Teacher hand delivered certificate usually given out in class.

[howmanycorners]

I don’t know what to make of this, dc is in primary school and every week someone gets a certificate.
Suddenly I saw my child’s teacher walk past the lounge window at about 8 pm and post a certificate through the door.
Aibu to find it a bit strange and wonder why she did this having had to look up our address and purposely drive to our house when all certificates are handed out in school and she would see my child in the morning?

'Not normal' does not equal 'illegal'. You're welcome.

Why don't you just ask her if it's bothering you so much? Even say thankyou?

I think it's just a MN thing, 'I'm such a perfect parent because I worry about the tiniest thing', the vast majority wouldn't think twice about it.

funny you haven't been to see the head to say “I think Ms X may have a safeguarding concern about my child. Can we please have a meeting to discuss?” That way you could reassure the school that everything is fine at home, and you’d ensure they addressed any inappropriate “checking” methods used by their staff. What is there to lose?

She probably wasn’t sure if school would be open the next day due to the weather at the moment, and thought it better to drop it to your house so your child didn’t miss out. Just see it as a lovely thing your child’s teacher did. They went out of their way to make sure your child didn’t miss out.

I would have thought if you were concerned enough to post on MN you would have spoken to the teacher, even to say thank you for dropping off the certificate but you didn’t need to

Teachers have access to children's information such as home address and parent/carer contact numbers.
She posted a certificate for your child through your door, in her own time, as a kind gesture and you are complaining.
You sound like an utter twat

Who knows. They night not have planned to be in on friday, a course or something else. They might live near you and filled out the certificate at home and thought, dammit they will not get it till Monday. I mean if I was in and out watering plants I would have said hi and said gosh thats kind of you but DD would have waited till rhe next day or week and that would have prompted a mini explanation. I think lots of people over think things and to come on to mumsnet to ask about such a small, trivial matter is more concerning about yourself and how you look at the world. This person was doing something nice. I kindly, recommend you speak to someone trained about anxiety and how you view the world and people. You might fill a bit happier about most things.
Its different if she was rooting thru your bins or chatting up your husband. Dropping off a certificate thru a letterbox is hardly the expected thriller.

Feel!!!! Always after I post 😀

I can’t help but think the saying ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ applies here 🥺

Sigh. I didn't say that non normal equals illegal. Of course it's not inherently illegal for a teacher to deliver something to a pupil's home.

However it could be unlawful if to do so, if they've accessed the pupil's address without satisfying one of the 6 bases.

The basis of the 6 we're talking about here is consent. What I'm saying is that the event of a teacher needing to ever deliver anything without prior arrangement is not normal, and because of this, a school is unlikely to have ever sought explicit consent beforehand to do so.

Lots of people have access to lots of people's home addresses. It doesn't entitle them to use that data when it isn't essential.

There are many people on this thread who don't seem to be getting the point that a general restriction is as much for the protection of teachers as it is the pupils or their family. Even though they have had this explained on this thread by teachers.

I'm also intrigued that none of the critiical posters want to engage with the fact that this child has her certificate handed to her by her Mum instead of having it presented to her in front of the class by her teacher and being able to proudly take it home and show it to her Mum. It wasn't kind to do that at all.

All teaching staff have access to the school data management system, just like they do your phone number and email address. Don’t have your child attend school if you don’t want anyone who works there knowing the finer details. Our staff have collected kids from home and dropped things off and have been doing so for years and often in their own time. This was a lovely thing to do. Are you made to feel uncomfortable on a daily basis?

SAY THANK YOU FOR SOMETHING YOU WEREN'T EXPECTING AND MADE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE YOU HYSTERICAL WENCH*

*and let us mock you a bit more because you find something invasive that we don't, and it's regarding a teacher, who must be a poor dear who can make no wrong decision.

Do they do this unannounced?

Does your child enjoy school? Do they go in fine in the morning? Only reason I can think of is if they struggle going in in the mornings and this might give them a bit of a boost knowing they have been chosen.
Or do they have a lot of Fridays off and the teacher thought they wouldn't be in?

Presumably when your staff have collected children from their homes, that was following communication and agreement with the parents. Teachers don't just turn up out of the blue to take kids somewhere spontaneously. Therefore, consent will have been given for the staff to access addresses in order to do this. It's not a comparable situation.

Just because you have access to pupil data doesn't mean you should actually be accessing it without cause. If you work in a school you really should understand that.

I will go against the grain
I think the teacher was wrong to turn up at the house uninvited
Data protection legislation is there for a reason and the child’s teacher shouldn’t have used her privilege to find the address .
She was obviously trying to be kind and may have had valid and altruistic reasons for posting the certificate but I understand fully why the Op is uncomfortable .
The teacher has also crossed professional / personal boundaries as far as I am concerned .

Is it possible that home address has been mentioned in class? Maybe like Teacher mentions Smith Road in a story and your ds says oh I live at 14 Smith Road and the teacher maybe lives at 3 on the same road - would explain the nosey and seeing if he was telling the truth maybe?

No idea, just a random thought lol

No, she doesn't sound like an "utter twat". She sounds like someone who has a different opinion to you about what she is comfortable with.

Regardless of the legality debate, having a different opinion of something a teacher has or hasn't done doesn't make someone a twat.

No teacher at my school would do this... A certificate can definitely wait until Monday! Unless we're talking about child who would unravel because they don't have their certificate AND it was on my way home.
As a parent, I wouldn't get my knickers in a twist about it either.

Don't worry, it's not totally against the grain, many of us have commented like this, it's just been drowned out by people calling the OP a "twat" and laughing at her for supposedly being afraid, hiding from the postman, being precious, being left shaking, oh and accusing her of contributing to the teacher retention crisis.

Apparently teachers cannot be criticised, ever, no matter how mildly.

With respect , your school needs to organise training with regard to this if you think it is acceptable to rock up at a pupil’s home without consulting the parent and possibly not consulting the school
It is a safeguarding concern not only for the child but the teacher
I honestly can’t believe that some posters think that this is ok . I despair

To be fair - we haven't had many teacher's come on this thread and think it's ok and that they would happily do it. The teachers seem to think it's not something you do.

Because the teacher will then explain the reason to you and you will have peace of mind