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!

If a family refused to open the door to school staff and it was later found out that the child had been abused, would all the posters on here who say they wouldn’t open the door say the school should have done more or say it wasn’t the school’s business. And if it wasn’t the school’s business whose was it?

So let them call the police, and social services. I'm sure they have nothing better to do that go breaking every door of every family with a sick kid.

Those who were citing the horrible abuse-murder cases -- they were under the radar of SS already. Still happened.

So let them call the police, and social services. I'm sure they have nothing better to do that go breaking every door of every family with a sick kid.
It's fairly obvious the police and social services have other things to do than breaking doors down over poorly children. That's not their job. 🙄

Now if only we had organisations with a legal safeguarding duty towards children that wasn't the police or social services.

The organisations might see children regularly and have staff trained in safeguarding.
They could have a designated safeguarding lead who does enhanced safeguarding training and is responsible for ensuring safeguarding policies are robust and followed.
They could follow safeguarding policies and record relevant information, which could be provided to social services and the police where appropriate.
They might even use a central system such as CPOMs to share information.
These organizations might also have appropriate staff who could, for example, do a welfare call.

🤔

What a shame that we do have such organisations and some adults are petulant moaners who think they'd be big and clever by refusing to engage with a basic welfare check.

It’s not this at all. As others have said, they will be checking on the child’s welfare. Checking all is okay if they haven’t seen a child for a few days or the parent has not rung in.

Looking out for children’s welfare makes them ‘utter power crazed wankers’? I despair.

@zingally 21 years and 5 different schools. It wasn’t a thing in the past but is now and many of the schools in my LA do this.

@JazbayGrapes and how many cases do you think schools pick up which result in fewer awful cases we hear about on the news

Don’t despair

it just says a lot about this poster

I'd rather a school overstep, than a child go abused or killed

In what way is this going to prevent that though?

Are you seriously asking that?

Turning up, unannounced, is absolutely the perfect opportunity to see how a child is without any prepping.

Of course it's going to prevent it! Yes 99% of the time there will have been no need but 1% of the time it definitely will identify the child covered im bruises or being starved to death. It can only be done effectively though if it's done correctly. For example in this case the teacher absolutely did need to cast eyes on the child. That was the whole point of the visit. Make him pop a dressing gown on or something so they can at least say a quick hello to him... or don't and accept that the refusal will be a bit of a red flag. We can't moan when children slip through the net of we aren't all prepared to engage with safeguarding

I’m amazed. A serious amount of time taking teachers out of the classroom to visit homes. They aren’t Social Workers who are trained for home visiting. From your description she sounded out of her depth. And WHY isn’t this properly forewarned in the schools policies? You say nothing there. Far from being apologetic I would complain and question this with the local education department. Assuming this is not a private school a big issue re teacher responsibility. Assume she would otherwise be teaching not trailing around intrusively visiting children with kids ailments. Maybe raise with school governors? I used to be one in my daughters primary school

it is safeguarding process
all schools follow safeguarding
she doesnt sound out of her depth.
i am amazed by your attitude @mustgetoffmn

@mustgetoffmn its usually a pastoral team member or SENDCo who do the visits. Class teachers can’t just leave the class on their own.

I was a school governor. Our schools had home visits included on their attendance policy, but had slightly different criteria for when a home visit was triggered. As a governor I would be asking a school why it didn’t have home visits on their attendance policy if they didn’t

You might be interested to know that most local authorities' procedures for a potential Child Missing From Education involve instructing the school to make home visits before they will even accept a referral, as the defining matter is 'do you know if the child is at home? Have you actually seen them'. Of course, if the parent refuses to open the door or to allow staff to see the child, then it's accepted as a referral and further enquiries are made, which could include visits from the LA.

You may not be aware that Ofsted inspections can be triggered by attendance of 94% or less!

Remember the story about little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes? He hadn't been to school for ages and they had just taken the Dad's word for why he was off. Don't take it personally, this is likely a policy at the school due to things like this.

How many of the posters asking about whether this kind of thing is 'in the policy' make a point of reading school policies? They should be available on the school website, and reviewed at regular intervals. Attendance policies aren't too arduous, but safeguarding policies aren't easy reading, and can take some wading through.
Have a read of the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education if you really want something to get your teeth into. I think the latest version is from September 2022. Don't worry if you get through it too quickly. There'll be another version along shortly.

Really unusual and inappropriate it my opinion

How many of the posters asking about whether this kind of thing is 'in the policy' make a point of reading school policies?
Most probably won't, just like most of the posters throwing around unhelpful comments about school staff not being medical professionals, police, or social workers probably have little or no meaningful awareness in safeguarding and school responsibilities in this area.

It's textbook "something should be done to prevent tragic cases, but that something better not ever affect me because then I'll (insert some way of refusing to engage told in a very self-important way where school are definitely told where to go and leave with their tail between their legs)".

When something like this happens, which is quite common. It’s usually a safeguarding issue.

Someone has made a complaint, or, they believe the child unsafe.
Has the child had a lot of time off? Marks on the body?

Agreed.

Where @DahliaMacNamara would it be

I'm
Looking at dd school online but can't seem to see anything

Says about s&d and 48hrs off

@Blondeshavemorefun do they have an attendance policy? The ones I have reviewed have included the school’s protocol if a child doesn’t turn up and no phone call from parent/carer