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!

Aren't teachers reports (especially in secondary schools where they teach a huge number of kids) pretty much a cut and paste job anyway?
I always figure, there shouldn't be anything new in them.

Im waiting for my FB to be filled up with parents sharing their kids reports as if anyone else cares. 🤣

My favourite recently though was a few people celebrating getting into a school. It's extremely over subscribed but is just pure luck if you get a place. Nothing you can do to improve your chances. However parents were posting things like "I'm so proud of my darling son. He secured a place at school x. All his hard work has paid off". Um... he could be a straight A student or an utter delinquent, he still has the same chance of getting a place. My son also got a place so Im not jealous. I just think its ridiculous that they are pretending they earned it when its a lottery.

I actually think the opposite - it's not clear enough.

Our school has a lot of parents for whom English isn't their first language and I don't think "working towards age related expectations" means anything to them! Many of them use Google translate for school communications, who knows how it comes out in that..

I do agree on braggy mums - my SIL posts every school report on Facebook - and they aren't even that amazing! I share ours only with grandparents who I feel are the only people you can really brag about your kids with 😉

Because teachers have to report. DfE says there are certain things that need reporting on and this is one of them.

No, in my case, it was data informing his opinion, which is how lots of people use data, as a teacher with impressionable young minds, delivery is key, he was just a nasty man tbh but it was the mid 90s!

At my youngest's secondary school they do actually state "behind", "exceeding", "on target" so they don't sugar the pill any longer and I would argue at 13- 18 teenagers do want to see the reports. Unfortunately, nothing really changes and you still get the bad apples, my DD was told at Parents evening she wasn't going to be a Rocket Scientist but she was nice enough, she did reply thay she didn't want to be one so I suppose she's pretty tough.

I’m just shocked that they ‘score’ primary children on their report card

I think the term ‘report card’ is what gives it away. What else are they meant to say on a report card. It’s literally to tell you if your child is working at/behind/ahead in each area. Struggling to understand what you think a report card is or should be if not that?

And if people had no idea their child was behind until the sats results people would go 'why didn't the school tell me, I could have helped more to bring their scores up'

Can't win

@ButteredRadish It’s the whole “My kid’s ahead” “Mine’s behind” scoring aspect that I’m referring to!

I would simply ignore this 'competitive parenting' and just concentrate on supporting my child to be the best they can be - trying to improve their areas of weakness and supporting their talents. I couldn't care less if little Tarquin can do differential equations at age 6 as he may not have the excellent social skills of my child.

I think 'working towards' is pretty gentle. I'm sure is used to be just 'working below expected level'.

I'm surprised you can’t see there’s a difference between the factual reporting of the level at which a child is currently working, and a necessarily subjective prediction of what they will achieve in the future. OP's child's report stated objectively her current level of work. That is not "labelling" and not "arbitrary". Your science teacher was making a prediction about the future and was wrong (though presumably their prediction was based on knowledge of the final exam results of previous students who were working at the level you were working at, at that point in time).

Some teenagers who were not taking their work in that subject seriously enough might be shocked and galvanised enough by the prediction of a low exam result to pull their socks up and work harder in that subject, perhaps with more parental support and encouragement. Only you can know whether that applied to you.

OP, do you expect schools to take all responsibility for teaching your child, meaning that no matter what you don't have to help them at all?

It sounds like you do, considering you don't even want to know where your child is struggling.

The way I see it, schools are supposed to educate but they can't do everything. They can't offer the 121 attention some kids need. It is a parent's responsibility to help their child where necessary i.e. reading with them, talking about maths at home.

There's lots of ways to do this in a relaxed way. Cooking involves maths (let's half the recipe), telling the time, doing laundry, shopping (we need 1 kg of flour).

Or just helping with homework, explaining where they get stuck.

Considering how much parents love to complain about schools, I find it very strange how many parents are happy to abdicate complete responsibility for teaching their child anything.

Honestly, I think that the issue is parents reading the whole report to their kids and comparing with one another not what the school says. My kids go to a private school that reports in this way and does CAT scores etc; not once have I discussed exactly what her teachers have written with my daughter in specific terms - she is 7, so what she needs to know is that, for example, her teachers have spotted she is great at reading and maths, her spelling and handwriting are the areas for improvement next year (which we can work on together) and that we are very proud of the fact that she is praised for her positive contributions in class and her sportswomanship. The only times I have told a fellow parent something from a report is where I am seeking specific support on a particular matter from a close friend - I do not compare my children’s grades to others or boast about them. What is upsetting people and children is the comparison, which is the antithesis to a growth mindset that takes personal strengths and weaknesses and seeks to build on them.

Everyone wants their child to be the best, if not the overall best, at least the best at something.

However there aren't enough categories for each child to be the best, so when mine were little we focussed on them being the nicest, kindest kids.

Sounds like your problem isn't the scoring as such, but your insecurity regarding the sharing of the children's scores by other parents. So what if another child is doing better than yours, if yours is healthy and happy then you are already winning.

