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??

I quite agree. I just wouldn't want the job!

A mate of mine was yelled at by a parent last term because he had given up all his breaks and lunch times so the kids could finish their course work (ICT....C/W is most of the grade for the GCSE). The parent accused him of harrasing her dd because he was contacting the child's form tutor to remind the girl to attend the catch up sessions. As I said, damned if you do....

I think these new parent liaison officers that schools are going in for, are a really good idea. They have a twofold function, one which is to cut down on truancy and one which is to improve parent-school dialogue. Great idea and if all parents knew that if they hadn't phoned the school by 10AM or whatever, they'd get a call, for the protection of both sides, it would pretty soon be accepted as standard. And if it's presented as a protection for parents and children, in case as in this awful case the child didn't make it to school, most parents would support it. (And also the liaison officer is there to be a positive presence, not just a negative one.) Costs money, though.

but then again it comes down to money - someone has to pay for that admin staff to be spending time making phone calls.

And as HMB says - in a large school it could take quite some time.

Lets just say there's 30 in a class, 40 odd classes. And each class has 2 or 3 absentees. That would be approx 120 phonecalls to make. Even if it's only 1 minute per child - you're still talking nearly 2hrs of calls!

We have employed 4 of them, cCaligula and I think they sould a good idea. One is an ex Sergent Major, so that should be interesting!

we always get a phone call from secondary school. its a good thing and the kids know that i will know if they have been off school without my permission

QoQ - there's some automated dialling system - you get an automatically recorded message. I think.

soupdragon - may be my last school you are thinkign about.

At my last secondary school we had a member of staff responsible for this. She waited until all the electronic registers were in and then chased up every absence where a parent had not already notififed the school of the absense.

The initial chasing was done my telephone -all parents were asked for a telephone number where they could be contacted and many left more than one - home, mobile, work, family/friend, etc.

She also had a bicycle and on occasions went rounf physically to a house to check up on absences. Not sure what the policy on this was and when used though.

This was a secondary school with almost 1000 people. It is definitely possible to do.

Easy - I would love to see a return to children not being allowed out of school at lunch time without written permission from parents and only if going home for lunch - even at secondary, The first chool I worked at had this policy - dinnerladies on school gates, permits checked as pupils left/arrived at lunch time. Very few children actually went home in the end, and there were very little problems locally with kids in trouble or causing a nuisance. My last school were very lax over this and it was a nightmare - kids swarming round local shops at lunch.

Hula - that would be impossible at one of the 3 secondary schools in this town. It's on two sites, so pupils have to leave one site to get to other classrooms

It would still be possible to do at the start of the day - after registration though. That is what two of the schools in same LEA at my old one which are on split sites do. With electronic registers all the info can be sent to one area making logistics for one dedicated member of staff to do the work. If no electronic registers, would probably require two PT staff instead.

This does obviously require registration at the start of the day. Some schools - CTCs, etc have a registration period later in the day. However I think they have a card swiping thing at start of day - so guess maybe that data could be used.

For primary schools this should be no problem at all.

Oh QoQ just reread - do you mean the not going out at lunch thing? Yes I undertsand how that might be an issue. I went to a split site school (one of ones in LEA described below). Not sure how that'd work unless you only allow pupils to leave the sites at certain times - say 10 minutes before next session?

I was talking about going out at Lunchtime - as opposed to the phoning parents bit.

ooops - post crossed

Ds's school has 1200 pupils and an electronic registration system.

The absentees are chased by phone by admin and they also have an automated texting system. We once had a text on holiday as I'd taken ds out for a couple of days and it hadn't been noted! Also they are only allowed off site at lunch with parental permission and they are supposed to go straight home, no hanging around outside the chippy.