Mistakes in reports

[Deaddei]

i have found a spelling mistake, a comment where the sentence has not been completed and a cut and paste fuck up where little deaddei's name has suddenly changed to Samuel.
I do hate sloppiness.

[crazymum53]

My dd really enjoyed a trip to an activity centre this year. Trouble is she didn't go this year - that was 2 years ago !

[LaundryFairy]

We had three spelling mistakes in as many weeks in the list of words sent home for children to learn to spell!!! I lost all respect for DS' teacher then...

[mummytime]

My son had a comment "He needs to adhere to the schools discipline code" once, he has never been in worse trouble than a detention, so it seemed a bit over the top. I think it was supposed to be, "He needs to get all his classwork completed on time", the teacher just clicked on the wrong comment and no-one in the know was proof reading. This teacher also teaches about 600 students a week.

[Deaddei]

Just spoken to a friend with son at same school......he is referred to as "she" in the report

[roisin]

At the boys' school they give the students copies of the first draft of the reports, and they have to proof read them! The ones I see are very accurate.

[EvilTwins]

That's very sloppy. Our reports are done on the computer, and mostly with click-and-paste report generators. Once they're done, though, we have to check for errors (within depts) and then they go back to the Head of Year. She checked the Yr 7 reports last week and found so many errors it was embarrassing (not for me [sparkly halo emoticon]) There really is no excuse for them to go out to parents with mistakes on.

[mummytime]

Oh my son had to do that at Christmas, he spotted one mistake, but they accidentally corrected the wrong figure, so the final one said he'd had 25 detentions! It should have been credits, but 25 detentions would have been good going in a 12 week term.

[HoneyPablo]

DD's name suddenly changed to Jessica halfway down her report one year. I have lost all faith in them anyway. They are a waste of time.

[ceebee2]

DS1 in year 7 was given a level 3+ for humanities in his report this term(same as 2 previous terms). DS1 was very surprised as had had higher levels in recent tests and homework so I queried level with teacher to be told it should have been a 4+!

DS1 going to be set for humainitites next term - wonder what set he would have been put in if I hadn't queried the report?

[corlan]

The sports teacher wrote that my daughter is 'Quiet and polite' - that's when I knew he hadn't checked it properly

[startail]

DDs has 3 teaches in a week including the head. She always knows which bit is his because he always spells her name wrong.
He knows exactly who she is, just uses his DN spelling instead of hers.

[marriedinwhite]

Agreed. DD's report was meaningless. No median results for sets or year group - exactly what are we comparing against - a subject missing altogether - totally meaningless. What high esteem the teachers must hold the parents in to supply such pap!

My teachers wrote a few lines each in a report book - one page for each year and I think far more information was shared. We had grades - A, B, C, etc., an exam percentage and a place in class. It was all handwritten and having got the booklet out today and checked it there were no mistakes in there either.

[Kez100]

What point is it knowing where your child is in a set? (Maybe all the children in the set below did just as well?) what point is it knowing they got 75% in a test? No point, unless you know the level that is. My old reports were pointless, in my view.

What we get now is a teacher NC level. It's subjective in many ways but at least it illustrates to some degree where your child is working. Their level. That's what is important. You don't need a comparison to other children - other children are not relevant to your childs ability or progress.

[marriedinwhite]

It's called competition. I worked at school to make sure I was in the top three.

[AnansiGirl]

Mine got levelled, and given a report for French the year after he'd dropped the subject.

[spanish11]

My son has given a level 4c for maths. Ds was very upset because in the last test the teacher told him that he was a 5c. At the end he is a 5c and I will tell the teacher to change the report and give me a proper one.

[IHeartKingThistle]

Some of those cut and pasted computer generated ones are awful. We used to have them at the school I used to teach at and I was embarrassed to put my name to them.

[ByTheWay1]

my daughter apparently has creative "flare" - not sure if I should be worried..... does she have a natural talent, or does she like setting fire to things in a creative way?

[CuriosityCola]

The software used at my previous secondary school was horrendous. It didn't spell check. You couldn't cut and paste easily from word. It was hard to see which column belonged to each student. It didn't tell you if you had reached the word limit.

There was data given on progress, but would never compare to other children! Year 7 reports were a nonsense as the initial levels came from primary and were mostly massaged to make the primary look good.

The reports don't really have any value. It is nice to praise students. However, The report shouldn't be the first time a parent hears their achievements or troubles.

My friend who taught geography had 300 reports to do for year 7. Some word bank responses were needed as there was only a two week slot in the calendar to complete them.

[MrsLetch]

I'm a teacher, so understand that when you're writing several hundred reports, that errors do occur. But I do expect them to reflect my child.

A couple of years ago, my daughter's report said that they had taught her 'basic gymnastics skills'. I was that they hadn't noticed my daughter was in a squad for gymnastics, it is her utter obsession and I was pleased that the £100 I spent a month on her gymnastics wasn't being wasted, because she had learnt a few basic skills at school!!!

This year, her report said that she was confident at singing in front of an audience. I can only conclude that they've never heard her sing [cat being strangled emoticon needed here].

[sashh]

It's not new though is it? One of my reports (mid 1980s) said I'd progressed well in music playing the flute. I've never eeven picked one up.

But there were five of us in one class with the same name (various spellings) another three in the year and two more with very similar names, think Jean and Jane.

[funchum8am]

At secondary school teachers of some subjects will have had each child in a group of 25-30 in one lesson a week (e.g. drama, RE) for maybe 30 weeks before they write the report. The fewer lessons per week, the more groups they will teach (I teach 450 pupils per week, across the 11-18 age range). Therefore the reports are unlikely to be very helpful and it must be very frustrating. I'd expect reports from subjects with many lessons a week to be more accurate though. My school does a very minimalist report (national curriculum level/sublevel e.g. 4c) per subject, plus an effort grade per subject. The form tutor then handwrites a general comment about their behaviour/attendance/punctuality/demeanour in PSHE and form time. Pupils with problems in terms of underachievement or pastoral issues are contacted when issues arise rather than the report being the first time anything is flagged (well, that is what is MEANT to happen, and most of the time in the subjects I teach, it does happen that way). I completely agree that statement banks are a nightmare but then again teachers aren't given enough non contact time or enough weeks on the calendar to produce anything more meaningful.

Not having someone in the know proof read reports is VERY poor, and as for spelling mistakes, that is just appalling.

[SophiaWinters]

crazymum53, we had the same mistake. Apparently DS really enjoyed the activity weekend...which he never attended and never has attended in the past.

In maths he was also told to challenge himself with the level 6 and 7 homework tasks and avoid only completing the level 5 tasks which according to his teacher is what he favours doing. He's never done a level 5, always does level 6 or 7 and I know that because his private tutor checks his homework every week and covers anything he wasn't sure of. I pointed it out in the report and she (private tutor) assured me he always does the level 6 and 7 homework tasks.