To ask what you hate reading in school reports.

[Pipbin]

I am a teacher but I have no DC. I am in the middle of writing reports. I never ever copy and paste as that is rude. The nicest comment a parent ever made about my reports was that she could tell it was about her child and that I really knew them.
My question is, what phrases and cliches do you hate reading in your DCs reports?

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

In my own reports, I was always mildly miffed by 'Mimsy is a pleasant member of the form' as that sounded as if the teacher either couldn't remember who I was or just couldn't think of a single thing to say about me.

In my children's, I loathed loathed loathed the endless statements pasted in from the National Curriculum. At primary school they got very long reports but the only bit worth reading was the brief comment at the end which was about them personally. Well done to you for making the effort to do that!

[SavoyCabbage]

You don't want flannel.

I don't like 'enjoyed'. Really I want to know about her learning.

[lljkk]

DS is a right PITA & I find it very strange that they don't address that head on. All this "must be positive" crap is tiptoeing around an important reality. So that makes it feel a bit pointless.

[AElfgifu]

I hate long detailed lists of what has been covered in class. I know what has been covered in class thanks, I check school books and homework! A SHORT sentence on what is coming up next term means you can take up opportunities to prepare in the holidays, if appropriate.

[jellybeans]

Copy and paste. Almost all do this as my twins usually have the exact same sentences etc.

[JonSnowsPout]

No waffle

What ds needs help with,how I can help him, how he's really doing socially.


I also don't like the generic 'x tries hard and doing well'

It's just waffle that's written on every child's report

[Lanabelle]

I don't know about phrases and clichés but I hate reading watered down politically correct comments. If one of my children is being a little bit of a -shit- nuisance then just write that and tell me when and by doing what, none of this watered down rubbish. It doesn't have to be all doom and gloom but it doesn't have to be all sunshine and light either, if X does well in his/ her reading, writing and arithmetic but fails to focus and sometimes can be cheeky or disruptive in pe/ drama etc then just say that

[EdgeOfNowhere]

I want it to be honest - and they never ever are.

I know my DS is behind. He's on the SEN register etc. I don't want to hear he's fine. He isn't. I want to hear that he's behind - and how much by.

[JonesRipley]

I don't really like comments about quietness in class. Introversion is not a bad thing.

I also agree that one comment showing that you see them as an indivdual and understand their approach to learning and their personality is worth more than NC levels.

I'd like to see words like persistence, meticulous, thoughtful, cooperative, good humoured, helpful, caring, creative.

And be honest - don't say articulate if what you really think is that they talk too much and interrupt!

[NormHonal]

I hate the waffle. I'd much rather have concise bullet points (this is what they did, this is what they did well, this is what they need to improve) and then a meaningful personal paragraph at the start or end.

More like a business appraisal.

[JonesRipley]

I work in a school and have DCs. I can tell you that most of us don't have much of an idea what our darlings are like in class, with their friends, or in the playground. Tell us.

[JonesRipley]

Yy about bullet points

[Biscuitsneeded]

I think if you are tailoring your reports to individuals then you won't go far wrong. I only dislike reading things that reveal that the teacher doesn't really know my child, but thankfully that hasn't happened for a while.

[Pipbin]

If your child is a PITA how would you like that to appear in the report? You can't really write 'x is a little shit and spends most of his day fucking up everyone else's education. It's only so long until he gets sent to the PRU'. If this is the case then you would know about it already in all fairness. But how about the low level calling out etc?
I once put on a child's report that she did tend to call out a lot as she was very knowledgeable about many subjects. I appreciated her knowledge and understanding but sometimes just shut the fuck up OK. (not the exact words). The mother complained that I was stifling her and not allowing her to express herself.

[dingit]

I would like to know his position in the class. We used to get test results and 'out of' on ours. Much more helpful than waffle.

[MrsWinnibago]

Ooh what Jones said!

[BluntForceTrauma]

Agree with PP-a long list of what the class has learning about is useless. A waste of a teacher's time in writing/pasting into a report and a waste of my time to read as it tells me nothing about how well my children are doing and what they need to work harder on.

I also don't like relentlessly positive information-i want the truth....what have they found difficult, what do they need to focus on, how can I help them? Please don't tell me they are great at everything-can come as a shock if/when you find out the truth (like I did after 2 years with the same class teacher that my DD was not doing 'fine'-naive old me believed the teacher and poor DD had fallen way behind!).

[BluntForceTrauma]

Agree with PP-a long list of what the class has learning about is useless. A waste of a teacher's time in writing/pasting into a report and a waste of my time to read as it tells me nothing about how well my children are doing and what they need to work harder on.

I also don't like relentlessly positive information-i want the truth....what have they found difficult, what do they need to focus on, how can I help them? Please don't tell me they are great at everything-can come as a shock if/when you find out the truth (like I did after 2 years with the same class teacher that my DD was not doing 'fine'-naive old me believed the teacher and poor DD had fallen way behind!).

[MasqueradeWaltzer]

My dc are in Y5 and Y4 now. In all those years, I can remember one report (for dd1 when she was in Y2) that made it clear the teacher actually knew who she was.

Hate, hate, hate the c&p (and I'm a former teacher who well remembers handwriting 200+ reports over the course of 2 days).

[alwaysonmymind]

Make it personal!
Unlike DS's report last year that referred to him as "she" and "her." The teacher was an NQT and had taught him all of the summer term but the DH wrote the reports, for some reason.

[AllMimsyWereTheBorogoves]

The teacher's husband wrote the reports? Gosh.

[rookiemater]

I can tell you what I like instead if that would help.

I love heartfelt comments, DS tends to be one of those middle of the road, overlooked children so I was so pleased when his PE teacher said he was a joy to teach.

Also if you include what approach works well with the child, that would be really helpful to me as a parent when I think of ways to try to motivate my homework hating child i.e. Rookieboy enjoys competition and is well motivated by this.

In terms of what I don't like, well same as everyone else really. I'd rather have a couple of succinct lines saying what I already know :
"Rookieboy is a pleasant child who enjoys following rules and doesn't like to attract attention to himself although he is easily led and can be mischevious.
He is clever enough to be towards the top of the class if he wanted to be, but doesn't apply himself enough to do that."

than screeds of babble. Last report was particularly annoying as I saw the word "good" lots of times so I assumed DS was doing well until I read the translation at the bottom. Excellent means, well excellent, very good means what I would call Good, good means average and developing means poor. So I'm left wondering how DS is performing as the words don't correspond with the code.

Feel sorry for you as I know from my teacher friends that reports are a pain to write.

[alwaysonmymind]

Sorry I meant the deputy head wrote them! Oops. Mind you someone's husband could have done as good a job

[TeenAndTween]

I want to know the truth.

However I do not want to be told in an end of year report that DD has not been concentrating well all year if that is the first I've heard about it (as happened in y2 ) . If there is any problem worth mentioning in a report it should be mentioned earlier directly imo.

In particular I want enough information to know what area she is most behind in, so that if I want to spend some time giving extra focus at home, I know what area to pick.

[EdgeOfNowhere]

Tis the thing. 1 parent objected to an honest report - now nobody else will get one.

If a child is a PITA and you don't tell the parent how is that fair?

I've never minded honest comments. I've minded euphemisms and lies. Other parents want the opposite. But you have to say what you think's right. And be prepared to defend it - because it's the truth.