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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.

Home visits what to expect

10 replies

Lullabycrickets23 · 21/05/2025 17:51

Hi! My DS is starting school in September and we have home visit booked with teachers.
It is a Catholic school and while I am Catholic, my partner is not and I am worried they will be asking questions about marriage or faith.
I know a home visit is to know the child but also a bit of an inspection.
What should I look out for? Would you share difficulties ( for example my DS has not a great attention span and doesn’t really love drawing/writing) or would you rather not to avoid influencing the new teacher first impression?
Any good tip?

OP posts:
Wirdle · 21/05/2025 18:15

No experience of home visits yet, we are awaiting ours too. But don't you dare feel inadequate about the religious aspect, if its a state school funded with taxpayers money and you got a place then there should never be judgement!

BangersAndGnash · 21/05/2025 18:19

They won't ask questions about your marriage and faith!

They are simply there to enable your child to meet them and get to know them a bit on their familiar home territory, and give you the opportunity to ask or ask anything that is worrying you.

It is in no way, shape or form an assessment of any kind.

BangersAndGnash · 21/05/2025 18:19

but also a bit of an inspection.

It isn't.

BoleynMemories13 · 21/05/2025 18:35

No, it's really not an inspection. Please get that idea out of your head as they are really not coming to question your religion or judge you on your home.

First and foremost, they want to get to know your child in a setting where they feel most comfortable. They want to gain lots of information about them in a setting where you feel comfortable sharing it too, away from the ears of others parents. They will already know some information about your child from their nursery but you are the expert on your child, so they want to hear it from you too. As well as needing to know about your child's needs and capabilities in certain areas (toileting, eating etc, not academics) it's also nice to find out about their interests and learn any tips to settle, distract or comfort them if they are initially upset during separation.

Home visits are especially useful for helping your child see their new teacher as a trusted adult, someone who you let into your home. They're not a stranger, they are safe with this person (or people, as the TA will usually come too). It's lovely to be able to refer back to the visit to reassure them. Do you remember when we played trains at your house and you showed me the big trampoline in your garden? I saw your cat too, he's lovely isn't he? etc. They really feel like you know them, and that's a big deal for young children in helping them to feel happy and safe in someone's care.

It's also so helpful for teachers to see the home environment, in order to help understand the family's needs better. We absolutely don't judge, but if a family are living in difficult circumstances it's important for us to know so we can support them (and also understand why the child may present as they do in school). Absolute extreme safeguarding concerns would be reported back, as a duty of care, but only in order to get them the support they need. Absolutely never to judge. This is very rare, by the way, and absolutely not what the visit is for. We are definitely not actively looking for problems to report. It most definitely isn't an inspection of the cleanliness of your home.

I'm an experienced Reception teacher and home visits are such a lovely positive experience. Yes we want to get to know your child, but we also want to build a relationship with you. The Reception year is such an important year, especially for first time parents, and it's important you feel well informed and are able to build a trusting relationship with us. What better way to start that, than with an informal chat in your own home?

Edit - with regards to what to say, just be 100% truthful when it comes to your child's strengths and weaknesses. It's important for them to know exactly what they're like. Children develop and change very quickly, so they definitely won't form an opinion on them based on what you say as they'll know that could change very quickly. Forewarned is forearmed though.

Tooteefrootee · 21/05/2025 18:37

They are there to meet your child in a setting where they are comfortable. Makes it easier to see them as they are, and for them to be familiar faces when things start to get closer.

I wouldn't worry too much. Ours last year was more of a 'getting to know you' session, with a couple of questions about our family, but mostly focused on DD.

Lullabycrickets23 · 21/05/2025 19:17

Thank you all so much! It’s very reassuring!

OP posts:
NatalieH2220 · 21/05/2025 20:31

My youngest had one last year when he started school nursery. It was a chat just about the child and anything they needed to be aware of (allergies in our case). My son wouldn't interact with them and went into another room. We stood in the garden mainly so it was very casual. He has another as starting reception in September but again is just for the teacher to meet him and become familiar with anything important as far as I'm concerned.

Greenfingers37 · 21/05/2025 20:36

I used to do home visits and I worked in a Catholic school. No judgement whatsoever on matters of faith or practice, merely observing the child on their home turf and getting to know them in a comfortable, familiar environment. Also to find out their likes/dislikes, health needs if any, what is working well for them etc.

Theworldisinyourhands · 22/05/2025 12:05

If it's anything like my dd's it's literally just a casual check in to get to know you and your child one to one and get a feel for any concerns you might have. They really aren't there to 'inspect' Unless there's any safeguarding concerns they really won't be there to judge you or your home. Most faith schools technically will follow this faith and practice this at school but absolutely shouldn't be hindering your child's experience of school even if they run in declaring that they're Satan worshippers so I wouldn't give that a second thought.

AnneLovesGilbert · 22/05/2025 12:24

Ours was a bit odd and quite sweet. We’d met the teacher and main TA when we looked round the school so it wasn’t a first meeting.

They came in and we ended up sitting on the floor, can’t remember why, I think it was near the book shelves and DD showed them some of her favourites. They asked about what songs she likes, asked about her baby brother, what she liked doing at nursery. They were here about 15 minutes and it was just light chit chat. As I saw them out I mentioned she had a lot of imaginary friends she talked about a lot and that I wasn’t sure if they’d crop up at school.

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