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 happened to my neighbour, they finally explained it was due to persistent lateness which is a safeguarding concern.

She didn’t realise she was so late for school everyday. They start at 8.50am and she would have her children there at 8.50, sometimes 08.55am. They explained that the children need to be sitting in there seats and settled by 8:50am so it is considered late to arrive at that time.

Maybe could be something like this?

If the school policy is known, then the child and the parent would know this might be a possibility and the parents would advise the child on how to manage the situation. If a child is home alone they should be able to do this.

Why not? Children that were deemed 'perfectly able to attend' were taken on the bus. Mine absolutely would have appeared 'perfectly able to attend' so therefore taken on the bus.

Or not because it's crap.

Don't feel bad OP, this should not become normal procedure. It's intrusive and a waste of a staff member's time. I would be so cross if a teacher turned up unannounced and demanded my sick child get out of bed.

I wonder if policies like this are part of the reason why so many more families are choosing to home educate. British schools are so controlling and seem to act against parents. Our school has started policing lunch boxes when school meals consist of chips, burgers and cake!

@TheOrigRights

Juts to clarify when I talked about my DD and the bus I meant before I took her out of school. I thought that was obvious.

Grandchildren school have thrown in the towel I suspect at primary level. After two years of lockdowns every bug childhood disease has ripped through school like a forest 🔥 . Especially the younger ones. When it snowed some bunked off nothing said. Parents are taking term time off for holidays. It may revert come September of course

I used to think this was overbearing behaviour, but then I head of a case where a single mother had died suddenly, and her toddler also passed away from dehydration because no one noticed their absence and checked on them. So now I think communities noticing if people are there or not, and someone taking the time to check if they are not, is not such a bad thing.

But in this case OP has not died. School knew this as she made contact with them.

This is definitely a new thing. I had 2 of my children off for a week a couple of months ago as they had a really nasty bug. The school called to speak to both of them after 4 days and informed me that if I hadn't let them speak, they would have to visit. I was a little surprised as I had never had this before. They are secondary school age.

Had I telephoned the school to let them know my DC chicken pox and would be absent for up to a week, I'd have been incandescent if they had forced such a visit on a non mutually arranged basis and without a reason.

I would definitely have written outlining my concerns to the HT and the Chair of Governors. The concerns being that my veracity was being questioned and the school was passive aggressively asserting their may be a safeguarding issue in the absence of an explanation.

It seems schools must nowadays be significantly over-resourced and it is therefore surprising that we constantly the teachers are overworked.

They're not there to judge the child's illness fgs they're there to ensure that the child is safe! Of course they are and should be qualified to do this!

That’s rather odd imo.

I’ve raised four and this has never happened

Sorry but I think that is dreadful.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. Why do you think an attendance officer would be called upon to check on the attendance of a home educated child? That child would not be on school roll.

I don't think mini busses are cruising the streets looking for healthy-looking children and taking them to schools aka the Child Catcher.

I’m amazed they have the staff to do that especially during chicken pox fever. I have once forgotten to tell nursery that we weren’t coming in and had the call to check where we were. That is sensible and has probably saved lives. A colleague at my husband’s work had a heart attack during the morning before taking his child to work. He sadly died but the nursery protocol meant help did arrive and a small child wasn’t left alone all day in traumatic circs.

I’m not entirely sure why dragging a sick child from his bed for a home visit is entirely helpful when they school have already had eyes on the parents dropping off the other child and the child has good attendance normally. It obviously happens in some schools and not others so would be interested to know what best practice actually is.

So many young girls and boys are not safe at school due to the abundance of weird toilet rules (especially the unisex ones!).
Parents can't do anything about it. We don't have a say.

And yet the school are allowed to rock up at our doors unannounced.

I would be OK with the latter if the former was sorted out.

It feels like schools are picking and choosing when they want kids to be safe.

In my local area, one of the schools has recently implemented a similar policy where they do a home check if absent for more than 2 days, which I personally think is a bit over the top and must surely cost the school a fortune to manage. I wondered if this was down to the pressure now being placed on schools to improve attendance post covid.

I've just had exactly the same thing for my 4 year old who has diahorrea. She was only off yesterday and then again today. Apparently its school policy after 48 hours to check child's welfare and to see when they are back at school. She's only had 2 days off before for sickness on 2 seperate occasions and also isn't even legally required to be in school so I'm really mad about it!

@TheOrigRights

I meant BEFORE she was home educated.

When she was still at school.

@CandlelightGlow don’t feel bad. It’s a policy that wasn’t clear, or even explained/ mentioned to parents. You were totally reasonable to ask.

Now you know that a) you weren’t singled out and b) the school is actively engaged with the welfare of their pupils, you can relax, and see it as a positive.

Hope he feels better soon. I wish the chicken pox vaccine was part of routine childhood vaccinations in this country.

No, not really, but this thread is moving quickly.
So, before you officially withdrew your child from school, she was staying home. Did the school know this? If not then surely you can see that this is exactly the situation where vulnerable children slip through.

OK. I can't keep up. I'm sure what you did was entirely appropriate.
I hope your child is more settled now.

Give. Me. Strength.

This explanation is nearly as batshit as the action

Honestly, how messed up is education with these sledgehammer approaches to perfectly manageable issues?

No, not really, but this thread is moving quickly.
So, before you officially withdrew your child from school, she was staying home. Did the school know this? If not then surely you can see that this is exactly the situation where vulnerable children slip through.

I gave an example of the education officer and a teacher not being qualified to decide on a turn up at the door which children were 'perfectly able' to go to school and rounding them up on a bus. I'm not about to debate my own DD situation with you because anyone who is defending this bus situation hasn't got a clue. It's fucking crazy.

I’ve never heard of a teacher calling at the home BUT our school makes it clear that absences have to be reported every single day so I would think that staff have called because you haven’t phoned in more than one day. But I would ring school and ask why.