To ask what you hate reading in school reports.

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I am a teacher but I have no DC. I am in the middle of writing reports. I never ever copy and paste as that is rude. The nicest comment a parent ever made about my reports was that she could tell it was about her child and that I really knew them.
My question is, what phrases and cliches do you hate reading in your DCs reports?

And people think teaching is a soft option . . .

Definitely any pointers for things to do at home to help out with any areas of concern.

DD's foundation teacher was brilliant and is and she'd included a little line about how she'd taught her all the vital dance moves she'll need in life such as aga doo and the superman song

I think lots of schools require staff to match attainment against NC standards, which is why they sound so formulaic.

All things being equal, what really matters are work habits, e.g. completing class work, handing in homework on time, coming to the lesson equipped and ready to learn. Specific skills and knowledge then stand some chance of improvement.

All the children I've taught who have poor work habits underachieve when compared to their actual ability.

Thinly disguised sarcsasm aimed at Dd lack of ability, and sniggering with school office stsff as it was handed to me. Its a lovely school, this broke my heart.

Teacher 1: 'Miss YeGods is quiet and as such is likely to fly undetected under the radar and miss out on teaching' along with 'a pleasure to teach' from every other teacher will get Teacher 1 key hauled at the next given opportunity. Don't say it at parent's evenings either.

Also, with a child that has has one single weak area and is working well above average levels should not be criticised for the weak area. The teacher should be saying what they are doing to help them and any progress (however small) that has been made.

I would really like to know dd place in the class and wether she has any issues that I don't know about

I teach in a primary. I wrote roughly 1000 words per child with 29 pupils in my class. It amounts to a short novel. It was stressful and never ending and I was well aware that some parents would skim read most of it and some will ask me to back up things I have said ( which I can). My point is you can't please everyone.

Some points others have mentioned - position in class? That is just not going to happen in this day and age, and rightly so. As a parent of a non -academic child I don't want a report saying he is 25th out of 26.

I agree that there is nothing wrong with being a quiet pupil but neither is there anything wrong with mentioning it. It is a true reflection of that child.

If your child is a PITA the report should not be the place to first declare it. This information should be shared with home through parent contact appointments and other strategies. However I always make a comment that reflects this as to not mention it is misleading.

I know DD3 is doing well but how well? Is she just above average in all subjects or does she excel in some?

I also want to know where she is in the class.

And yes to the plain truth. What does 'DD3 is a calming influence on the class' really mean and how has that been determined? DD3 calm? Am I jealous, mmm, just a bit

Also not a fan of overly positive and generic blah. My stroppy PITA daughter is barely recognizable from her school reports- and it's perfectly clear from the look on her face when I pick her up at home-time that she's not putting on an act at school.

The best comment so far was "X reluctantly participates in PE", as it gave me a clear idea of the kind of behaviours she was showing at school.

The contents mostly . DS1 has SEN and is not easy to teach. I find parents evenings, reports etc to be very depressing affairs that remind me he is not "normal".

I agree with the too much positive. It actually backfires, because I don't know what they are actually are doing really well, so feel I can't praise them.

I'd rather have an honest report, that I can say to them "hey, that's brilliant, your teacher says you are really trying hard in spelling." and "You need to remember to put your hand up to answer questions". That is helpful, because I am praising them for something they are doing right, and I am able to perhaps talk them through ideas to help them improve what they're not doing right.

If it's all "Spelling is very good" and "enthusiastic when answering in class I don't know whether "good" in spelling means "he's naturally a good speller", "his spelling isn't as dreadful as it was", or "he's working really hard at doing his spellings", and "he forgets to put his hand up" or "he's really enthusiastic about some of the things we're doing and is asking great questions".

We did have one teacher (all my dc have had her) who did give honest reports, and I loved them, because if she said they were great, I knew they were great, and those negatives were done in a "this is how we need to improve" way.

I think the report I was most irritated by was year 3, new school, where the new teacher had copied word for word some of the personal statement from the previous year. It wasn't stock phrases, the terminology was very much the old teacher, and the new teacher wrote totally differently. I think the new teacher thought me and dh were spectacularly stupid, as it wasn't the first time she'd done something that was so obviously wrong anyone would have spotted it.

