either have not scheduled an appointment at all or asked the teacher if he or she was willing to go further out and allocate longer etc.

It's the not bloody thinking, not how busy they are.

OP has been inconvenienced by trying to turn her shithole into something suitable for a teacher to see!! :o

RainyApril · 06/09/2017 13:52

It's annoying, but who hasn't made a mistake?

As others have said, someone in the office made back-to-back appointments without realising that you were outside their usual catchment area.

They've said they'll ring back but since this involves the teacher, this might not happen until after school or maybe before school tomorrow.

WaxOnFeckOff · 06/09/2017 14:58

But it's not really a mistake is it? It's a flaw in the process.

The sensible thing to do would be to look at all the addresses before booking the apointments so that the person carrying them out isn't wasting time going back and forwards across the catchments area or from one end of the village to other or whatever. So, if they'd done the sensible thing they would have spotted that OPs address is further away and made the required adjustements/had the conversation with the teacher prior to just blindy firing timeslots into boxes.

The failure to call back should have been managed in the call by saying that it might not be today or whatever.

We are all human and make mistakes so a simple human error ocassionally is just the way it is. This could easily have been avoided,

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread