Home visit by school teacher

[K2012]

Hi there

I need some advice. My son will be starting school in September (reception) and the school has said they’re coming to our house for a visit. They said his teacher will be visiting everyone from his class.

I didn’t grow up in the UK so I find this a bit strange thing to do. Is this normal here?
What to expect? What kind of visit is it? Do I need to prepare anything etc.?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Schools that do home visits still have good records/teaching/taster days. It's in addition to that

Never heard of this, didn’t happen for myself or my ds

As someone not from the UK either - what on earth?! That sounds horrendously intrusive, to have a stranger just inviting themselves into your house to have a nosy about! And of course if it's not spotless, or if it's shabby, then the teacher is going to mark you as the poor/untidy family, whether they view you negatively for that or not 😬 I'd decline if possible, if I were you.

It makes far more sense to be able to go and visit the teacher one-on-one at school where the child will be spending their time, so they can familiarise themselves with both the teacher and environment with a parent in tow.

I taught for 40 years and no school ever did home visits, so it's a strange thing to me.
Teachers have enough of a workload without adding this.
Our school had the new P1 pupils in for an hour for the last 4 weeks of term to meet their new teachers and do activities with their classmates.

My kids started school in 2015 and it was a thing then. It was widely believed that it was to check that kids actually lived at the address on NC application forms. It was completely pointless.

Doesn’t happen in Scotland.

It’s not compulsory. We declined as the visits were scheduled for during the working day when neither DH or I would be at home and DT’s were at nursery.

My DS started reception during COVID so his meet the teacher was on zoom. However both nurseries did a home visit. We live quite rurally and the first one really struggled to find us! I haven’t heard that will be be getting a visit this year for DS2 who starts in Sept but he attends the preschool attached to the school and spends a day a week in reception at the moment anyway.

It is normal, so don't worry about it being based on concerns, some schools genuinely do do it for every child. Unless you have anything you want to raise with them (eg. Sen concerns), they just have a quick chat with you and the child, usually more so the child.

It's mostly to help the children settle in better, as they will already have met the teacher 1:1, and seeing you with the teacher will help them see the teacher as a safe person (so try not to come acrossas too stressed by it in front of the child). It's a relatively recent thing, schools used to have a much longer settling in period (eg. Weeks of part time), whereas now most are in full time almost straight away, but have home visits instead.

I've never heard of this!?

Not all schools do this, but it's normal. Gives them a chance to meet the child somewhere they are more comfortable before the taster days etc. as well as some dedicated time to answer your questions. I wouldn't be too concerned!

We didn't have a visit, but I almost wish we did as it shows that the school is interested in the children and their situation. Instead, the teacher visited her preschool (she was the only child who had managed to get a place at her school, so not was a nice 1:1 session for 45 mins that got things off to a good start. DD's reception teacher was amazing, and the school has been fantastic- a million times better than the school many of her preschool friends went to in terms of everything- so no regrets.)

School settling for us was very short- a week of various small groups, part days etc before going to full days after 6 school days. Worked pretty well as it got them into a routine quickly whilst also giving them time to get to know the teachers, TAs etc.

I did these visits for years and it’s none of those things.

It’s literally ten minutes in the child’s own environment where they feel comfortable, a chance for the parents to ask questions and for the child to meet their new teacher away from school etc which may feel intimidating. It’s done in addition to school visits it’s not one and done.

It’s also optional.

DD’s school didn’t do it, and she was absolutely fine though - but she’s the type of child who would be fine whatever happened. There’s definitely some children and families it benefits.

It’s quite old fashioned but some schools still do this. Ours didn’t and our DC are now a lot older. Tends to go hand in hand with the schools that still do staggered starts, which they shouldn’t, but the time inbetween is often used for the visits. Personally I’d rather have had my DC in full time reception from day 1.

It just makes far more sense for parents to make appointments to visit the teacher at school, rather than to have the teacher running all over town going from door to door for the sake of a ten minute visit with each student. Then the child can familiarise themselves with the teacher and classroom one-on-one, while the parents also have the opportunity to talk privately with the teacher, achieving all the goals that the home visit does.

I have to think there are other reasons at play.

Where are the rest of the children whilst the teacher is in an empty classroom meeting parents over multiple days?

