Teachers! Why do schools do this?

[ButteredRadish]

School report. Year 5. SEN but at mainstream Primary. Report summary included wonderful, kind words full of praise and appreciation. Not a negative word to be said! Lovely. Brought a tear to my eye, actually. Then we get to the end of year ‘scoring’ section.

Maths: WTS = Working Towards the Age Related Expectation (So in other words “Your kid is behind….”)
Writing: WTS = Working Towards the Age Related Expectation
Reading: GDS = Working at a Higher Level within the Age Related Expectation for Reading

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not overly surprised that my child is behind in Maths & Writing but ‘ahead’ in reading. My child has SEN as I’ve said, so it’s somewhat to be expected. But do all schools use this ‘That kid’s behind, that one is ahead’ system?

I’m not actually complaining or being precious about them informing me my child is behind(!) I’m just shocked that they ‘score’ primary children on their report card. I mean, fair enough behind the scenes; Just seems a bit competitive to be issuing ‘scores’ on how clever your kid is. We’ve got all that fun & games to come with exams etc in high school.
Didn’t they stop the whole Top of the Class thing decades ago?! (I know it’s not quite the same!)

I can totally see some parents feeling like shit that their child didn’t get ‘GDS’ on all three. There’s already two mums not-so-subtly bragging about their year 2 DCs getting 3 x ‘GDS’, on the parents’ group and a playground mum I speak to whose DC is in that year, is heartbroken that her daughter got ‘WTS’ on all three. She wasn’t expecting it on any of them so the bragging is not helping her at all. Could they not include it a little more diplomatically within the Report Summary to avoid braggy mums, or is that asking too much?! Is this ‘scoring’ necessary for another reason?
Would be interested to hear from any teachers about why this is done? Thanks!

It gets worse at secondary school IMO (maybe just ours), with the characteristic of 'Resilience' being scored in each subject. Firstly, how can you even apply that character trait to an assessment for a subject, it is a bit like marking a student for levels of 'Charm' they demonstrate in Maths i.e. what difference does it make to the grades. Equally, I'm not sure how Resilience of a student can be understood when you are largely employing ed tech to assess a student's progress. The school is massive, I doubt they even know my DC's character to that extent. Just ambiguous and unhelpful frankly.

I don't see it as scoring at all and I don't understand why it matters where it appears on the report. I have no idea what any other child is getting in terms of their assessment. If you have parents gloating about it that's a problem with that parents, not the school or the report itself.

The reports are written to communicate with parents. As parents, if you choose to share the report, you need to do it in a way that you know your child will be okay with. If teachers write it to ensure it’s positive for a child to read, parents won’t know where their child is.
You will always get parents who brag and parents who lie/exaggerate - sadly that’s life.

Teachers don’t have say on how things are reported. The DFE are the ones who decide on the wording.
I don’t understand the issue with WTS as a phrase, it’s a lot better than telling someone they are ‘behind’! Working towards means there’s elements of the standard being met which is a good thing. There are levels below that too.

The most important bit of the report is the general comment. Is your child a lovely member of the class? Polite, hardworking, always trying their best type effort? That’s the bit that matters the most.

Some people are more academic than others. Many people have amazing intelligences / knowledge which aren’t part of reading, writing and maths. Schools have a major push on English and maths. The curriculum is hideous and Michael Gove is to blame. Many children struggle more now because of it. They aren’t getting ‘thicker’ the work and expectations are so much more difficult than they were.

There shouldn’t be anything on the end of year report which is a surprise to parents. If a child is WTS, the parents should have been told this at parents evenings and what exactly it means for their child - strengths and areas to develop.

Parents have always boasted about things, didn’t matter what we call the levels, it’s not going to change how other people behave.

They do it because the government requires it. They used to report levels but they were abolished about 10 years ago. This way of reporting is meant to be easier to understand.

Why do so many parents expect schools to take on extra work or a different approach because some parents are dicks and might upset someone?

Some people use any opportunity to brag about their kids achievements. Some people choose to tell their kids their results. Kids are ALWAYS going to have different achievements - academic or otherwise. That’s just life and IMO the braggy parents and kids are just setting the others up to be able to eye-roll and not care about the more competitive and vocal families when this all intensifies at secondary.

Schools need to measure kids against something (however arbitrary that something might seem to us) - how else can they manage education effectively? Where it’s SATs the school’s effectiveness needs to be measured - how else can they do this and be able to report on it? It doesn’t need diplomacy and kind words in case a parent upsets somebody. It’s just statistics and it’s parents jobs to manage the flow of information to our kids (or not) and to manage how they cope with others attitude towards it.

I had a report for DC this year where they had about 10 measures and DC was either ‘just below’ or ‘working towards’ for every single measure. Heartbreaking really. My DC also is on the SEN register but no diagnosis.

I also had a lovely written report about how much they like DC and how well behaved they are etc. TBH I read it as a classic shit sandwich delivery of feedback. The nice report was to soften the blow and talk about DCs nice attributes which are untested.

my school facilitates a private tutor during the school day - could you explore that?

This is literally the government framework for assessing kids. All state schools have to do this, and will have been doing this for years…

I don’t understand how you have got to year 5 without having seen this before. As has been said, it’s a statutory requirement to report to parents either the results of obligatory tests- phonics screening, multiplication check, SATS - and teacher assessments every year, from EYFS onwards. Whether parents share these assessments with their child is down to them, not the school

It feels like schools only see kids as potential grades these days which is so sad.

It feels like the government only see kids as potential grades these days which is so sad.

Fixed it for you.

Including the information in a comment box rather than in a table against each subject would make no difference here. Your issue isn't with the reporting structure: it's with competitive and braggy mums.

