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!

Yep remember that really well....my eldest got it, then his brother did. Oh the joys of parenthood LoL

Is he off a lot? There’s a TA at my kids school whose job it is to do this but only for kids that are off a lot.

I used to work in a nursery and we phoned up the children's parents if their child hadn't been in for a couple of days just to see if they were ok. We'd never do a home visit though

Work in a school and normal policy for us is to visit after 3/4 day of absence, for all pupils, regardless of other factors.

This has just started at our academy and they now do checks when children have been off a certain amount of days. Bloody ridiculous.

Thanks, that's interesting! Our school is a really good school so it does make sense that they would have the resources to have a role like this.

A PP asked if I had confirmed if this was policy - they did, they phoned me after I messaged them and were really kind and apologetic about it, sounds like it must just be the norm. My DD has gone her whole school life so far not having more than 3 days off for an illness so it's just never come up before.

It isn't done for each and every child, but it isn't massively unusual (I teach secondary though!).

At the school I now work in and my previous school, we have/had pastoral workers who go out to do home visits in certain cases.

Ours go if;

No contact is made from home and we can't get reply on the phone.

The child has a lot of absences.

There is reason to think the absence isn't genuine.

The child is vulnerable.

The absence goes on for over a week.

Not suggesting any of the above apply to you, those are just the reasons we have.

Might be worth just giving school a call and asking why?

Attendance is one of the key things we are judged on as schools so we are quite hot on it!

Our school don't do this thankfully. It does worry me though as it would be very unusual for my children to be at home if they were poorly. They are usually with family due to work. I wonder what the next step is if they cannot contact you.

@CandlelightGlow It's a general safeguard, there are definitely many roles that do just this on its own. In my school we share it amongst SLT. We visit all the kids when they're off more than 3 days and it's for all families. Ideally we could do with someone just for this role as it does need its own dedication, attendance is a big issue post covid

I would absolutely have refused to bring my child down and I would have challenged their unannounced appearance. Complain to the Head.

Does my head in when people say 'complain' and 'so intrusive and bang out of order' but then those same people complain about vulnerable children being missed or falling through the cracks. You aren't exempt! We can't know children aren't vulnerable if we don't have that contact and sight of them

That's fantastic that the school has the staff and organisation to do that. Ours routinely ignores persistent absences......terrible.

What a world we are living in when qualified skilled professionals are sent to snoop on poorly kids and report back to their superiors. I can't believe we have a government who deem this a good use of their time and skills.

I get the need to safe guard vulnerable children but this sort of thing is a vast over step in my opinion. Children do not belong to the state.

JudesBiggestFan
I honestly am baffled by this thread. If anyone wanted to pop in and check on my sick child they'd be more than welcome. It's exactly what schools should be doing if they have any concerns at all.
Easy to say until you get a visit/letter insinuating they don’t think you’re being honest. Ds has missed over twenty days this year- 8 of those days he was sent home crying. He gets horrendous ear infections/loud noises hurt his ears and is constantly going for different check ups to try and rule out different things and figure it out. We ring, write an email and they have a doctor’s letter every time. Then we got a letter to thank us for everything we do to let them know but they have to contact social services but they know he has health issues and don’t worry. I can’t tell you how scary it is to get a letter like that. So easy to say it’s not a problem but anything that you feel puts you on the radar of any official channels is of course concerning!!

It is normal. It also depends on length or amount of absences before hand. You might not know but attendance records have a significant impact on the Ofsted outcomes so schools have to be seen to be doing everything they can to improve attendance!

@Wonderfulstuff so what do you suggest instead?

What do you say when there is another report in the papers about vulnerable children, how do you think they are identified, with a big sticker on their head?

Well done 👍🏻

It happened to me when my child was 6 but that was because she climbed and fell oit of a window and i didnt get any warnings, so I presumed it was a safe guarding check. Yours sounds really out of the ordinary.

Omg! You seem so calm that they were contacting social services about you even though clearly you’d done everything as you should have. I’d have been furious. My youngest is in year 10 and it is a very good school, we got very lucky - but with the current government overreach I’ll be pleased when it’s done.

This this this!!! How is no one else getting it, they are your children, not the schools and certainly never the government’s. I’d have told them to go away in no uncertain terms.

Well I have a 16 year old, a 13 year old and a 6 year old, over the years with moving they’ve been to 4 primary schools between them and I’ve never heard of anyone getting a home visit. I would be fuming

@Emma2023 so do you think a child who is being abused should be ignored as they are not the school’s or Government’s? How do you think abused children are identified?

I have never heard of this happening and I have been involved with a lot of schools professionally and personally for 20 years.

This is a very unusual situation and the fact it was unannounced is suspicious. I live in London and my kid was off with chickenpox for a week and we had no visit.

Poor little chap, I had chicken pox in my early 20's and was really ill with it. Glad to hear he's getting better.