School checking out home before 4 yr old starts school

by being, not was being

One pupil's point of view as against professionals who have had perhaps 900 pupils through their classes in a 30 year career? Not saying your view is invalid but that's exactly what everyone thinks...until they try it.

Most of the positive comments on this practice have come from teachers who have exoerience of this and have found it to work. Q.E.D.

And Rose you'd be surprised the number of people who try to tell you how you should do your job.

Bags it does not prevent children from going to school the first week. Reception children don't start school in that first week any more. Certainly at least from the 1970s when mine started school at least.

This has been said several times ergo. It's a good use of the teacher's time.

You should know this....I thought you trained as a teacher???

Anyway like you Bags lost interest and only arguing for sake of...

Secondary, aka. Different scenario.

Yes, I'd taken on board what people have said about the length of time the visits have been taking place, but perhaps you have not taken on board that it hasn't been taking place everywhere. It wasn't taking place in Oxfordshire primary schools in the 1980s, nor in the noughties. It isn't taking place in Argyll primary schools now.

And, in both those places, reception/P1 kids DO go to school during the first week. They go for half days for a period of time (up till the half-term break in Argyll).

So that's all I'm querying really—why isn't it happening everywhere if it's such a good idea? Let me turn that around—why have the places that have been doing it for yonks failed to convince the rest of the country that it's a brilliant idea and will ease lots of the anxieties of starting reception kids?

I suggest that very few kids actually have problematic starting school anxieties because other ways of helping them to adjust to going to school are also being used and are just as effective without teachers having to visit kids' homes.

My GS has just started in p1 at the ( approriate) age of 5 and 5 months. In the last term at nursery - next door to his p1 classroom - he had several visits and has now spent 2 weeks, mornings only, settling in very happily. Next week he'll be in all day. To 'celebrate' this next step, parents have been invited to have lunch with their children.

While I was teaching no-one ever suggested that home visits should be standard procedure and like bags I don't think it's an appropriate use of teacher time.
Far more helpful is to keep classes to a reasonable number !

GS is in a class of 20 - nationally agreed maximum for 5yr-olds - and I'm horrified to hear on the news that classes of 40, 50 and even 60 exist south of the border!

Has it got anything to do with where the school is? When my mother was teaching at a village school, everyone knew everyone else and a lot of the children were related. Half the teachers were local as well. There was hardly any need for formal home visits. It sounds very inbred but it was a lovely school and did very well academically. You wouldn't get that in most city schools now so the kind of information useful to the school and the induction useful for the children isn't available any other way.

Exactly Lilygran. It isn't the only thing that schools do, it is part of the much larger induction process. If, in the professional judgement of the school it is deemed appropriate for their particular set of circumstances, then I really think they should be left to get on with it.

I have never heard of home visits either, nor do I think they are necessary.

GD2 started school recently, nursery attached to the school, both involved in certain activities together. Parents and pre schoolers were invited into school to meet their teacher and see their classroom then had chats with the teacher and headmistress.

For a week and a half she was in until 12.30. At the end of their day, teacher and headmistress was there to ensure each child identified who was collecting them and again, teacher and HM chatted to pupils and parents/grandparents. DD was invited to a lunch date at school to make sure GD new the procedure for school lunches.

GD started a full day at school on Monday, same procedure for P1 and P2, identify who was collecting and she has settled in very well.

The intake this term was 30 pupils. This was divided into two classrooms of 15.

Well there you are Agus. Under those circumstances probably not necessary. If you have (as in my GDs school) 120 children coming from about twelve or more different nurseries and settings, none of which are very near the school, then you might need to do things differently?
Is it not up to the school to judge what is or isn't the right thing to do?

Aka.Accept my apology if I caused offence.
But we are all adults here,I do not need your approval.You may disagree with me ,that is your democratic right.

Schools are being left to get on with it. Meanwhile we are discussing ideas about what are useful ways of helping kids to start school happily.

Apology accepted marmark

Thankyou.Aka.

TWO classes of 15 Agus- is that a miracle or common place in your area?

Our of interest, what is the size of class for all your GC at primary school all?

As I said above our p1 classes have a 20 child maximum. When I started teaching in 1972 I had a class of 42 10 yr-olds. Things moved on and class are much smaller now. Sad to see such huge classes elsewhere!
Happy to see GS in a small class at an appropriate age and feel for 4 yr-olds in such big groups.

Would love to hear the experience of other grans re class size in primary school (State and private).

The 8-year old GS is in a class of 16 but that's a private school. The 4- year olds will be one in a class of 25 and the other (at a different school) in a class of 30.

The one in a class of 25 is because the school has policy of no more than this per class.

PS both 4-year olds will be in three-form entry schools so reception numbers will be 75 and 90.

The smallest school on the Island had, on average, 18 children which comprised of reception class, Y1 and Y2 - all taught by a headteacher and a nursery nurse. It was one of the best performing schools on the Island.

The system here in Central Scotland has no home visits but all the primaries that I know of have attached nurseries so most of the children going into P1 are used to the building, staff, etc. Those who have been at Nursery half time while 3 & 4 year olds, go straight into P1 full time, while any children new to the school have a staggered start, maybe 2 or 3 of them starting each day part time and moving on to full time at half term. All the children are allocated a 'buddy' recruited from P7 who will give them a school tour and check up on the wee ones at break and lunch times. The Buddies have basic training in what to do/who to contact if problems arise e.g. wet pants, forgotten packed lunch, feeling unwell or upset. As everyone from the village or small town goes to the same primary school they often have siblings already at school and have already met their future classmates at Mother & Toddler, Playgroup or Nursery. Both DGC's schools have 2 P1s with around 16-18 pupils. Children starting school are at least 4.5 years but can defer or stay in Nursery until they are 5.

DDs both reported 1 upset child on first day of term (not theirs), both of whom were fine after their parents had left .

Both my DDs moved back to the Wee County when they were pregnant - partly so that we could help with child care/school pick-ups and partly so that their children would be able to attend smallish local schools as they had done.

No granjura, it's not a miracle , it is commonplace here as the Scottish Government changed the law last year to a maximum of 25 per class for p1/p3 pupils.

I forgot about the buddies.

Mamie, schools here have judged what is the right thing to do that's why I said home visits were not necessary.

I had no idea classrooms were so crowded south of the border and that's a different scenario altogether.

I suppose it depends on the area; as far as I remember there were 15 in DGD's class when she started in reception at a village school ( in Wales) and other village schools over the border in England have similar numbers or even fewer.

Most of them knew each other, I think, and DGD and her friends skipped off happily together on the first day. I think they will be more apprehensive when they start at the much larger 'big school' at 11.

It is the difference between towns/cities and country.

And they each had a 'buddy'.