I preferred the old levels because then you could see how far behind. Now behind is behind and you don't know if it is a term or 2 years.

I never showed my DC their reports at primary. Yes it is about them, but it is aimed at the parents.

How would you expect schools to word it through the write up?

"Hannah is a hardworking student who tries her best at all times. She is working at greater depth in reading and working towards age related expectations in Maths and Writing".

Sorry OP I disagree, I have 2 children one in year 6 and one in year 3. Year 6 child has all working at expected level which I was thrilled at, not bothered there is no GDS. Year 3 child is a whizz at maths so that was a GDS but his writing is working towards, but I know that, because his handwriting isn't very good and he despises writing, so none of it was a shock or disappointment? I was so happy with both reports. It allows u to understand your child's strengths and weaknesses and how better to support that? Do u expect every child in every year to get a working at expected level so no one gets upset? That sounds ridiculous.

Prepare for yourself for Secondary OP, in my experience reports become way more stark and direct than Primary - just colours, numbers, grades etc.

But, as someone else has said, schools are told how to report by the DFE, it's not something your school has invented themselves.

Reports are a heck of a lot softer than they used to be. Certainly, at a primary level, everything written and said has to be wrapped in overly diplomatic and flowery language. It means parents sometimes have to decipher the code to understand what is actually being said, and sometimes parents just miss the underlying message entirely. It does, however, reduce the number complaints that can come compared to when schools give explicitly honest reports.

It’s good to know where your child is at. Now you know that your child needs to do some maths and writing homework during the summer holidays so she doesn’t fall even more behind especially as she’ll be going into Year 6.

Under the old curriculum, levels would be used. Under the currentl primary curriculum the assessment structure is WT (working towards), EXS (working at expected standard) and GDS (working at greater depth within the expected standard). Some schools also use the pre-key stage standards for some SEND children which obviously depends on where they are. You may see this written as PK5, PK6, etc. Despite where a child may be academically within this structure, the comment will cover personal qualities and behaviour. A child’s report is written solely about them and I wouldn’t be worried about comparing with others. Make an appointment to discuss with the teacher if you want guidance as to how to help them at home.

We consulted parents on removing these. We gave research suggesting children might do better and be emotionally better without the stress of comparison (a big issue in our school). It was overwhelming that parents wanted an academic level not just comments on effort.

We did remove target grades - these are usually just ‘the most likely of a range’ and sometimes a 6 might be almost at likely as a 5 but previous data suggests 5 most likely to thats their target.

in short more parents complain if we don’t grade them academically than if we do

I can't see how writing it 'softly' in the comments section would help at all. From the gentle example below you might go away not realising that your child is actually behind their peers.

"Johny is a kind and thoughtful student who always gives his best. It would be great if Johny could do more reading at home. Johny is very enthusiastic in maths but does need to work on learning his times tables"

Whereas if the teacher was clearer e.g. "Johny's reading age is 3 years lower than expected" " We would expect Johny be fluent in times tables by now but he is only able to do the two and five times tables confidently" you would be in no doubt they are behind their peers and could provide more support. If you need more detail on how to support your son speak to the teacher.

I think your reaction is the issue you should explore. Kids all develop at different rates regardless of neurodiversity or SEN. It's not a reflection on you. Not all kids can get top grades, or average. Not all kids are consistent throughout school. It is useful to know where kids are at in relation to their peers so you as a parent can consider how you might help. For example, my dd has been behind all the way through primary so we paid for a tutor, she has now caught up in English but still struggles with maths. DS is doing gcses and is way behind in one of his sciences so we have invested in some additional revision materials for this.

@ButteredRadish perhaps it would be helpful to ingrained un your dh the importance of being on a journey not (just) the destination. For me the wording says she us on this journey towards ago and that should be amazing.
Whatever wording you propose there will be someone, who, just like you will not be happy about it.

For SEND children I completely agree. It’s not a case of well parents can just help and they'll catch up. They have SEND. Likelihood is if they are behind they’ll always be behind and where is the evidence that they are making any kind of progress? Our DDs report always looks like this, she’s got a learning disability so obviously she’s not working at age related stuff, I already know this. Another way the school system fails SEND kids.

It isn't a school choice to use SATS as GCSE grade predictors - that is how schools are measured on progress by the government. You are angry at the wrong people. But I think if we've reached a stage where we can't even tell parents if their child is working at the expected level for, say Y4, we're not acting transparently. Parents generally have little idea of whether their child is excelling or struggling on year group expectations until you tell them. Why would they, if they've not seen what other children the same age can do and what tbe objectives are? Wouldn't you be annoyed in Y6 to find out your child has been working behind expectations all along and you had no idea?

No, I think you’re being ridiculous. Of course it needs to be as clear as possible whether your child is at the expected level or not. Why on earth would you possibly want this hidden in the text is beyond me. I think you’re just cross with yourself for showing your child and not preparing them sufficiently to deal with what it says.

I too have a child that is not at the expected level (for most of her subjects actually). The paragraph is warm and fuzzy but she’s only 8 and there’s not a chance in hell that she will be seeing the table. It would be awful for her self esteem- BUT it’s important that I am aware of her attainment. It’s a report for me that’s addressed to me. It’s on you that your child is upset.

It's interesting you think this OP, because a lot of effort was put into the wording of "working towards" in order to make it as positive as possible. It doesn't say "behind" or "below the expected standard", or "lower ability". I'm not sure how they could give you this information in a more positive way to be honest?
Would you prefer the old system of national curriculum levels? Where they would get a 3, 4 or 5? (and you would be told that most kids should be at level 4 by Year 6).