The point of it being in the child’s home is that they’re comfortable and familiar there, and also behave differently than they would in a strange environment.

As I say, it’s probably not essential but I always found it valuable when I did it as a teacher - and I had absolutely no say or interest in admissions or catchment areas so it was nothing to do with that. Was it useful to get a vague idea of what the child’s home life was like? Yes sometimes, I don’t mean how tastefully decorated or how tidy - but occasionally there would be the odd thing that would help make sense of how the child then presented in school come September.

So many parents would say things like ‘I suppose you want to see their bedroom to check they actually live here?’ - it really wasn’t about that, and nor was it about judging how nice their house was.

A teacher could quite easily hold meetings over the course of several weeks in after school hours - which is also when parents are more likely to be available, after work. Or, as a pp said teachers would meet children in the summer holidays, the parents could take their children in over the holidays. Teachers could also meet parents and children outside of the classroom but still on the school grounds, and go for a wander around the playground and chat.

It just seems very strangely intrusive, not to mention logistically impractical - and not particularly useful, given that how a child behaves in the comfort of their own home will frequently have no bearing on how they behave when they're new students at school!

And as you make clear - teachers do notice the state of the house, or are taking the measure of the child's home life. I think I'd decline if I were OP! It just seems like an unnecessary intrusion.

I see people saying that it might be for the school to check that the child actually stays in the catchment area.

That just isn't a thing here. We don't have the agonising over the allocation emails arriving.

In 40 years I think the number of pupils who didn't go to their catchment school would be in single figures.

"Teachers could meet parents over the summer holidays".
Most ridiculous suggestion ever.

Our school did them in the first week of the September term and then all the Reception children started full time at the same time a few days after the rest of the school started up.
Certainly better than another school in town where some weren't full time until half term!

Such a paranoid view. We had this with both children, my house is always a mess and the teachers don’t care at all. They literally just came in, chatted to the kids and chatted to me. It’s not a negative thing, the purpose isn’t judgement. It’s do they can answer questions and see if they can help the transition.

Our teachers did their home visit on transition day when the kids were having their taster sessions in the year above.

Yep, the teacher wants to remain behind over var I ous days and various wees to wait for oarents and carers to visit (after all the other tasks at the of the school day are done) what time is the building being kept unlocked untl just for a parent to turn up? 5pm, 6pm,7pm, 8pm?

There is no ulterior motie of hone visits (hate to break it to you but wait until you find out staff visit if they can't reach the adult of an absent child or they doubt the validity of an absence reason)

A child is far more relaxed meeting their new teacher in their home environment than in a new big school and seeing the teacher at home affirms a position if trust between child, parent / carer and school to the child.

Plus, if you dont want staff to be poking round your home life (they aren't anyway but ypu seem convinced that's the case) then put a zip on your child as what children come out with at school tells staff a loooot more than a home visit!

@FleaDog When you're from a country that doesn't do it, it truly does seem intrusive and weird. And it really doesn't make sense to have teachers running all over town and inviting themselves into people's homes, when they could do the exact same thing at school much more easily and efficiently.

My kids' school had children start when they turned 5, and we had a parent-teacher meeting after school hours (generally between 3 pm and 4.30 pm, when the teachers were still at school wrapping up their work anyway), where we spent about 15 minutes chatting while our child explored the reception classroom, and that worked perfectly well.

I genuinely can't see a need (or benefit!) for the teacher to take time out of their day to drive out to every child's house unless it's to discreetly assess their home life. And it seems from this thread like many British schools don't do it either. As long as it's not mandatory there's no harm to it, but it definitely seems weird and intrusive.

MIL taught for 35 years. Her domestic standards had such a low bar, the bare was beneath the floorboards. If people are worried about judginess, I've never seen a spotless teacher's house. Said also as the mother of a teacher!

We didn't have this when ours started reception. I thought welfare checks were done by HVs. Or do schools regard their competency so negatively, that teachers are taking over the responsibility?

Our school had about an hour and a half transition session with their new teachers so teachers of new pupils wouldn't have had time to visit many in that space.

Also I never drove to school so wouldn't have been able to do these visits anyway.

Thankfully they're not a thing in Scotland.

Perfectly normal and think it's fabulous tgey maje so much effort