Have you ever been annoyed/irritated by your child's school report/teacher?

[faithfulbird20]

Not at your child obviously. But more at the report and thought Jesus which clown has written this? Does he/she even know my child? I honestly look at some reports and honestly they're so subjective rather than facts obviously. Even my own reports I used to open them and feel so disappointed as a child at the crap that was written about me. Secondary school reports are okay I guess but primary school ones...not so great. Same with parents day. Have you ever clashed with a teacher or corrected them to say err hang on what are you on about?

@unlimiteddilutingjuice and yes that's how a perfect parent should be. 👍

@BluebellsGreenbells that's what I mean. It's an unfair judgement that is not based on facts. Can you imagine how it would an affect a child mentally if he read that report?

Never had an issue with a school report and always felt like they reflected my child, until today as it happens OP.

My DD's report (yr4) was clearly a mash up of copied and pasted comments from other reports her teacher had written. To a certain extent I don't evening have a problem with that as I'm sure it is natural for a teacher to have a few common phrases that they use across a number of children in the class. However, her report sometimes refers to her as him or his and in Maths, at one point it says she is achieving above the expected standard and at the end of the paragraph, it says she is working at the expected standard!

I'm not however going to complain or challenge as I don't think that would be helpful or constructive for DD or her teacher. I'm satisfied that there's no reason for me to be concerned about DD, so we'll just move on.

The only thing that as consistently annoyed me is that every year in secondary, DS's PE teacher has commented that he should make an effort to do the school's extracurricular sports clubs. The school offers only football and rugby clubs, both of which he hates, and both clubs are heavily populated by the cool/popular kids who miss no opportunity to make his life hell. However, he competes at national level at a different (individual) sport outside school, at which he has worked bloody hard and has in recent years been Welsh champion for his age group and 3rd in the UK as a whole. I have taken to sending photos of him competing/receiving medals to the PE department now, but he still gets zero credit in his reports because apparently sports that are not played in the school jersey don't count.

Yes, but it is mainly due to the state system and not teachers. I don't like the nat.curriculum. I don't like classes of 30. I don't like how I end up faciliating a lot of DC's learning. I don't want to home ed. or work 40 hours a week and have no money for holidays to go indie. So there we go.

@Timeisavirtue

Not my child’s but mine when I was at high school. I always look and laugh even now. My sociology teacher was a melt, an actual dickhead. He was shit, no one learnt anything and so we just used to mess around in class, of course me being the class clown got in trouble the most and he’d often ring home but with me intercepting the calls as my mum was busy. Then I get the reports which states I’m an upstanding member of the group who causes no issues, I’m keen to learn...etc etc... the biggest load of bull I’ve ever read. I called him up on it one time in class and he totally avoided the question and went beet red.

🙄

My sons primary school teacher always fretted that because he wasn’t interested in fiction he would struggle at grammar school…well he got A+in English at GCSE along with 9 more and 3 amazing A level results and has today finished 4 intense days applying for a post grad job for a very prestigious drug company!! Definitely encourage your son to believe in himself 💐

Teacher here, when I write reports I try and add in little personal bits such as funny stories or remarking on a child's quirks. I teach secondary and have a lot to do, so I have to say it annoys me when my kids' teachers, who only have about 14-15 to write, give a really bland copied and pasted job. I hate reading thinking "there is nothing in here that describes my child"

@olidora63 well done to him! Just goes to show you shouldn't believe everything you read about your kids or what they tell you. They're not facts...just opinions. It could really knock someone's confidence down especially a naive child (if they were to read them).

@spiderlight I hope your child knows how biased that PE report is.

@SesTheBrave haha that's hilarious but sometimes the norm with teachers who are told last minute this report needs to be done by today. Good for you...you've chosen to ignore it.

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop I'm the same. That's why I'm so annoyed about it.

Can you imagine how it would an affect a child mentally if he read that report?

Unfortunately I don’t need to imagine.

Yes, when another child had my child’s name all in their report. Obviously cut and pasted on the computer. They must have had a standard template for the above average children.

