School coming to home to view sick child - Normal?

[CandlelightGlow]

I'm feeling really sensitive right now due to work stress so please be kind.

My 5 year old is off with chicken pox right now. He got the spots on Sunday, he's been quite poorly with it Monday - Tuesday, very sleepy, then very uncomfortable Weds waiting for the scabs to form. He's just started to feel better today but the school have an INSET day tomorrow anyway.

We just had a knock at the door, and it was a teacher from DS's school! He was very reluctant to come downstairs because he's only in his pants and thought the teacher was there to take him to school. She was very nice and said it's sad that they have to do this in this day and age but it's completely normal and they do it for everyone who's been off this length of time.

He's been off for 4 days? His older sister is at school so we've still done the school run every day. To be fair as it's an inset day tomorrow it will be over a week by the time he goes back on Monday. But I've never had a teacher come unannounced to our house to check on our child. Can someone reassure me it is actually normal and they don't think something bad of us! My poor boy is just ill. I've called him in and updated, updated again this morning saying he would be back on Monday!

This, certainly not in his pants.

But I would ring school and ask why.

Op has done exactly this, and updated the threads. You can chose to see all the OP's posts which would have told you this.

OK. I can't keep up. I'm sure what you did was entirely appropriate.

I worked tirelessly with school for years to try and keep her in.

I hope your child is more settled now.

She is no longer a shell of herself. She is not depressed. She is not scared. She is not under pressure. She is no longer bullied. She is no longer reclusive.

If that's what being 'more settled' means

My dc are at secondary school and they have an attendance officer who does come out. Not to all children, but I think to kids who are regularly off or who have been off for more than 2 days.

I do think it is intrusive as I don't feel it is about safeguarding the children from harm, it seem to be about making sure the schools attendance figures are high.

It's sounds intrusive but when I think or some recent child abuse cases I'd rather we had this than the alternative

Our school starts at 8.40am but children need to be sat and ready at 8.30. Otherwise we get a letter reminding us of lateness.

I think it depends on the school. Our primary school do it on the third day of absence to everyone regardless of whether they rang up or not. It’s their policy now. Very intrusive though on the 3rd day of sickness and there have been a lot of complaints!

Has this when I was around 6 years old in the early 80's! Not sure what I had but from what my mum said sounds like a bad case of hand,doors and mouth. I had lots of spots around my mouth and quite poorly. Can't remember how long I was off or even feeling poorly but vaguely remember the spots but remember my teacher coming around.

It's poor that there isn't a clear policy on this on the school's website. Whether giving your home address to a teacher is a data breach or not is an interesting question.

Its in our school policy and you must ring everyday even with chicken pox ect . It wouldn’t worry me if my child was genuinely unwell .

Attendance is so bad now in many schools , think this will be happening more regularly . One school was in the press recently as letter was sent out warning visits would be made , of course parents complained but they are fully in their right to make unannounced visits .

It would be the attendance officer more so then class teacher, both our primary and secondary have them . Primary moves around local schools

In your case i wouldn’t be concerned he’s absent with chicken pox , so with that I wouldn’t bother emailing . Continued lates would pull up a problem at our school .

I'd love to know who was doing the actual teaching when the teachers have time to drive around the area checking up on all the kids who are absent.

It seems bizarre to me.

I can see why needed for vulnerable children but even so, a quick 'lay eyes' on him isn't going to do anything other than tick a box to be honest.

I can't imagine the teachers are happy to be the ones doing this checking up either unless there is a genuine concern and then SS and/or police would be accompanying them to the homes.

So if your child is asleep in bed-do you let this stranger creep in & see them??

Yes, clearly they are not direct comparisons 🙄

I'm making the point that I think that I don't think that this kind of check is the massive problem that other posters feel it is. There might be a reason why the school has this policy that none of us know about. You can't only intervene in the cases that will end badly, so you have a policy that applies to all and tries to catch issues, even though in most cases it will be fine. OP confirmed it was a whole of school policy.

