Reception home visit-to make cakes or not

[bibizizi]

Yesterday on the radio the presenter said she had made chocolate brownies specially for the reception home visit.
I think this sounds excessive but is it a thing?
It sound s like a lovely idea, has anyone else to to special effort for the visit?

I've just finished a week of home visits, please don't go to the trouble of making cakes, it's a sweet thought but not necessary.
I visited 20+ houses this week, if I'd accepted a cup of tea from everyone I'd be bloated by the end of the day, let alone cake
I hope your visit goes well.

Thanks strawberryalarmclock, love the mums net name too!!

It’s an intense 20 minutes and they have masses to get through, with no time for brownies, so relax.

Can someone enlighten me on this homevisit? Why would your child's teacher want to visit your home? (I'm genuinely interested-my kids are teenagers now and we never had such a thing)

Tbh I think our visit was a ten minute rush. They wanted to talk to us and our son and also brought a few toys to assess basic skills with ds.

It’s a quiet place for both you and your child to meet the staff and discuss any issues like SEN or dietary issues.

When my DDs started school, they were observed in the nursery by YR staff, they had a trial morning in YR and no one visited my home. It is not necessary and very expensive. I’m amazed schools don’t have better relationships with nurseries to get relevant educational information. What a child is like at home in 10 mins doesn’t offer much info. SEND should be flagged up much earlier and YR should know about this and be planning much earlier. Parents of those children should have had meetings with staff before now.

it's normally so the staff can see them in a more relaxed, informal atmosphere, find out about likes and dislikes, favourite toys, siblings etc. it happens more frequently( in my experience) with small schools where the children don't all attend nursery. if schools still have half day starts, the Reception staff visit homes in the afternoon. Some people say no, which is perfectly fine, but most parents are happy to sit down and talk 1;1 about their precious child
Nursery visits, if appropriate, take place too but, when 2/3 of the children don't go to nursery ( in my area) there are different options too. Certainly any SEND/Sageguarding issues would have been raised earlier, its just the little but important things that can make the difference!

We went into the school for ours rather than them coming to us

My previous school ( small rural school, no local nursery) had open day and evening meetings where all parents were invited, transition days in the summer term, new entrant evening in the autumn term and home visits at the beginning of the autumn term-for 12-14 children.
My current school ( large, town based, lots of nursery placements available) has nursery visits, open days and evening meetings, transition days but no home visits as we have an intake of 45. No one method is correct, it just depends on circumstances and situations.

It's to do with the child settling in, and the teachers getting to know each individual child before they start.

It's child centred and a good thing IMO.

Meeting them in their own space, helps the children see the teachers / TAs as approachable people who are part of thier life - and less like intimidating, strange new people who exist only at school.

We had a home visit along with four trial sessions in reception as well (before the holidays). The teacher said they only visited children who didn't go to the school nursery. We had DD's class teacher (who is also head of EYFS) and the SENCO (in case there was anything we needed to discuss with her). We talked about what DD likes to do, her eating issues, how she was doing at preschool, etc. They were only here for about 15mins, didn't get time to offer them anything!

no home visits as we have an intake of 45

DS's reception year was a bulge year with an intake of 150 and they still did home visits.

(Normal intake 120 a year).

Our home visit was around ten minutes. Poor teachers were travelling all over the place and happy just to have a glass of water and a quick chat. Definitely wouldn’t bother with cakes

The logistics of 150 home visits must be a nightmare-the staff deserve cake!!

I used to love home visits. I appreciate some parents can be a little wary but the only time anything was ever said negatively was when the 4 year old was jumping up and down on a glass coffee table with a cigarette in her mouth!

The logistics of 150 home visits must be a nightmare-the staff deserve cake!!

Yes I imagine it is!! They were really lovely, both times.

The lady on the radio said she had made chocolate brownies and even displayed them on a cake stand, it does sound lovely although I don't have a cake stand.
I live in a posh part of Surrey and just don't want to let the side down as I can imagine they go to some nice houses.

When school budgets are stretched, the sheer expense of doing home visits is ludicrous. If children are part time, the staff should be part time. I hope none of these schools are saying their budgets don’t balance. If they are, look at this huge expense. It is necessary for Send children. Not the others.

It's surprising what can be gleaned from a home visit. And not just for SEN children. How a child lives, what the dynamics may be like at home and seeing the child in their home setting is an invaluable asset for class teachers to have when the child starts school.

@spanieleyes how come so many children in your area don’t attend nursery? Are you rural maybe?

I don't think they'll eat it, when we had ours they wouldn't even accept a cup of tea although I think one had water!

I had cakes but I make cakes nearly every day anyway,I'm not sure I'd go to the trouble of making them if I didn't.

Bubblesbuddy: some schools have staggered intakes, so the Reception children are only in for mornings for the first week, the Reception teacher then makes home visits in the afternoon. There is no expense for home visits, perhaps a few pounds for mileage if the teacher claims-although they usually don't because all the cake they eat makes up for a few miles. You can't make full time staff part time for a week!

CurtainARama; yes a rural area. there was one nursery but it closed down several years ago. the school doesn't have one , there was a playgroup in the village hall but it tends to be mum-run. I now work in a local town and things are very different!

Ah, makes sense, spaniel I couldn’t work out any other reason for people not using the free hours!

Lots of stay at home mums too-mainly because there were few employment opportunities and one bus a week!