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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Headteacher Call..

15 replies

HolmeH · 05/05/2021 18:40

DD1 got a place at an out of catchment school for September. It was our second choice & the year is not oversubscribed. The council data shows 20 pupils out of a possible 30. And children were admitted from much further away than we live.

We had a welcome letter, sent a form back confirming we’d attend a welcome evening in July.

Today, got a call from the headteacher which I missed. He left a voicemail asking me to call back tomorrow & said ‘nothing to worry about’ .. but obviously, I am now a bit worried 🙈😩 What would he be calling about?! He surely has admin staff for anything admin wise.. he sounded a bit apprehensive on the voicemail as well..

I know no-one has the answer to this question but 😩🙈

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

UserAtRandom · 05/05/2021 18:46

If there's only 20 in the year group, this sounds like a pretty small school so they potentially have a pretty small staff and the headteacher does get involved in more admin things? Perhaps he's ringing to welcome you to the school in person ?

(IME "nothing to worry about" from school staff does mean just that - you will hear the phrase many more times over the years to come!)

roguetomato · 05/05/2021 18:52

Nothing to worry about means there's nothing to worry about. Don't worry.

Original poster

HolmeH · 05/05/2021 19:05

It is small, yes.. the head does seem quite involved to be fair from what I’ve seen. Fingers crossed, I just wasn’t expecting to hear from the school until the open day! The office did reply to say thanks for confirming & see you in July..

OP posts:

skippetyskoo · 05/05/2021 19:07

Does your child have any additional needs that may have been identified by their nursery and then communicated to the school? It might be that the head wants to prepare for your child/get more info if so.

SummerHouse · 05/05/2021 19:11

Hume... How irritating. What the heck was he calling about!?

Original poster

HolmeH · 05/05/2021 19:47

Thanks guys.. I’m sure it’s fine but it’s rattled me slightly!

There is one concern that I expect nursery will flag to the school, nothing overly concerning but it’s just a strange quirk of DD’s that I do think it’d be worth a chat to the teacher about! However, I got an email from nursery last week saying transition forms to the children’s new schools would be sent in June.. so I don’t think that’ll be it.. 🤔

OP posts:

Zodlebud · 05/05/2021 21:09

When my eldest went to secondary school she got a letter from the head welcoming her. Given the small number of families involved, my guess is they are just phoning to introduce themselves and to welcome you to the school.

admission · 05/05/2021 21:23

I would assume, until anybody say different, that this is a headteacher who is wanting to get in touch and is looking to ensure that as parents you get the very best education for your child in his school.

TheLonelyCup · 06/05/2021 09:36

When my DD got her offer (3 years ago now) the headteacher called me a few weeks after offers because Nursery had called about her additional needs, they wanted to do extra transitions with her. Could it be that?

singsingbluesilver · 06/05/2021 09:40

Head's don't say nothing to worry about if they don't mean it - don't stress.

It could be that the phone calls were made to welcome all new intake parents and the list was split between all staff, so you just happened to be on the HT's list at random. We sometimes used to do this in my school to share the workload.

SummerHouse · 06/05/2021 16:17

So. What did the head want OP?

Original poster

HolmeH · 06/05/2021 23:14

Sorry! Just got logged on 😂 unbelievably, it was about Facebook! There was a post on my local village community page that I liked earlier in the week about some community fundraising for the school. Apparently, the comments went rogue & the post was removed. The head was ‘mortified’ in his words and had taken down the names of all the parents & new parents who’d liked the post & was calling them to make sure there had been no upset or offence caused 😳 I didn’t see any of the comments, I don’t often use Facebook to be honest & I didn’t go back on until after our call today to see if I could see anything .. but alas!

I felt really sorry for the head, what a minefield social media must be. I assume whatever was said must have been fairly offensive for him to take such action?!

OP posts:

UserAtRandom · 07/05/2021 08:20

Somebody probably made a negative remark about a member of staff about the school or complained about the way the money was spent.
(If these are genuine issues, they should be raised via proper channels).

Or the remarks simply deviated off into something that had nothing to do with the original topic and 2 of the participants ended up having a slanging match.

Glad you are reassured that it really was "nothing to worry about!".

SummerHouse · 07/05/2021 10:52

Holy cow why can't they just say "just wanted to reassure you about a Facebook post we removed" rather than "it's nothing to worry about" which has the absolute opposite effect!

clary · 07/05/2021 17:56

I knew the school secretary at my DCs' infant school quite well and she told me she used to ring up and say "It's Mrs xxx - nothing to worry about" as her opening gambit!

Glad it was ok op.

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