Are school teachers allowed to come to your house

[Natwild]

I had a big problem with a safeguarding teacher when my kids were off sick for 3 days I had to leave my kids with there grandparents which is my mother as I had work. A teacher turned up at my home unannounced asking where my kids were and that she was asking neighbours for a key also if I leave my kids on there own. She said to me I don't think your kids are safe and think your inside hurting your kids I had to leave work and prove my kids were safe with my mother which was so disgusting made me feel sick. The neighbours said she asked personal questions I broke down in tears is this allowed Any advice appreciated.

Not odd to come to house, but yo knock on neighbours and ask probing questions and ringing the mum at work etc.

How long was teacher there? Long enough to knock, get no response, ring mum, wait for mum to return to work etc??

@FizzyLaser you laugh but it has happened. It is one case that is always mentioned during safeguarding training alongside others.

They can and should visit after 3 days if they couldn’t make contact. Did you not ring and explain on day 1?

No idea about OPs story, it seems extreme.

But I call the school every day that my kids are ill. Both times it happened to us, I’d spoken to the pastoral contact that day or the previous day and had a 5 minute chat. When I spoke to the school after the visit to ask why someone was sent out, they said it was automatic and not their choice. 🤷‍♀️ They said it’s because noone had seen the children in 3 days other than us. When I pointed out that a medical professional had seen my son and that one had spoken to my daughter on video call briefly and issued antibiotics which I’d sent evidence of, they had no answers.

When did this happen?
Have you raised it with the school, to find out why the staff member had been hassling neighbours and asking intrusive questions?

To answer your question, yes of course school staff can visit your home to check on the welfare of children.

Unless there is a history behind this, I'd be wanting to work with the school, rather than getting defensive.

It's not unusual at all to do a welfare visit. Every school I've worked at has done them.

There's got to be more to this story.

@AnotherDanceClass why do they need to have "answers"? They were concerned about your child's welfare and so they acted. That's all you need to know.

Totally usual. Headteacher at our school turned up to a house as the 'sick' family were unloading their suitcases from the taxi having just returned from their term-time hols in Spain 👀

Doesn't sound like op refused though?

Unless you mean me? If so I meant I wouldn't give the address, not that I wouldn't tell school my kids were with mum (valid reasons I wouldn't give address, if mum was happy to of her own accord to give it out after speaking to school fine)

why do they need to have "answers"? They were concerned about your child's welfare and so they acted. That's all you need to know.

But they weren’t because they said being seen by a medical professional counted as being seen. I had been in touch every day. They had evidence of being seen by a doctor for one child and a photo of antibiotics for the other. I’d done everything requested by the school. They visited, didn’t see my kids as they were in bed, nothing more was done, which seems a little odd if they were actually concerned. 🙄 My friend is a head and told me not to worry as, for most, it’s nothing more a box ticking exercise. Anyway, one kid now at uni, one almost finished secondary so we’re nearly out of it. 😅

It may be a " box ticking exercise" but it can also prevent tragedies. I would rather be cautious than careless.

Way more to this story.

Yep this, they can turn up.

I know a headteacher who used to go round to certain homes and give the kids a lift to school because the parents were so disengaged with their children. It was a school in a really deprived area.

I know! I’m a teacher 😃

It may be a " box ticking exercise" but it can also prevent tragedies. I would rather be cautious than careless.

Of course. But if children have been seen by a medical professional, the check has been done and they’re wasting their time. These tragedies seem to still happen so they need to improve their system. If my children had been at risk, doing nothing after I’d said no to seeing them asleep in bed, wouldn’t have helped would it. Either leave families like mine alone when we’ve provided evidenced, rand school, seen a doctor or see it through properly.

Yes they can attend and more importantly they should. There may be various reasons (even if you had reported them ill) that it was concerned appropriate in this case this could be anything from: already low attendance, information provided not matching records (flare up of asthma and no mention of asthma before) etc.

This does not mean they think you are bad parent, you are on some "concern list", this means they are being proactive on safeguarding.

There have been several cases recently of children dying and schools being hauled over the coals in inquests: why did they not do more, why didn't they attend homes etc? They are not necessarily all cases where there were obvious signs, but in hindsight where there are various points there were some "concerns" and they weren't acted on. Schools have a duty to protect children, and they need to protect themselves.

The only point I would say, if in fact true, I would raise an eyebrow is the request for the neighbour for a key to get in the house. I presume kids were in and no one was answering door? I would have still recommended she should have called police in that situation to gain entry, but if there were immediate concerns of harm then as well as calling the police I don't think anyone would consider it unreasonable to try and gain entry via a key.

It happens all of the time. Unfortunately it's now part of a schools job to make sure people are not neglecting their children.

I also vote this didn't happen

It always should've been, there's no unfortunately about it. The only unfortunate thing is that it took so long and so many tragedies for it to become a common thing.

Welfare checks by the school is normal here.
School funding is related to attendance.

It always should've been, there's no unfortunately about it. The only unfortunate thing is that it took so long and so many tragedies for it to become a common thing.

What I mean is it's another thing that's been pushed on to schools.

Teach them the curriculum and also make sure they have had breakfast and follow it up if they aren't at school.

Did you report to school that they were off sick? If you haven’t and they can’t get hold of you they have a duty to check your home address.

Schools have both the responsibility and authority to make home visits. Leaving a message/calling to say child won’t be in, doesn’t negate safeguarding concerns. At my school, our Family Support Worker would definitely visit after a few days off. Most parents understand that we are offering a safe and well check. It is interesting how defensive some parents get, but schools want to see the child, not hear that the child is OK. A quick chat at the doorstep is normally all that is needed.
You would possibly be surprised at how many safeguarding issues we pick up from home visits. More importantly, we are then able to help.

3 days is now standard for our school to do a safeguarding check so that bit makes sense. The things she said don't make sense unless what you mean is she said something along the lines of ' we need to make sure they are safe nland no signs of harm' and if she said directly she thinks you are hurting them you need to make a complaint. Unfortunately I support these checka after news horror stories about kids absent from school.

What they are looking for is eyes on the child to be able to say yest that child is safe but unwell.

Well that sounds very odd behaviour indeed.

You could always ask social services if they can add you to their lists and come do an assessment to assure the school all is well. They are very busy and have more work than they can handle but if the teacher is under the impression you are hurting and neglecting your children then that is a social services matter

Or you could complain to the school.