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!

Every case starts somewhere.

It’s far better to have a standard policy - “if X happens we do Y” “if parents don’t phone in for x days we do Y”.

The Op herself has said there is regular lateness and she had forgotten to ring in each day so it’s not just a family with an excellent attendance record.

Making sure there are no missed opportunities has to start somewhere.

We had that happen on the thursday after DS (12) had 3 days off with severe sinus infection. Due to their attendance figures I assume but a little concerning given that we had dropped him off to school 2 hours earlier! 🙄

I think the majority of us here who would feel ruffled about it are saying that, same as OP, we didn't know it was policy and therefore would feel shocked when the teacher knocked on the door. Not that we don't agree with it in principal.

I know our school has it, but it wasn't made easily known. I found out through gossiping with another mum.

I welcome a knock on the door safe-gaurding policy for all the children. So many do slip through the net. But make it clear it's in place!

Maybe a clear termly reminder of this policy by letter and email would serve as a deterrent to those families who are lax at ensuring their kids are getting properly educated and plan not to bring them in through laziness.

OP has been in contact with the school. She phoned them on Monday to say he had chicken pox. It is generally a serious illness that takes at best a week to recover. She could phone on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to say, yes, as expected, he still has chicken pox, but what seriously is the point? This is not a child with persistent absence as he has only been off a couple of days this year which is pretty good going for a 5 year old.

What’s the point of mum phoning him in sick every day though? He’s got chicken pox she can’t send him back immediately - common sense tells you a child rung in with pox Monday will still have pox Thursday.
Or d & v where school have a 24 or 48 exclusion policy. If mum rings Monday they know why he’s off Tuesday because it’s their policy. Why have to ring Tuesday and say actually he’s well only reason he’s not in is your policy.
Obviously longer or uncertain illness keep schools informed.
But what a waste of everyone’s time to ring Monday and say he’s in hospital he had emergency surgery yesterday and will be inpatient all week. Tuesday ring again - yup he’s still in hospital. Wednesday forget to call. Thursday on doorstep except Johnny and mum aren’t there as yes he’s in hospital with mum visiting like she said Monday. What happens then? Teacher goes to hospital?

Cross posted!

My dc school does this after 4 days of sickness even when calling daily. When this happened , we didn't even answer door as wasn't expecting anyone or anything so they slipped a note through the door so I had to call the school afterwards. It was from the schools welfare teacher. The reason they do this in my dc school is due to the school overall having poor attendance. Problems in the past with parents just not bringing their children to school and as children got old enough to walk themselves they'd just bunk whilst parents at work etc. terrible really. If a child was really sick and contagious it wouldn't be that great for the accompanying teacher!

My school only does this for unreported absence where we can’t get in touch, or families where there are other concerns like food poverty, repeated absence/truancy, social work involvement. Is this the whole story?

We have to ring everyday now too - even if they're off with D&V and we're observing the school's own 48 hour stay away policy.

They have now made it automated so you can press a button and make a recorded message if you want. So a human doesn't have to keep answering the phone.

The parent and sibling are at school daily. Surely asking parent how ill child is when they see them is more time effective than a home visit out of area.
Yes child might be kept home if he’s been beaten but that’s a pretty big leap for a child with good attendance and no other concerns. The family clearly aren’t on holiday or cba to do school run.
I’m not saying don’t have checks but a blanket on day 3 or 4 a qualified teacher does a home visit seems sledgehammer to crack a nut and really doesn’t fit with the usual narrative that schools haven’t got enough teaching staff or resources.

Wtf have I just read!? Never heard the like in my life . No way on God's Earth would a teacher be asked to do this in Scotland. Used to be a wee man on a bikes job when I was young, but not been around for decades. That teacher needs to consult her job description 😂

You'd do those things by turning up at the front door 😳😳😳
Yes because there is a need to see the children, schools have different policies and it's common sense to explain why we're there rather than saying nothing and leaving the parent in the dark.
In the case of offering additional support where Fridays are being missed, why wouldn't you just start with a phone call? Or a letter asking for a call?
We'd often call as well and depending on the contextual information we have we would also do a home visit.
Of course at some point some visits are warranted but those reasons are largely insufficient. (IMO)
That might be your opinion, but the opinion of the people with the full picture decided that those were appropriate reasons with the information we had. Obviously I'm not about to post details on a public forum.

The OP hasn’t answered what he relationship is like with the school generally and how she regards the school.

Yes it is, if you see my update's you'll see that the school have clarified this is a blanket policy and that multiple children have been visited.

Do you highly rate the school? A good relationship in the years you have been there?

Has it been documented anywhere

I'm not really sure what you're getting at here. Are you saying the school are allowed to lie to me and that I am actually in fact being singled out for some reason?

bso.bradford.gov.uk/content/education-safeguarding/attendance/poor-attendance-interventions

this council…. An unannounced visit is where a parent has repeatedly failed to engage regarding persistence absence.

it is close to being a last resort

Well that's nice but as said, neither of my children have issues with repeated/persistent/high levels of absence? They have fine attendance, DD's end of year report showed attendance of 97%.

And what is your relationship like with the school generally? Do you highly rate the school?

no.
I think it will have been documented

I’ve never known it to happen. We ended up with our eldest two off for almost 3 weeks at the peak of covid as we all had it at different times and with us all needing to isolate at different points. The school simply put together a really nice package for the kids with some work so they wouldn’t fall behind and even books and stuff they knew they liked to read. I remember the nursery once brought my kids Easter eggs to the door as they were off ill and missed their Easter party but they just left them on our doorstep with a nice note.

Honestly, I would wonder if they have safeguarding concerns.

I don't think I'm going to engage with you further, it comes across as though you're interrogating me as if there must be more to this than the fact that my son has been off for 4 days with chicken pox. The school have already confirmed this is completely standard procedure. I wouldn't know as neither of my children have even been off for 4 days before.

With all due respect I take their word over someone on the internet who doesn't even know who are local council is let alone the school, so as said, I won't be answering intrusive questions that are trying to glean unnecessary information out of me.

The thread is continuing because people have moved on to discussing the general principle of what has happened, my actual case has been solved, as it were, as I have contacted the school and they have come back to me.

I don't know if you know this but professional institutions like schools are mandated to inform parents if any concerns have been raised by them to social services. So if there actually was any "bigger picture" that I myself, as my DC's mother, weren't aware of, they would be obliged to tell me so. As in, if there were actual concerns which resulted in a home visit, they would not be able to lie and fob me off and pretend it's standard procedure if it actually isn't.

It's not ''last resort'' here.

As i said, my DDs friend in year 4 got a visit simply because she had had 4/5 days off in one term. The mum asked to go into school and talk about it and that is what she was told.

She didn't know it was policy. Neither did i till she told me!

Covid was completely different though to be fair, my DD had to isolate during Covid (she started in 2020) and it was not treated as absence in the same way as normal absences are. She also had to isolate when her brother's pre school advised covid cases. It wasn't the same at all.