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?

The secondary reports we get are two number and one to two word about attitude to learning - no personal comments at all.

Though when we see the teachers they seem really postive even enthusiastic about all our children even if their subjects is not one our children are particularly good in.

I have got in touch with the primary school about one report. The report read like a complete charcater assination of a child who bascially spent most of the year being bullied - though apparently they were too young to call it that.

However I focused on why despite raising concerns about learning struggles all year which had been utterly dismissed they were suddenly all over the report and why if no progress at all had been made all year I was only now hearing about it at the end of the year.

I found out later I wasn't the only parent who had problems with that teacher and their reports and DS never had another report like it - before or since.

My own reports I read post univeristy clearing our last of my stuff from parents house - they were relentlessly negative though it did help explain why my parents were so shocked at me doing so well at GCSE - one year I got highest end of year exam result in a subject but was given a d for effort. I do wonder why they insisted I do A-level there though where I was miserable and did okay rather than great. DH had similar he thinks they were influnced by cousins poorly behaved and not academic and his parents being very working class - he did well GCSE and then went else where for A-level and did really well. He also threw away the all the reports.

my DD at secondary I have never read a line about thats personal or written, its been numbers on a card and not even specific nos just a band, I was told to read her schools books for personal feedback.

I was told to read her schools books for personal feedback.

It's only this year they've been allowed to bring those home - previous years all books remained in school - homework was stuck in later or on line. They also have no text books - though we were told to buy many guides at start of DD1 GCSE which got expensive - though we'd probably have bought most anyway.

I feel lucky the kids tend to talk to us and understand them doing well is in their best interests.

We just get a data printout . It just shows attendance and a set of codes against the subjects showing whether my child is "working towards " , 'working at" and "working beyond ".
However the school has a new Head this year so it might be different.

Yes, because my son’s high school uses a weird computer package to generate the reports. They read really strangely and had no personal or insightful comments at all after that.

In senior school dd got a report from one teacher that she rarely turned up to lessons and when she did she was disruptive and had a bad attitude which I thought was strange because it didn’t sound like dd at all.
Asked dd about it and she was at a loss as she didn’t have this teacher at all so she definitely didn’t turn up to lessons with her. No idea why she thinks I am disruptive as I have never had her.

Made a note to the school and got an apology. Names got mixed up.

@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.

I'm quite certain you think you emerged well from that . . . 😒

@theluckiest

Wow.

I really hope you're not one of the parents at my school.

I spend literally weeks writing reports in between my other duties. Oh, and teaching.
Every single one is personal and tailored to the individual child, proofread, checked and double checked before I sign it off.

So in a word, no.

^ This

I’m usually very pleased by my dc’s report, but i was annoyed to see “dc would benefit from reading with an adult every night”

I do read with him every night and I fill in their stupid booklet. But because sometimes I tick it, (as there is nothing I can really write which doesn’t repeat to what I’ve already said), for some reason, this isn’t count as read

My children have been mixed up readily and regularly with other children but only with inadequate teachers. Good teachers know them well and take pride in doing so otherwise they can't help them make progress. We've had a mixture of both types of teacher and school and it would be foolish for the ultra teacher defenders to say it never happens because it does and makes a mockery of when amazing teachers and schools work so hard. Parents aren't idiots and know the difference

Secondary teachers on the thread, I am sure lots of posters appreciate the work involved. However, if you're putting in all that work I'm guessing you'd prefer there to be a meaningful outcome? What do you think would be the most effective way of providing decent feedback to parents and pupils without overburdening staff? As noted below, personally I wouldn't mind binning reports entirely, as our parents evenings are really helpful.

Not really, I think it's quite accurate most of the time. Sometimes get quite surprised to read something very unlike of dc at home praised too.

@BluebellsGreenbells

I have.

My child is a disability and it’s obvious the teachers have no idea. It reads if only DS could do Y or try harder at X - he can’t …. It’s not going to happen, no ones more frustrated than he is.

