..to expect a school report to actually tell me something

[Niceguy2]

I got my son's end of year school report earlier this week.

It's so obviously been done by computer. All politically correct statements, nothing negative. Full of astounding information like "xxx enjoys taking part in class discussions and answering questions" or the ever helpful "xxx can describe different religions" Really that's stunning information!

ffs. AIBU to expect a report which says stuff like "Needs extra reading support" or "His behaviour is good/bad" And maybe even a rough idea of how he's done in class?

I'd rather have a half pager which tells me in no nonsense speak rather than the 5 page report of PC postive bullshit. I bet I could swap the name of the child on top and nobody would notice.

What happened to the old days where I used to get comments like "NG is a disruptive influence in class." or my personal favourite "When confronted, NG displayed a blazé indifference..."

Wonder if the head will read my comment in the suggestions bit when I called their report useless and "crap"?

Did you really put crap?

I think you're being too black and white - there's a world of grey between 'good' and 'bad' behaviour for example. It's a dreadful statement as it doesn't describe the problems with the behaviour.

No it's not at all unreasonable to expect to hear the truth about your child. However I can only say that if your child was a real nuisance in class, or falling way behind, or the school bully, that you would have been hauled up before the Head yourself long before this. I reckon that if your child, is just like most others, nice, pleasant, middle of the road etc that the teachers can't actually be bothered to say the same thing to 30 other parents in various ways so just trot out the same lines to each. Not great I know but I think that's probably your answer. If there was a problem you'd have heard so not to worry.

I think schools are reflecting that nowadays we tend to see how complex the factors in a child's progress can be.

For example when I was in primary school you were thick if you couldn't read by a certain age and clever if you swanned along.

Nowadays we see how many children have great potential but their home/life or the education they have may have limited their potential. Also children develop at bizarrely different times. ds was a slow ready and is now an enthusiastic one. My friend's ds read very young and now won't go near a book.

We look at children differently now and less judgmentally (sp?)

ours are like that and seem like a tick list of computer generated statements, however the only page I really did pay attention to were the teachers hand written comments at the end of the report - about a paragraph of how DD ACTUALLY is doing. and then a couple of sentances from the head.

Did you get a parents evening?

YANBU - what's the point of a load of computer generated platitudes?

Much more useful to just have the teach write two or three genuine comments than two pages worth of fluff.

Ours got a personalised cover sheet with some nice comments about her achievements, abilities and personality then pages of statements with the ones that apply to her highlighted.

I was very happy with this as I recognise the time constraints on them writing personalised reports for each child but it was lovely to read about her and they even put a photo of her playing on the front so we will save it in her memory box

DD's was so bland and generic that I actually swapped reports with one of her classmates only to find that the two reports were virtually the same (and in a number of subjects were word for word identical). Parent I swapped with also has a DD and they are on the same ability table but all we both now know is what they have been taught, not what they have learned, nor how hard they have tried. I have been to see the Head who says she agrees and will change it for next year but if she knew there was an issue why not address it before the teachers have all wasted hours cutting and pasting rather than after?

I think in secondary it depends on the subject - for RE the teacher probably only sees the class for 1 lesson a week and has to write hundreds of reports all for broadly similar students. It probably takes forever to even learn their names. In contrast for something like Maths or English I would want something a bit more personal.

I teach in a secondary school. School policy is to use "comment banks" for all reports. Our reports have a "Comment on progress" and a "targets" box. I follow policy and use the comment bank (but adapt it so comments make sense) for progress, but I ignore the comment bank to write something more personal for the "target." It does take time to write reports but it is part of the job and is an incredibly important part as, in my school, a significant proportion of parents don't attend Parents' Evening so the report is sometimes the main opportunity to communicate with parents about their child's progress.
If you are unhappy about the report please speak to the teacher directly. They will be able to provide more detail, and may be as frustrated with the report-writing policy of the school as you are!

At ds' primary school, they have semi-automated report writing "programmes". The good teachers make the effort to prsonalise them and go beyond the "drop down" menus.

Ds has just finised P5. Of his 5 teacher he has had 3 good teachers and 2 lazy not-so-good teachers. Guess which ones bothered to give us meaningful reports!

YANBU. I could't agree more!

A little example of my own (and I mean little). DD1 is 15. Her English Language comment was very complimentary, as were her grades, but it was clearly from the report databank and showed no real insight into my daughter's ability, behaviour or personality.

Her English Literature comment was....

"Complete".

What?! For once I was as lost for words as DDs English teacher.

Teachers just try telling the truth about attitude/behaviour/manners of some of the little dears[or more so the big dears]and see how some [not all] parents react.It is sad but true that most parents dont want to hear the less positive comments and can put school/teacher in a very unpleasant position.
I have been retired for some years now but even then,in the 90s,we were told not to make negative comments in writing.

The "dc enjoyed X" comments are bizarre though, particularly when I know perfectly well that he was off sick at the time.

YADNBU. I would love to write honest reports, but mine get sent back when I am. Don't want to upset anyone, after all

It is a pointless waste of paper and everyone's time.

I don't think you can describe teachers who send reports home like this as lazy. All too often it'll be a system which has been inflicted upon them by higher authorities.

YANBU. But it's not the teachers' fault, some schools have adopted a computerised system where teachers can only select one of a small selection of sentences to describe the child. A typical report will be made up of about 5 or 6 of such sentences. I would definitely complain about this system. Most teachers don't like it as it's a way of the the school controlling what they say and preventing them from conveying honest and useful information.

My Ds's report was full of spelling mistakes, fell (feel), Mohammad and then Muhammed on the next line down, called him a 'her'. Cannot believe its all copy and paste these days, and what makes it even more annoying is that my sons teacher has been off more than 5 months and they have had supply teachers in, the report has been signed by his teacher and yet she still isn't in school!!

I never said the teachers were lazy. I am aware its probably more to do with the political correct rubbish nowadays than laziness.

But ffs which parent is stupid enough to complain if a teacher puts "johnny is struggling with maths"

DD's school reports are even more of a joke. I don't even get the PC selection of sentences. I just get a table with her progress and target.

Then you get to meet the form tutor for 10 mins of which they get the entire day off school.

I wouldn't mind the form tutor system if he actually knew anything but when I asked questions like "Well according to this, DD has gone backwards in English. Why?" His reply was "I don't know, I don't teach her for English." And "Well in German, she is level 5 now and her target in 2 years is still a level 5. Why? Is she not expected to improve in two years?" Again the reply "Erm, i don't know."

Anyway, he squirmed like mad when I then said "Sorry but I don't understand how you can tell me my daughter's doing well then if you don't actually see her for the classes."

And yes CoventGarden. I actually wrote the word "crap" lol

My dd's report said very little and i was looking forward to a parent/teacher meeting to find out the details, but we sat there in silence just looking at dd as the teacher had nothing to say but that she has settled in well and has made friends. Most pointless 2 minutes of my life.

YADNBU - agree though that it's generally school policy rather than individual teachers.

I'm dreading this TBH, when my DCs are in school in a few years, I will find it very hard not to complain if we get that kind of report.