School 'Social Justice manager' knocking on my door. Confused. Why ??

[clapshot]

I'm in Scotland. So this is the second week of schools being back.

We (me and DC and P) stay with MIL, DC Grandmother. She had part of a lung removed in early March for lung cancer. Multidisciplinary team are considering radiotherapy. She also has heart problems. Still in her 60s.

I'm extremely wary of sending DC back to school, so I didn't. I emailed their schools, which was received as I got a reply from both, the high school one saying they'll be in contact.

I've had a couple of phone calls from a withheld number yesterday and today but I'm WFH so was busy.

Door knocked earlier, was working so didn't answer. Again just now. I don't usually answer unless I'm expecting someone (door faces onto street and get a lot of sellers and religion people).

Looked out the window as they were leaving and my eldest DC recognised them as the Social Justice manager of their school.

What is this all about ??

Am I in some kind of trouble ??

Why would a school do this ??

I'm going to phone them up tomorrow but just wondered why they would be knocking my door ??

But keeping the kids off school for 4 weeks isn’t going to make a difference! COVID won’t be gone then.

@lightsonnobodyshome but the OP has been contacted and she WAS home. She chose to ignore all attempts at contact. You may have emailed your school, but I imagine the dialogue continued past that one email. This is where the OP differs.. I have no judgement as to whether the teenager goes to school or is homeschooling, I won't judge a parent on either choice but you must realise that her scenario is different to yours? She is ignoring (or seen to be ignoring) all attempts to get in touch with the school.

So while you’re feeling affronted/hounded/mistrusted because they’ve taken steps to ensure your kids are safe, think about this:

• parent sends email saying children will no longer be at school
• parent and children then totally drop off the radar, no response to phone calls or visits

How is the school to know that you don’t have an abusive family member who could kidnap the children? Or if you had had a mental health crisis without insight to your symptoms and harmed the children/yourself? Or were just even straight up neglecting them?

Surely you can see that these are possibilities that cannot be ignored, they need to be investigated and ruled out. School can’t just say “oh there’s no prior safeguarding concerns” - that would be so awful and would stop so many things being picked up. We can’t generalise and say “her DC always have their stuff and she comes to parents evenings so it’s probably fine”.

Like... surely you would rather these systems were in place and understand why you are not exempt from them?

3 adults in the house but none of you can answer a phone or door?!

Exactly year5teacher - you can imagine the headlines - child dies of starvation while school ignore their absence as mum sent an email, and his mates said he was still checking his Instagram account so he must be fine! Heads would roll and resignations would rightly abound.

And really OP, if you can’t understand the point I was making about free school meals and your chosen engagement with the system, then there is nothing more I can say. But why would I have an attitude to free school meals when I depended on them myself?

Are you now home educating them?

If OP is too busy working from home to abswer the phone, I somehow doubt it

starfishmummy I was hoping there was an adult in the house. But no, the kids are not being educated.

but the OP has been contacted and she WAS home.

That was short-sighted, I agree. She clearly didn't think this through. Of course someone needs to visit etc. She came on here, completely vulnerable, for some insight. She could have received that without having her arse handed to her. As anyone interested in education knows, it's not the way to get through to someone.

That said, I think they should make appointments before they call out as this is not a situation where parents are keeping children off school because they can't be bothered to send them in. A phone call first would be appropriate. Parents in this position are obviously going through hell - they don't need to be treated with suspicion and jumped on. Submitting work on a regular basis is the way to see that learning is taking place, not turning up and getting on the wrong side of someone's PTSD. Lots of people don't feel safe opening the door to anyone and everyone. I certainly wouldn't if I'd had her experience. She did engage with the school and I don't see any reason to suppose she wouldn't have engaged with the education body if they'd gone about it differently. But yes, keep your child registered in school, keep them off and you have to open the door.

Lights It looks like they did phone her first. She didn’t answer.

lights how do you make an appointment with someone who ignores you and won’t take your calls?

Lots of people have healthy conditions or family member who do and still send their DC to school.

Do you mean health conditions?

I don't give a damn what lots of people do. Lots of people died this spring. Fuck lots of people. They can do what they like but don't tell people they have to make the same risk assessment as you.

They have to follow up with you for safeguarding purposes op; an email isn't enough. You could have been coerced into writing it by an abusive partner or it might not be from you at all. The school are following their policies and procedures. They have a duty of care to your children; they have to know where they are and that they are safe.

