This autumn, Labour are developing plans for better school improvement, greater inclusion and clearer home-school expectations. On all three counts, our three-year-old programme of home visits holds important lessons.
Across late August and early September this year, teachers across Maritime Academy Trust completed around 3,500 home visits – each one is crucial to our aim of building belonging.
Many primary schools run home visits for children starting nursery or reception, helping ease those first steps into school. What we’re doing differently is visiting the home of every child in every year group in almost every school. (Two don’t take part and two only do so partly for contextual reasons.)
We do it because it allows teachers to build the best possible relationships with families from day one. Importantly, these visits aren’t primarily about raising issues or solving problems but about listening and connecting.
Teachers hear what the child enjoys, who they learn well with and which areas might need focus. Families get to ask questions about priorities for the year. And children get to meet their teacher and get excited about the year ahead.
How it works
Each school organises its own home visit programme with support from the central trust team. A class of 30 children typically takes two or three days to visit.
These are part of our school term, but take place before everyone else goes back to school, so the children still enter the classroom at the same time as their peers. We set learning online for children on these days.
Two adults attend each visit, with support staff or senior leaders accompanying the class teacher. If families have children in multiple year groups, teachers will join up visits as much as possible.
Staff receive training beforehand, and a designated safeguarding lead (DSL) is always available if concerns arise. (Invariably they do, but that only helps us to intervene earlier and better.)
Unsurprisingly, some staff were nervous when we introduced this in 2022. But with senior leaders role-modelling and offering support, confidence quickly grew. Now the programme is hugely popular. Teachers say they get to know their new classes far more quickly than would otherwise be possible.
The visits also bring home the reality of children’s lives. Staff see families across the spectrum, from comfortable homes to those struggling to get by. With 31 per cent of children nationally growing up in poverty, these realities are clear.
Sometimes staff return upset, but they also feel more motivated: understanding children better helps them teach better.
The programme has even become a draw for recruitment, attracting teachers who want to work in a trust that truly prioritises relationships. Other schools and trusts are showing interest too.
Belonging from day one
Parents have also responded positively. Many describe how much more confident their children felt walking into school, particularly those with SEND.
Some families were hesitant at first, often those where parents’ own experiences of school were a barrier to engagement. These visits can help to reset their own relationship with school as well, making it clear that school is going to be a safe, supportive and nurturing space for their family.
Each year, that hesitance has reduced as the programme has become more established. For most, it’s now “just how things are done”.
And why shouldn’t it be? At a time when policymakers are looking for solutions to a rising tide of complaints and a loss of faith in institutions, the key is surely to humanise the home-school relationship. You’re less likely to lose patience when you understand each other better.
As a result, our schools are receiving fewer complaints as well as benefitting from children’s growing confidence in the classroom.
Our families could be sending their children to us for up to eight years. Feeling like they belong in our community for that time is vital.
Home visits alone aren’t enough to sustain that long-term partnership, but they set the expectations, inform our inclusive practice and make us all better.
And isn’t that what partnership should be designed to do from the start?
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