Shame on them really. And yes I’ve men ironed it to the head of year -

At no point does a physically disabled child’s report contain ‘could run faster in the cross country, refuses try the hurdles, or similar’

Mine did years ago. My physical disabled child was criticised for the lack of effort with running -a phone call sorted that out.

The one that shocked me was one written by a long term cover teacher (over term) about how X doesn't listen and basically doesn't do what they are told. I phoned her and spoke to her and asked her how her strategies from the EHCP were being implemented with my DEAF child. Deaf? she asked. Yes I said 100% deaf in L Ear and 80% R ear -are you sitting on the right side and talking to them face to face with them so they can see you (Mainstream primary), she thought I was joking. I wasn't it went all the way to top of the MAT -she left the next day and didn't return. And the Headteacher departed before the end of term as well. I received an apology from the trust -but it didn't really help my child by that point.

Last year my child’s report had another child’s name left in it. The teacher didn’t even do ‘control find control replace’ properly.
I’ve cared less about the content since then.

One thing to consider with the letters is that not all children have parents who can speak English, and not all parents can read.

Most people can understand a letter grade.

I know it depends a lot on the type of school but I know some students I've taught I know I'm writing the report as much for the student as the parents.

When my son was in year 7 his science teacher started her report on my son, using his correct name (think George) , and was quite scathing about his attention to detail. She then went on to refer to him as a different name (think John). We just laughed at the irony, teachers are human and make mistakes. She was right about his lack of attention to detail

Our secondary school does reports in phases, it online and updated 3monthly just a few lines or more for an update on level etc it’s fine what you need for high school and you can speak to school if there are any concerns.

Primary, I’ve been really lucky with my kids primary. 3 out of the 4 have gone there and I know the staff well and the kids mostly like it. Youngest has been assessed asd so is having some major struggles but school are trying to support. Reports are personal and accurate. Head teacher writes in them all, wrote a lovely comment for my youngest who has given the head a lot of stress this last term but is behind him all the way and that was really nice. I’ve no complaints.

However, my own reports. I’ll say that I am dyslexic. This was denied until I was 10 or so when my parents forced school to do an assessment. This is a long time ago 32 years ago. I am very dyslexic and I had a really horrible time at school, I tried incredibly hard but I was bullied in front of teachers who ignored it and made to feel totally stupid. I remember one teacher, when saying i wanted to be a nurse telling me people like me will never acheive anything. Nice! My reports were all about my lack of effort - rubbish I worked so hard with little help/support. Distraction, teacher sat me at a table with a bully and he pulled my hair and kicked me amongst other things. I stood on my own at playtime as the friends I did have were too scared the boy would turn on them next. Council wouldn’t allow my parents to move me, was a long time ago but just a totally horrific school experience. I had one perhaps 2 amazing primary teachers they are the ones I really remember. My primary one teacher used to keep me in at break and lunch as I’d not finished my work. I really hated school, then to read a pile of negative shit written about me was the icing on the cake. I did become a nurse, because my mum believed in me and pushed for help and supported me.

Not with the full reports - I don't expect my child to be the same with them as they are with me and generally they've been good, but the term short report format do irritate me a little bit, largely because the data its based on isn't actually there and it's just a grid so it can be hard to know what to do with the information.

I actually had a bit of a chat & a laugh about it with the PE teacher on the last parents' evening -- I get a glowing report of how my child is progressing when talking with some things I can do and in the full report my child sounds fine, but the term assessment reports always flag it. The issue is in part because the level they're assessed at is judged against SATs or assessments done near the start, at least for most of Y7 because that's the data they have to work with, but how well my child does in maths isn't really related to their PE abilities. I know the school is working at improving this, but with some subjects like PE, there is going to be limits on the data they get.

