Should Schools phone home if a child doesn't go to class?

[Toothache]

Following on from that poor boy Rory.... should schools be expected to phone the parents of a child who is off school inexplicably?

At the moment I don't think it's law in Scotland.... or even the recommendation. And the parents don't have to phone either, just ensure the child has a sicknote when they get back.

So should this change?

How much time would be taken up by ringing the parent of every child that hasn't turned up that morning.

What if there was no answer at home? What would the next course of action be??

Yes, I think so. The parents should give (and do I think) emergency contact numbers. It can't be difficult to give a number where you'll be in the morning - most people have mobiles now. At DSs primary you have to phone your child in sick in the morning rather than send in a note on their return.

On one of the other threads, a teacher said this did happen at one school they taught at and there was a dedicated member of staff for the job.

yes, i think they should
the first thing i said when i read that story was "why on earth didn't they ring?"

I have countless times tried to phone kids parents at old numbers that havent been undated. Makes you wonder what their parents think will happen in an emergency.

I think it's a good idea to phone home with kids who dont turn up but in large schools it needs a member of staff to have the time to do this.

Thats what I thought too, but then I realised that it just isn't the norm.

Re the numbers not being updated - this works both ways. I filled out an update form which the school send out regularly with my new number, only to find that when the school were trying to contact me on my mobile, they were still using my old number. I was not pleased.

dd's old school used to have a dedicated member of staff to call the parents if a child had not arrived at school by a certain time. Maybe this is a practice which should be adopted by all schools?

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Yes, I definitely think this should happen.
It is something that did happen at my ds's previous Primary School (in Edinburgh) following on from a pupil playing truant and subsequently being involved in a fairly serious road accident. If a child didn't turn up by, say, 10am a member of the office staff would attempt to contact a parent on their contact numbers. I must say that once my older children started walking to school on their own it gave me bit of peace of mind. This primary school was a fairly large one with a roll of about 420 children but they seemed to manage to this perfectly easily. At ds's current school, I have tried to bring the issue up again both with staff and the school board but they just didn't seem interested. I will definitely be raising the issue with them again after what happened to Rory.

I certainly believe schools should do this, and should also expect a parent to phone in if a child can't attend.

When I was at school (in 1900 and bump) school was regarded 'in loco parentis', so they considered themselves responsible for the children from 9:00a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Those who went out at lunchtime had to have written permission from parents, and were expected back for afternoon registration.

We live quite near a large school, and it astounds me how many children wander around our estate at all hours of the day, when I would assume they should be in school.

when i was at school it was just a case of bringin a note when u came back but now at the secondar school i used to go to you have to ring in by 10 am if ur child will b off, they have the electronic registers that will tell them if a single(or more) lesson is missed too

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Ideally I think they should notify parents if their child is a no-show but then logistics of doing so are nightmarish - parents working or not at home/available when the call is made, the sheer numbers for some schools would probably be prohibitive and, in this instance, at the beginning of term not all those enrolled will show up anyway due to late holidays, moving away or taking up school places at other schools without the parents notifying them.

the secondary where I teach ask parents to phone in if child is sick and to bring sicknote on return for school records.

if parents don't phone, school does. someone has this job every morning to go thru the registers and phone home if necessary.

you may be surprised at how many kids are roused from their beds this way because they 'slept in'.

i think many schools picked up this initiative as a way of controlling truancy.

My childrens' secondary school do this. There's an answer machine so you can ring to let them know if they aren't coming in and that's on all evening then up until about 8 am. A proper person thereafter.

I'm not sure that the primary would call though I think they should.

It is a good idea, and does happen in quite a few schools. It doesn't really take that long if parents of children how are ill have already phoned. Problems arise if you can't contact a parent - do you leave it and assume they are with the child, or take further action?
The system was originally set up to help control authorised and unauthorised absenses - to meet yet another gov target. It could easily be done in all schools by an lsa, or even pay a parent for 1/2 hr each day. I'll mention it to Tony next time i see him!

I certainly think it would help tackle the truancy problems, if parents were alerted the very first time their child went missing.

I think some kids get away with it a few times before their parents even know.

If I was responsible for a school (which I am not - and thankful!) I would want to follow up absenses, but would be very wary of taking on responsibility for reporting kids whereabouts to parents.
Just say, due to technical or human error, a kid who is absent gets left off the list for texting to parents, and then it is discovered that something horrible has happened - it's a huge responsibility - and liability to place on schools.
Not saying that's right or wrong - but it is a significant thing they would be taking on.

When I was a form tutor I would have about 1-5 children absent ever day.

I did contact the parents of 'frequent flyers' who we thought were sagging off.

I have also had probelms with numbers not being updadted (even though we do check). And more devious kids would give the wrong numbers deliberatly.

I think the idea has considerable merrit. I also think that it would be about a week before someone complained that we were 'hassleing' them and harassing their child. Damned if you do etc

I work in a school office and if a child is absent and we haven't heard from their parents/carers by 9.30 we always phone to check on them. I think that should be standard in every school.

It would be wonderfully helpful and would intercept the phone call you might be about to make, but with resources being short etc., I wonder how practical it is?

Great idea for all sorts of reasons, but it would need funding (an hour or so of someone's time costs). Unless it could be done by a volunteer, I suppose.

I personaly would not be able to phone until break time, which in our school is 11.30. (as I teach when regestration ends).

However we have taken on student liason officers and they may well be doing this sort of thing.

Its practical in our office, however there are 3 of us and there are 240 ish pupils, so on average only having the phone a few a day, as many of the parents have phoned by then. I realise it would be tricky in a high school, however still a necessary thing to do IMO

Yes, the numbers thing does get more of a problem. We have 1300 in our school and we also have a fair few absent.

I don't think that every parent would welcome it either, sadly.

Happymerryberries

I certainly wouldn't expect the teacher to be making the call, it should be the task of the admin staff. and yes some parents would accuse school of harrassing them, but then is the time to remind them of their legal obligation to ensure their child is educated, and get the authorities involved, early, before 'bunking off' becomes habitual.