Home visits from primary school.

[lizziemun]

DD1 goes to primary school this september and the school she is going to do a half hour home visit (they do them for every child either when they go into nursery or primary school)to get to know her before she starts.

I'm not worried it's just i have never heard of this before and just woundered if anyone else had had one.

We did too when my dd went to nursery. I liked it. It gives you a chance to talk to the teacher on your own and also for your child to see the teacher for the first time. They didn't do ant sort of assessment at ours.

Now she is going to a different school for reception where they do not have home visits.We went to the meeting and I wanted to talk to the teacher about something that I didn't want everyone to hear about but I didn't want to make an appointment with her either as it is not that important, so I ended up not saying anything at all.

It's blatantly for a good nose about, I'm sure of it. Our school do it, when they came to visit the downstairs was immaculate, because I'd piled everything upstairs - dd straight away lead the teacher upstairs to show off her bedroom, which was 4 feet deep in everything from downstairs. Grrr.

but the teacher will be there?
i can't see anything wrong with it and the ta will talk to the teacher about it?

i can't vouch for how they've decided to do it, it does seem a bit odd to be so "exclusive" about who they're talking to.

our experience was a good one

maybe you should mention that - that she'd like to chat to her teacher. would be churlish of them to say no

dd had never met her before.

she's fab - when dd doesn't go to bed when i ask her (most of the flippin time) teacher says: I'll fly over your house on my broomstick tonight to check on you!

(dd's eyebrows: )

Oh yes, ours took a photo too, which they attached to the birthday train on the classroom wall before the children started school.

I really do not understand all the negativity surrounding these home visits. Parents want a partnership between school and their family in yet only on their own terms it seems

sleepycat

I can honestly say dd1 would not be shy at meeting her new teachers. She has never been shy at meeting anyone. When she met her teacher when we visited the school as soon as the teacher asked her name she said 'you going to teach me read arn't you' .

hatrick

I hope your visit goes well.

Obviously not Hatrick but your school had a way of doing things and this school has a way of doing things. The teachers obviously find it helps. I am sure they don't actually enjoy traipsing around lots of different houses, it must be more time consuming than having the child and parent come to the school (but they do visits to the school too) so schools that do this home visit malarkey must find it useful.

I actually do think it is helpful for a Reception teacher and teaching assistant to be aware of the type of environment the child lives in (where there might be reason for concern). All the way up the school, the other teachers will have information passed onto them - in Reception, the teachers are starting with the children afresh.

We had our intake eveing last week and I was going to ask the question so glad I found this thread.

Apparently DD has been going into the school enviroment with her pre-school class (the two are in the same building but different organisations) for a few months now - not that DD tells me anything .

She has a taster morning this week, and then we as parents are invited to a taster morning next week without the children.

The home visit will be in the first fortnight of September, I am looking forward to the visit and so is DD. Just not looking forward to loosing her to school

Many of the schools in the area where I work do home visits and all the schools have found them successful, and have received overwhelming support from the parents.

They are an opportunity for parents to raise any concerns in a more private environment - they may not want to raise them at the induction sessions when there are other parents around.

With many of the children in our area (very socially and economically deprived area), parents have had a negative experience of school which can be passed onto the children. By the parents accepting us in their home, it gives a really clear message to the child that we are "ok".

If they are done at the beginning of September, they are also an opportunity to for the child and teacher or TA to meet again after the summer holiday.

If you feel uncomfortable about them, then just say no when they offer to visit you at home.

It's not actually something I care that much about We've moved areas and schools recently and if home visits aren't part of the induction process when DD2 starts in Reception I won't be bothered at all.

But if a school chooses to use them as part of their induction process I don't see that they hurt or are anything for people to get their knickers in a twist about.

Like you say, the HT can be responsible for foisting these types of things upon the teachers, and it is not, as some other posters suggest, a field trip for the teachers to visit people's homes and snoop.

(I'm partly defensive since my mother works in Early Years and I don't like to see people in that profession have their motives constantly put under suspicion)