One of my children I think might be having the opposite issue - a middle ground academic assessment, but marked Above in a subject that at least at home she seems to be struggling and getting flustered with. I haven't had a chance to talk with the teacher yet (I'd already planned to on the next parents evening because of the struggling) so not sure on that, it's likely also partially she's very good at masking and then her father and I get the crash at home, but the mismatch has raised some questions for me.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew
With reports, maybe a few practical or discussion recommendations for parents can do at home, particularly if anything is flagged as needing to be worked on. I'm wary of adding to teacher load by contacting the school outside of set parent's evenings unless something very wrong has happened, but when discussing these reports with my children, I'm not always sure where to go from there if there is a 'causing concern' in this subject or their 'classroom and motivation' in that subject is listed as 'needs improvement'.

I do find it best when it's a short form one paired with a parents' evening a few weeks later so I can get that practical information (and use the short form to decide who to talk to), but when it's just a report, there is part of me that tries to figure out what to do with the information so some brief guidance would make reports more useful for me. So, using PE as an example, as a disabled parent there was that twinge of guilt seeing 'causing concern' there and she was feeling that she was just bad at it, so finding out how it was marked meant it wasn't really, that even pre-COVID my child was avoiding physical contact during sports like the plague which was her issue in the classroom, and discussing skills she could work on at home and what I could discuss with her was a relief for both of us.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew Sorry, there was meant to be a sentence that somehow got deleted after your name about how I agree that parents evenings tend to be a lot more useful, particularly now with online ones where I can book in and hear everything and read the reports beforehand.

I'm just grateful they take time to put them together.

Though I do wonder if my son has a personality transplant every time he enters school. His reports describe him as a popular member of the class with a great sense of humour. At home he's more like Kevin and Perry.

I must admit I’ve always found reports from both primary and secondary are absolutely spot on about my kids. Got their temperament and attitude just right. Some things seem a bit cut and paste, but if it’s true and it does the job why not? I can’t complain about any of my kids reports. Always had hand written notes by the teachers and head teacher as well.

DS1: Quiet but diligent student, parents evening was glowing except for 2 subjects. One was so convinced that he was a middle of the road student, he was unable to see past the facts when I pointed out to him that he had the wrong grades for my son. The other was partly DS1's fault as he was chatty in this particular class so I can accept that, however, again when it was pointed out that she also had the wrong grades she was unwilling to accept that moving from a 4 to an 8 made a difference to the overall assessment.

DD1: Again, quiet, diligent child. Class teacher is known amongst the kids for talking about himself incessantly, asking the kids what they think and then saying, shall we write down that you think XXX when that is not what they have said. End of year report. MiniMargaux plays on the regional football team and was voted by her peers to represent the year as part of the 'Believe' programme at school. She does play football, in the region, but just for the local team and she did volunteer for the 'Believe' (made up as I can't remember what it was) programme but they drew straws and she was not selected. I pointed this out to him and he said it would be changed. It wasn't so I pointed it out again and he wrote back saying that MiniMargaux was clearly a motivated student and a keen footballer so deserved the recognition that was given as part of the report... so basically, I was being asked to accept the errors in the report because he could not accept that he should change them.

He is a prat and I am not sure how to go forward with this without completely loosing my composure and coming across as some kind of looney. I have written to the head of year to gently point out that this teachers needs some guidance as to how to listen to students and parents.. it has been ignored. Hmmm...

My DDs report had a comment about the bright eyeshadow and funky socks she's wears !! Wtf
Never happened

@Herecomesthesun70

My DDs report had a comment about the bright eyeshadow and funky socks she's wears !! Wtf Never happened

What a very strange thing to comment on in a report, even if it had happened

Yeah dds name isn't Clive and she hadn't overcome her struggles after her operation she didn't have an operation!

I did clash with one teacher he refused to tell me how she was doing in her lessons and berated her for not putting the date on her homework this was a week long homework she put month and year and neglected the day as he wanted day of completion not start date I cut him short after the first go around (he really wanted to press the point on repeat) ok point made how is she doing in class and how can I support her apart from reminding her about the date...he persisted about the date I never did find out how she was doing I left to go see the next teacher sadly she didn't do well in that exam because after parents evening he ignored her in class im glad he left the school