It looks like they did phone her first. She didn’t answer.

My mistake. Yes, she's been silly about this.

I still feel sorry for her though.

Lights So you think having at least two kids home with just a few books bought on the internet and being left to their own devices is homeschooling? I certainly don’t.

Eh. I love how now the kids are going back everyone is suddenly so superior about how they need constant attention.

Look, I paid for my 7 year old to have Zoom lessons over the last 6 months. It cost a small fortune but he actually did stuff (and homework) unlike when I was supervising. And our routine was regularly "get kid onto zoom, in next room, run back to own room, log into conference call". Some meetings are interruptable and obviously if kid yelled for help that would be different, but no senior managers would not be impressed if I wandered off from meetings for telesales calls. And yes, I have been known to ignore door knocking because I am sick to death of next door's bloody parcels.

And my kid is 7. I check his work afterwards. I keep an ear out. He's learning. OP's kid is a teenager. There are most definitely home schooling solutions she could avail herself of that do not mean "never take a non-interruptable call".

So you want to keep a place on hold at a school that is over subscribed? If you don’t engage into a conversation (and not just an email) then you may find they will not have a place to go back to

swg1 Your kid is 7 and isn’t doing exams next year. The op hasn’t paid for zoom lessons and isn’t doing any schooling. And has more than one child.

Fuck me. Kids really don’t matter to some posters, do they?

Actually I think there are going to be families like this up and down the country. This is obviously down to poor communication and yes OP has played a part in it but it’s understandable she doesn’t want her mil to catch it.

Deaths are at an all time low. I think I read there was two yesterday ( although I might be wrong)

Hospital beds taken up by COVID patients 599 including 56 on ventilators out of 55 million people in England. Spikes in areas but hospital admissions are not rising and are actually at an all time low.

So for me and my family we’re pretty safe. We follow guidelines, I’m not worried about the kids going to school either.

But if I lived with my grandmother who had three bouts of pneumonia last year which very much nearly killed her off and is 88 and be bloody worried too. Obviously I don’t want to her to pass away but I don’t think I’d ever forgive myself if it was one of my kids that gave it to her.

OP if your still on the thread, this can be sorted out easily. Ring the school in the morning.

I thought my school had some inventive job titles but "school justice manager" takes the biscuit.

I want to say they were just doing their job but if they're as jack up as their job title then you do have to wonder

Lights So you think having at least two kids home with just a few books bought on the internet and being left to their own devices is homeschooling? I certainly don’t.

She has a sister who is on maternity leave and a trained educator. She's looking into online learning which is often excellent. Her children may or may not have a learning style that is well suited to great textbooks, which she has bought. It's really hard to know what quality of education her children will be getting for the whole four weeks she has planned to do this. I can't get my knickers in a twist on the information provided in the current circumstances (but it would be nice to know that her sister is actually involved and the online learning subs are paid!). There isn't enough info to know one way or the other - I think. Precious little learning goes on in some schools. My children have always gone to school and always done most of their learning at home. Not the school's fault, they just learn best in the home environment. I don't know the children.

And also I never pick up withheld numbers. They could have left a voice mail. It might not have even been them.

Lights 😂 Yeah, she sounds like she has thought it through well😂😂

And I’m sure her sister isn’t busy with her new baby at all and has all the time in the world to teach at least two kids.

@lightsonnobodyshome as do I. The thread has turned into a bit of pitchforks at dawn type thing.

OP, the long and short of it is you now need to make contact with the school, discuss your concerns and come to an arrangement with them. Be warned it may not be a long term thing so there will need to be compromises on your part. I understand the anxiety but this has to be balanced with their concerns too. The longer you take to make contact the more it will now weigh on you and increase their concerns. Give them a call tomorrow, clear things up, and get a plan sorted for going forward. Maybe explain that you're nervous of answering unknown phone numbers and if they need to speak on the phone going forward to email you with a time that you can phone them or expect their call.

There’s no such thing as a ‘social justice manager’, it will be a student welfare officer or manager or perhaps a social worker connected to the school in some way.

email could have been from anyone really so they were checking which is what theyre supposed t do-first by phone then in person m glad they take it seriously

i dont know how it works in scotland but u cant just say i want a few weeks off for them as and when