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.

We used to visit in the nursery the children loved it and would talk about it months later how I went to their house

You don’t have to accept a staggered start - we didn’t - sent them full time from day one as is your legal right.

The visits are not welfare checks.

Schools do not regard welfare officer's competency so begatively that they have decided to take on this role

What a bizzare assumption.

However, at the point a child is identified as having safeguarding needs due to poor homelife /parental issues / prevent identified / operation encompass / mental health / cahms / neglect / poverty / housing crisis / county lines you'll be pleased to know a number of schools action as welfare officers or social workers as the services school recer to are do over stretched many referrals get bounced back and schools are told to carry on doing what they are doing.

Sat in school at 5pm refusing to let a child lesve waiting for police with a discloure about abuse school can't risk releasing them to a unsafe environment. Joining emergency TAF meetings following a pupil death being asked what was missed by whom, liaising with different police forces over 2 hours after you should have finished as a pupilis missing and you suspect trafficking?

But yes, schools just want to be nosey and think they are better than other services.

There are many svhools doing many tjibgs that are realky out of the remit of education to keep children safe. Thr home visit by tbe reveption teacher isn't one of them, it's supposed to be nice.

Private schools don't do these visits as a rule and you can be sure if it was simply part of transition to support education, they would be.

It's dressed as transition, it's actually early safeguarding. It's optional, you can say no.

This doesn't happen in Scotland, and sounds completely bizarre to me.

Yes me too. I can't see it
going down well with our P1 staff.

Totally unnecessary.

It's not safeguarding. It's transition.

There are plenty of nursey handovers to cover any safeguarding concerns if attended.

With my eldest it wasn’t a thing
my second it was Covid so didn’t happen
my 3rd they wanted to but they wanted to come when we were working and so it didn’t work so we just said no
so I’ve never done it but plenty of my friends have.

Our school will ask your child to bring their favourite book and toy. Tragically some kids have neither. It’s a fairly subtle way to understand the child’s homelife and support them.

They usually do it in the first week when the Reception kids haven’t started yet or are in part time. It’s extra to stay and plays or going in the classroom for a visit etc it’s not a replacement. Those are done too.

They did this when my dd started school 16 years ago! It’s a good thing I think.

Oh crikey that’s not what happens. The teachers are not looking for that! It’s so they can meet the child in their home environment where they feel comfortable.

I used to do them for every child when I was a reception teacher. It was meant to be friendly and reassuring. We would usually come as a pair (me and TA). We might ask about favourite interests, their development, any worries you might have etc. It's not a test. I had children who were very, very shy and ones who wanted to give me a tour of the whole house (I persuaded them out of it for their poor mum's sake, who I could tell was thinking - noooo, that's where I stashed all the mess!).

Apparently it’s a thing they started doing, not actually sure why as we managed just fine in the past without such intrusion

It was my favourite week of the year as a reception teacher. We had some hilarious and wonderful moments and if you're kind, caring and put parents & children at ease then it sets the whole year up in a positive way.

Teachers aren’t in school in the summer holidays. They are on holiday.
And after school they have their own lives and families

Most of the world manages to have teachers meet kids and parents ahead of time without home visits! It seems about as old-fashioned and odd as having GPs do home visits as standard, instead of having people visit the practice. My family have a lot of teachers and a now-retired school principal, and I can't imagine any of them thinking home visits were more useful or practical than parents bringing the child to the school to visit!

Someone mentioned teachers doing visits in the holidays, which was the only reason I said, 'wouldn't it be easier for parents to visit teachers at school during that time'. And to be fair, most teachers where I am (NZ) go back to school at least a week before school starts after the summer holidays, to get the classroom sorted etc, so it seems plausible.

Also, the teachers are usually at school until at least 4 or 5 pm most days, doing admin, having meetings, or seeing parents about behavioural issues, so I don't see the issue with a fifteen minute meeting after school to chat to the parents privately, and show the child around the classroom.

It just seems entirely unnecessary to have a teacher driving from pillar to post all over town, and intruding on people's homes, when the parents could just bring the child in to the place where the teacher is already, and will be interacting with their child.

Most of the kids at our school live within a mile or so except for a couple of kids per year who might be an extra mile away. It’s really not that bad for the teachers to go visit them in that respect. They get to see them where they feel comfortable and can speak to the parents about anything they also might feel more comfortable talking about at home.

My teacher friends may pop in for a morning to sort a classroom in the hols but not for hours. there’s no way they’d want to have 30 kids coming in.

Plus most of the kids would be on holiday themselves or parents at work. The timings would be a nightmare. Instead at our school the home visits are done over 2 or 3 days just before they start. It’s probably quite a nice change for the teachers.

The kids already get to see the classroom at stay and play sessions before the school holidays and then depending on the school they may start the first week with a part time schedule too. It’s not instead of this it’s an extra thing.

Definitely not normal where I live. That seems weird. Maybe it’s for children who have never been to nursery or pre-school?

I'm not sure how the timings would be easier? Or how it's easier for 30 sets of parents to try to have a clean and tidy house for the sake of fifteen minutes' time, while they're working. When are these visits held? Late afternoons or evenings, when parents are home from work, or can arrange to get off work early? Because that seems just as impractical for the teacher as you say meeting kids after school is! And I'm not sure why having children come into the classroom by appointment one by one is so taxing or unwanted, but driving around going to 30 different houses isn't!!

Ah well, it still just seems like a way to try to intrude upon and assess a family's home to me (as pp have also said) as there's literally no other reason to do it, but as long as it's not mandatory, then I guess families who like the idea of the teacher visiting can go for for gold 😅

People are pretty naive if they don't think teachers are summing you up from these visits 🤣

@fashionqueen0123 Most teachers don’t rush home and they do see new starters after school. It’s standard in many schools. They don’t incur the huge costs of home visits and supply cover. Children who are send might get a home visit but they come with professional advice too.

There aren’t huge costs to home visits and they don’t need supply cover either as the kids aren’t at school yet? It’s standard here. New starters go in in July they don’t need to see teachers after a school day.

It's common, and it's optional.

I had them for my children starting nursery and school, I've also done them as a nursery teacher.

It's not to check your address is in catchment
It's not to see how tidy or wealthy you are
It's not a social services check

It does give your child a chance to meet the teacher on home turf, and gives the parent a chance to discuss anything sensitive.

Unless your house is truly disgusting (faeces on the floor etc) or there are clear safeguarding issues (drug paraphernalia on the coffee table) the teacher isn't going care that much about what your home is like 😂

If a school or nursery does it, they generally offer it to all children.