In fact, I think it says more about the level of isolation and lack of care we've come to expect from our society that a school checking that one of their pupils is ok is seen as a criticism of the parents and a dreadful invasion of privacy.

Do I think it would be overkill for every one or two day absence? Yes, but this will be over a week before the school sees him again due to inset.

Glad it's sorted now and i'm late to the party here; but until recently i'd have answered that it's highly unusual and that even with having 4 DCs going through our primary school i'd never heard of this happening until ...

i was chatting to a mum friend in the playground a few days ago (moaning about the fact that although since sept we'd had 100% attendance, 3 days off last term had triggered a letter about absence) and she revealed that she'd not only had the letter but also ''had the school round'' to check up on her DD. They'd had to produce docs notes ect.

I was 😳 The girl is in my DDs class, perfectly good and normal family, and has roughly the same sort of attendance record as my DD.

I really was shocked and didn't know it was part of the policy now. This is yr 4.

I can understand it shook you up OP. It would have me too.

I mean this very gently, but you sound very stressed about this and I’m wondering if you’re ok. I know you have job stress going on as well but maybe there’s a little bit of anxiety at play too?

There’s nothing in your circumstances that should be a red flag, and I think a typical reaction would be to wonder if it’s a school policy/ an incident with another family that has put them on high alert. It’s a little bit unusual to be so focused on yourself in this way, and questioning what it is about you personally.

I get that your first question was to gauge if it’s normal. But that still shouldn’t necessarily lead you to assume that it’s about you personally.

The reason I’m picking up on this is that it’s similar to the way my thoughts run when I’m sliding into anxiety

This might be a little bit obscure of a suggestion, and I apologise if I'm out of line, but perhaps the teacher in question has done or said something inappropriate to the child and is worried he might say something? Calling and insisting on seeing the child could be an intimidation tactic ? Especially if the child didnt want to see him? If not, it's a really invasive and unusual approach from the school ...

Never had this despite 4 kids at school. One was off for 2 weeks and the school teachers never turned up to see him. Never heard of this happening to anyone tbh. I think it was a safeguarding visit.

Do teachers actually do this? Is it in their job description? I am not a teacher but I would refuse point blank to be involved in anything like this.

OP I just want to say thank you for this thread.

It's good to know it's procedure and "normal"

At least I won't be shocked and bewildered if they ever knock on my door. So thank you x

Persistent lateness can be an indicator of a safeguarding issue and one of the things schools are told to look out for. A member of staff, at my previous school, did have to visit homes of pupils who had poor attendance and punctuality stats.

We had this years ago, also when my son was 5 with chicken pox, they came with a present and some worksheets. I did wonder if it was to check we weren't on holiday as it was the week before the easter break.

If you have nothing to hide why worry. But if the school being so observant saves one child from an abusive or neglectful homelife I don't see what the issue is.

I witnessed a parent who'd dropped an older child off and was trying to hand a GP letter for younger child in being argued with by school staff that the child was well enough to be in school till parents started ringing GP.

I've known parents of children with both rare and not rare long term conditions have school get difficult when under attendance pressure with illnesses which affect them more frequently and worse and even hospital or therapy appointments.

I'd assume most people doing home would be sensible but with children who perhaps don't look ill and have a more hidden condition I'd worry it would make it even harder for those parents.

they are fully in their right to make unannounced visits . I suppose there's no law preventing school staff from knocking at doors whenever they want to .But is there a law saying you've got to answer the door ?

What strikes me though ,as others have said - if you're laying eyes on a child to determine whether they are off school because they are genuinely sick - how will you know if there are no physical signs like a rash/plaster cast ?
If you're doing it because of other (safeguarding ? )issues ,what will confirming that a child is physically present tell you ?

Yes

In a morning when you are making snap decision whether child ok to stay home alone, perhaps putting puked on sheets in washing machine, ringing grandma to see if she can come over later and stressing about the essential work meeting remembering a policy that was in bumpf in yr 7 and telling child wouldn’t be forefront of my mind. I personally wouldn’t want them
opening door to someone they didn’t know.