I do remember my own report from when I was 16. I grew up in another country where teachers were brutally honest in a way that wouldn’t be acceptable here. For one subject, I had a long paragraph about how I never put any effort in and would likely fail the subject. My parents gave me a proper bollocking. I actually got very high marks in the national exams in that subject before doing a degree in it - and now teach it myself! I do sometimes wonder if the teacher had got me mixed up with another student.

However, my own DC’s primary and nursery reports are very good. The teachers clearly know them well, and give both praise and steps for improvement. I teach secondary and spend a lot of time writing reports, which I really hope will be beneficial to the student and their parents. If you’re constantly disagreeing with your children’s reports, is there a chance that they behave very different at school to at home?

They must have had a standard template for the above average children.
😂. So, so Mumsnet.

@faithfulbird20…my son, even today asked me if we should let Mrs ? know how much he has achieved…it really does show how much young people are effected by negative comments!!

No but I did clash with my partner teacher and thought ‘eh? What child are you talking about??’

The primary ones I’ve just received aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. They’re nonsense. Take no account of SEN, random bollocks lines spouted, and for DS I’m not even sure they have the right child.
Still, they have A for achievement and 3 (low) for effort, so I’ll take that.

@BluebellsGreenbells that's unfortunate. I'm worried about mine reading theirs when they're a bit older. Hope it gets emailed instead. I'd read it and bin it. Or sit down with my child and tell them what teachers write isn't always true (and that they should be proud of themselves if they've tried their best).

I got a report back when I was 10, on it she had written "worked fairly well (fairly was underlined.).Needs to stretch herself more. Can be lazy - doesn't like PE". There was nothing positive written except at the end "helpful in class". I was a quiet girl who hated sports. I'm pretty sure I was ok at some things as the boxes were then ticked either fair, good or excellent. Can't stand the woman to this day and avoid her in the local shop. Wagon.
Reports have come on leaps and bounds since, my sons report the teachers always seem to know him well and his interests. The last 2 years they have commented on a niche hobby he likes which is lovely to read. I don't envy the teachers job of writing reports though, I can imagine it is tedious and sometimes you might just want to write "he was a little shit all year".

Surely they should only be reporting on achievements in academic subjects, though? Not niche hobbies.

Only once when DS1 was in Y7. It was a report sent at Christmas after the first term, no personal comments just tick boxes. DS had not even attended school since half-term after the school asked me to keep him at home because they couldn’t meet his needs.

One or two teachers ticked the boxes that actually reflected his work/effort (poor), most went middle of the road. But a couple of teachers actually ticked the top box! A for effort and A for homework! DS has never completed a piece of homework in his life.

I was very annoyed and made a complaint to Head of Year who told me she had read the report and agreed it was mostly inaccurate and had actually requested it not to be given to me. I can only assume the teachers did not know my child at all. We were trying to get an EHCP at the time and I was worried the report would count against.

Well daughter's teacher defo took time to write a lot but I don't feel there was anything there I didn't know. As far as I am concerned she would have been better off not writing it. I don't think it was her fault, just the way the report was structured.

I'm always intrigued by every teacher's insistence that DS2 is quiet, as opposed to the mouthy, argumentative wee so-and-so who lives with me.

In all seriousness though, there are a few generic comments such as 'SonofFunnyWonder can tell the time accurately/identify 3D shapes/use a computer to search for information'. But there is also great insight into his strengths and weaknesses and his personality, with plenty of specific detail which definitely demonstrates a good understanding of my child.

I’m a School Secretary at a Prep school. I check over 250 reports before they go out. If they’re harsh or don’t match the grade with the comment, I send it back to the teacher.

The only complaint I could reasonably make about reports or in person meetings is they weren't always direct enough about where my DC were struggling.
I often ended up having to explicitly voice concerns before teachers would come out and say things clearly. I always assumed this was because too many parents would kick off if told things too directly.

Vallmo47 secondary teachers have up to 200 different children to write reports for each time, of course they're less personal than primary school teacher reports where each teacher has 30 children to get to know!