School reports from your childhood

[MaidenMotherCrone]

I found an old school report from 1975. I was 9. Even now at 51 I recognise so much of myself in it. So personal and a far cry from the copy & paste reports my children received. Much of what my teacher observed is still true to this day. I feel quite sad that my teacher knew me better than my mother.

Anyone else have their old, handwritten reports?

Yes I have a couple tucked into an old photo album. One of my teachers was really lovely about me, which is nice to read. Funnily enough, my oldest DD gets almost the exact same written about her nowadays!

I still have all my reports.
From year one onwards they only gave grades for subject, overall grades for effort and behaviour. And usually 1 comment (usually 'P. is too quiet').

My kids got grades and pages of text.

My favourite one I recently found is:

"xxx has a strong sense of justice"

I was six. I now realise it probably means opinionated little shit

We received a mid-year one and a full one at the end of the year. The mid year one was a waste of time. Some teachers just wrote "good". I can imagine what the HT would say if I tried that on reports! Also pleased I don't have to hand write them in case I made a mistake. I do try not to copy and paste though except for phrases like "X must start revising early" which crop up a lot!

@AFairlyHardAvocado I probably “had a strong sense of justice” too, in that I made my displeasure known to the whole school when group punishments were given.

I was also “a dreamy child”, “keen to get on and ‘do’”, rather than write about it; and at secondary I had reports which were excellent in some subjects, and where I made no effort at all in others.

No, because no one really had anything to say about me either way.

My mum found one of mine from primary school that can be summarized as 'well Woo is just a bit thick really. Don't expect to much from her' 😂.

(Woo did extremely well at school and has a PhD).

I had one from my first grade. That i did not want to walk holding hands with other kids and preferred to stare out of a window or count bricks in the wall. And the teacher found it very odd.

@wanderings

Sounds very similar to me

I'm glad there are kids like us who feel strongly about things being fair and kind.

I set up a friendship club which consisted on me sitting on a bench at lunchtime and anyone who was sad or being bullied coming over to play with me.

Not sure how I avoided the bullies doing that, I think even at that age I spoke so confidently that people thought I must be right!

Mine all said I was intelligent and would go far. The teachers weren’t psychic so failed to account for increased university fees, the recession and lack of available jobs. Needless to say I didn’t get the chance to fulfil their expectations.

Mine are mostly from the 70s, so are much less ambiguous than reports nowadays. Negatives as well as positives allowed.

OP, did you go on to make use of your talents in English?

Mr primary school reports always mentioned my enthusiasm and I think that has remained so within my career. My primary school reports talk about what a flair I had for English, my excellent creative writing and imaginative use of vocabulary in writing. This got knocked out of me by a horrid teacher at secondary school.

My maths was always average in primary and it was noted I struggled with certain aspects of it. I got an A at GCSE which made me so proud of my efforts.

They all had a theme of being quiet and conscientious, but need to speak up more in class. This is definitely adult me also. I'm an introvert and still quiet. Except year 2 of primary "I appreciate that x has hearing difficulties, however...." She just didn't like me as it's so different and I'm pretty sure I didn't have a temporary personality transplant at 7

Yes, I do.

One says, Kez tries very hard but does not have a natural aptitude for History.

I firmly believe I peaked aged 8. After that it was messy, disorganised, daydreaming.

I don't remember being like that. Unconstructive criticism IMO

OP I am impressed with how much your teacher wrote then. Mine, from the 80s, are just slips.

@Bookridden sadly not. I would have loved the chance to study English and History but university just wasn't an option sadly. I was 'allowed' to do my 'A' levels but my mother insisted I left 6th form after a year and get a job in a shop.