school overstepping ?

[cax]

So my daughter is due to start reception in September, she is currently at private nursery. I have just found out that the school have arranged for someone from the school to visit my child at her nursery, i have not had the school she will be attending call or email me to ask if this is ok and the nursery have not contacted me to ask if this would be ok there end etc…. i’m feeling a little irritated that i have not been informed or asked if this was ok, of course it would have been if i had been asked as i understand why they do this, but to not even be in the loop of what is happening with my child has left me a little upset and i want to make a complaint but first want to make sure i’m not overreacting to the situation, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

That logic is completely bizarre though? The child starts at this school soon and has been to visit this teacher already so they aren't a stranger like all the other visitors you'd be happy interacting with your child would be.

Why is it bizarre?! The parents should be notified of school visiting their dc in a private setting away from school .

It's bizarre because you've said you'd be fine with all those other people visiting your child when they were at school or nursery without your prior knowledge but not the teacher the child will have teaching them 5 days a week in just a few short weeks time?

It just seems like you're arguing the point for arguments sake it's not really rational or logical to think all those unknown visitors would be acceptable but the teacher visiting needs prior notification to the parent?

@Janiie can you explain why you think you need to be notified about this? School will have received/will receive a report on your DC from the nursery before they physically attend the school.

A teacher from another school won’t get that report but they might watch your DC interacting with the children going to their school. Will you have a problem with that?

What about prospective parents for the nursery, they might see your child, might even say hello to them. Do you want to be notified every time someone visits the nursery

If your DC is going to a school within a multi academy trust they might interact with many adults across a variety of schools, would you want to be notified of that?

I think you have to face the fact that when your child is starting school, you DO lose that day to day control and knowledge of their day. On a psychological level, that can be a difficult transition for parents.

Ultimately schools often simply do not have the time or the staffing to be informing you of everyone who will see your child during the transition. It's great if they do, but schools vary hugely in their staffing capacity for these things.

The important thing is that the school is taking the transition seriously and gathering all the information they can, in order to give your child the best possible start.

Exactly @saraclara better to have a transition than no transition. And it is a transition for parents as well, so you start to get used to not knowing everything that is going on in your child’s life when they are at school. If you have been used to a detailed list of everything from nursery school can be a real shock for parents

'so you start to get used to not knowing everything that is going on in your child’s life when they are at school'

'When they are at school'. The op's dc isn't yet! Info should be school based and any meets in the community should have full parental involvement and notification.

@Janiie what’s the difference between school and nursery in this regard? The purpose of this visit is to help the child not the parent. Many schools have a foundation unit which combines all EYFS, how would you cope with that?

@Janiie Do you also have a problem with those who might be visiting a nursery?

Supply staff, monitoring visits by other staff / management, people applying for jobs who may have to deliver an activity which includes your child and so on?

Er, no. Nursery staff are supposed to be there. School staff should only be visiting kids in a private setting with the full consent and knowledge of parents. I'm really surprised some of you think this is ok

I'm really surprised you don't seem to understand that this is beneficial for the child. The school don't need the parents permission to visit in the same way any other visitor e.g. music teacher, pcso, teh fire brigade etc don't need parental permission to come into the nursery. They only need the nursery's permission.

What is your problem @Janiie with this? This is going to be the child’s trusted adult in a few months time. Why do you have an issue with them being in the same room as your DC? This is to help the DC.

When I was a Primary school governor, I would have many questions about transition at this time of year. I would be more concerned if these visits were not happening. Transition is important for the child.

There's a difference between someone visiting the setting and saying 'hello', and a planned appointment to undertake a formal assessment of your child that you have not consented to.

It's not a formal assessment. It was probably not much more than a hello to the child and then a chat with their keyworker.

It's quite likely if you read all the settling in information from the primary school, even maybe on the website, that a visit to the child at nursery, is listed as something that will happen if possible.
You may well have been told but just missed the information somehow.
There can be quite a lot to take in when a child starts school.

It’s not a formal assessment, the teacher wouldn’t have time to do them on the visit, and they will be doing one of them in the first few weeks of September.

It will be a chat with the key workers and watching the children interact with each other. If the teacher had 10 children from that nursery she will want to know how they get on with each other. And then a possible quick hello with each child and look forward to seeing you in September

This is totally normal. My DD starts in Sept & all the local schools round here do this. It's so the teachers find out what kids like /don't like, where they are developmentally etc.

I don't know why you have an issue with it.

I had some issues accessing Tapestry for my daughter's preschool for a while. Everyday, I ask what she's been up to and she says, "Played, ate lunch, played some more." I ask what she played, who with, what games, inside or outside? And get "Can't remember. Can I watch Bluey?"

Finally got into Tapestry and over the past few weeks, they've built wormeries and a bug hotel and grown butterflies from caterpillars. She point blank denied the last one until I showed her photographic evidence of her at the butterfly release.

For the trillionth time the visits are fine. The parents should be notified and made aware is the point. The dc are in a private setting, nothing to do with teachers. To gain access the school staff should seek parental consent, obviously.

Different of course of the preschool is linked to the school, but this one is a private nursery. What do they do if kids are looked after by granny or a childminder, without telling parents do the staff just go inviting themselves into people's homes?

@Janiie when you accept school you will accept their transition policy

As my local LA legal rep said to me. Once our children are under the care of the school then the school, not the parents have 100% responsibility and will decide what they think is best for the child and as parents we have no say, the teacher will make decisions for the child whether I like it or not.

I won’t go into the rest of the conversation, the meeting was on something far more involved than a visitor to the school, but ended up with me getting angry and saying take me to court then. The meeting was utterly ridiculous and pointless but the new HT was trying to prove her power. It was medically related.

The point is, schools will make decisions every day and as parents we do agree to that my sending our children to the school. Parents have very little say in what happens during a school day.

Yes. So if the transition policy states 'we will visit your dc in their private settings without informing you of the date or time' that would indeed be notifying parents. The op didn't seem aware these visits occurred though.

OP hasn't said how she found out about the visit but it hasn't yet happened so someone must have informed her.

It's possible she missed a communication from the school setting out the transition process and so is coming to it all a bit late.

If you are a switched on parent you should be asking nursery/school what transition happens? I assume no-one think the child rocks one September morning at a new school without any communication/transition? If you are that concerned about things like this I would have thought you would have asked.
@Janiie do you also have an issue with paperwork being shared between the settings too?

The OP must have informed the school which nursery her child attends. Why do people think the school wants this information?
I suspect it does say somewhere in the documentation from the school that this will happen and it may have been mentioned in the parent meeting.