I'm not sure how else the school should present your child's progress, you say it should be presented more diplomatically, but then some people will miss what is really being said.

It's helpful for most people to know where their child is at, and in future don't share their report with yours if you know they can't handle it. Or use it as a way to build resilience. I work at a university and the kids coming through now are the most immature and unable to cope with the simple challenges of life cohort that I have ever seen, and it is all down to the parenting approach of protecting kids from any kind of uncomfortable feelings.

It’s not about the mum’s feelings or people feeling inferior about competitive mums on the playground. It’s about knowing what your child needs help in. We’ve had ones that were lower than we wanted, then spent the year really focusing on that subject and getting them in the level above. I find them useful

It's a government requirement to let you know how your child is doing in relation to the targets, my son is always years behind target

This year they forgot to include that page and headteacher comments really focused on his meltdowns (asd/ADHD) rather than on the fact that this year he finally learnt to hold a pen or that at the age of 9 they've stopped trying to get him to blend sounds and moved to sight reading which he's doing great with, I would have rather read the very clinical page about where he's scoring instead

If others want to brag that their child is currently ahead of national targets, let them.

Tbf OP, you have read the words used and then substituted some new ones and are objecting to those rather than what is written. Working towards the expectation is actually a positive way of describing where your DC is, whereas 'your kid is behind' is not, and is not what was said. The government set the age related expectations very broadly. Within those some DC will have met them at an earlier age, others will be progressing towards them at that age. The important thing is the progress.

I'm not sure why you feel this is at odds with the glowing report in the free text either. Your DD is clearly showing a lot of positive traits and the fact she's progressing towards other goals doesn't change that. If I were you I'd be praising your DD for the 'working' part of working towards.

The "my kid's ahead" issue is a social problem, outside of school hours or school's control, with the other parents. It's not a report problem.

In primary we used to go to the park with random mums and if it was park weather on "report day" some mums would rip open the reports whilst we were all sitting on the grass, you think "oh lord this might not end well". You do wonder if the ones ripping open the report were the ones waiting to throw their arms around their little progeny to display that clearly their life choices and mothering style was the best way to go about it. We waited until we got home, usually until Dad was there as well to open the report, partly because, what the fuck could you do about anything, praise or ok let's work on that, in the park!

And that's what the bragging is about, I think, it's not about their child, it's about their ego, I clearly am the best mum around here etc etc.

Our youngster is year 9 now, can I remember what writing, reading, maths level he was in year 5, god no, we have just had his end of year report, some inaccuracies, but nothing I am going to contact school about, it's hot, it's late in the year, everyone is shattered and we recently had his mock exam results back, which is more accurate data so we know where he is about, and when it comes to the end, GCSE results day, all of these reports will be irrelevant, the final, and only measurement going forward will be those 8/9/10 numbers on the results paper.

Your child's report is for you, you can decide to help with any weaker areas, and work though that together. Keep it as that between you and your child, how you react to your child's report matters, to your child, how everyone else reacts is irrelevant.

It is standard assessment terminology in mainstream state schools - do not know about the private sector.

Just come off the group whats app.

So what’s your alternative proposal to measure progress without actually having a form of measurement? They’re not scored against each other. I’m a bit baffled as to what you think they’re meant to do.

Could they not include it a little more diplomatically within the Report Summary to avoid braggy mums

I don't think it would make much difference where they weaved it in. Braggy, competitive mums will still make sure they broadcast their kid's attainment level. Just ignore them and carry on supporting your DC.

I really doubt you will get many teachers to answer at the moment. They are probably all struggling towards the end of term!

I told my child (who is doing ok academically but was still anxious about the results) that these tests only measure a very small narrow amount of skills, whereas there are so many children who are talented at: physical activities, arts and crafts, being kind and caring, being imaginative and creative problem solvers, which you don’t get graded on.

So he should neither big himself up for getting good results, nor feel bad that there are others who did better on these narrow set of skills, the important thing is to keep learning and this is just a way of measuring for schools to be able to compare on these skills only and know what level work each child is ready for.

I’m in NI. You’d have loved my eldest son’s P6 teacher (Year 5 equivalent). She had the pupils in class groups according to how clever they were. I don’t mean level appropriate reading groups, I mean the entire class was divided into visible groups with stupid bird names like owls and eagles and crap like that. Thankfully she retired after my son had been in her class for one term (she wanted to organise one last Christmas choir🙄) and was replaced by a fantastic teacher. That was just 7 years ago, but it was like something from Victorian times. I remember going to the parent/teacher consultation and she referred to my son as ‘a bit giddy’ and ‘probably on some kind of spectrum’. Thank God I never had to read an end of year report written by her.

You can't just put positive comments on a report. Not only does there need to be honesty, but every child needs something to aim for, to improve, even those who are "top of the class". I would expect most parents to want some rigour in the assessment of their children.

This information has to be reported to parents. Also, it’s very hard to get GDS in writing; I’d bet my house that those children whose parents are bragging didn’t actually get it.