The other problem with positive reports, is that some people do take them at face value. I can think of a couple of people who have told me, or put on fb something that was said on the report, and I've thought, "I think they were trying to tell you a negative" but they've thought it is a real positive, and are proudly telling everyone.

I take what people are saying on position in class. I also take why they're not done anymore.

The thing about the not doing position in class, combined with the relentless positivity, is that sometimes parents have got the idea that their dc is in a class of their own at the top of the class. It comes as a shock to find (when setted or whatever) that they're actually strictly average. I have certainly had conversations where I've realised that the parent thinks their dc is pushing the top of the class/not being stretched, and I am aware from various things that they're not in the top half.
I have also had a conversation with a parent whose dc was convinced (and had told them) that they were struggling at the bottom. Parent was a little worried, more because dc was upset than they thought they should be better, but I was aware they were second group in that class.

But you can get inaccuracies from form position just as much. If I look at my secondary, there were 3 children went from my primary class to my secondary. We got put in different classes-and at the end of the irst year got form positions and we were all 4th!. But from primary, one of us was generally in the top 3, another was round about 10th, and the other was 20-25th.
When it came to setting, over half of the top set came from one class (the one with the top 3 child in), and almost none from the class which had the 20-25th child in.

"If your child is a PITA how would you like that to appear in the report?"

If a child is struggling with their behaviour then I would expect that child to already have an IEP. There should be no awful surprises in a school report. I would expect the school report to comment on whether the IEP is working.

I want targets that are SMART. (Ie. Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time bound)

Grades on effort or behaviour are unhelpful. We need more precise information on where our children are to improve their attitude to learning. (Ie. organisation, behaviour in class, behaviour outside class, homework, attendence, punctuatlity.)

It is better to compare children to national standards than class position. Some schools have a high proportion of low ablity children. At dd's school any child who is reasonably behaved, has a pulse and can speak English is put on the top table. Some of these children have a shock when at secondary school they are only in the second set.

I feel its vital that teachers understand that many parents do not have high levels of literacy. A school report that requires someone to attend teacher training college to understand it is not fit for purpose. I feel that school report should be readable by a year 3 child.

I have never read a report about either of my kids (9 and 15) that gave me an accurate idea of how they are doing

The reports are all just generic rubbish filled with vague descriptions and insipid positives. I don't know what they're good or bad at. I would love a truthful, individualised report.

The only time I've ever found much out is at parents evening at the older ones secondary school.

Thank you for your responses. One thing I would say about the waffle is that you have to fill a certain amount of space so sometimes you find yourself saying the same thing 3 times in a long winded way to fill up the space.
As for position in the class, I think that gives you an unrealistic picture of how your child is doing. Your child might be the best in their class at something, but only because the rest of the class is very bad.

I do try to 'tell it like it is' and I'm glad this is what people want to hear. It is worth knowing too that many children are very different in school to home so the if the teacher says they are polite and helpful then they might just be that.

"Thank you for your responses. One thing I would say about the waffle is that you have to fill a certain amount of space so sometimes you find yourself saying the same thing 3 times in a long winded way to fill up the space. "

I would rather you left blank space than waffled.

Imagine you were marking a piece of writing and child said the same thing 3 times in a long winded way. Would you be pleased? Would you give a higher grade than another child who wrote clearly and used three words.

Sometimes less is more. Bare in mind that many children with SEN have parents with SEN. Someone with a reading age of six will struggle with waffle.

I like reading what my child puts on her report.
Her report at the end if yr 2 was lovely. Was a personal one with it being so true to her.
The yr 1 one was crap. Lots of positives followed by ...'but'! One was how she appears to be listening the the question but when was puts her hand up to answer she is unable to answer correctly showing she wasn't listening in the first place!! WTF!! She was 6 and was trying to answer and would have been told she had no confidence if she didn't attempt to answer!

I miss the days when reports were hand written and you could generally write what you needed to say. Nowadays, at least in secondary schools, you are so constrained by the statement banks that all you can write is generic statements that end up saying nothing. At least primary seem to have a bit more flexibility.
Then again, my reports from school are hilarious in places but I have to say they were accurate (whether I liked the judgement or not).

My favourite report of all time from way back when I started teaching was a 4 word comment from an the head of English that said 'rarely seen, thank god'.

God who wants position in class? Really? I'd hate that. In ds's school everyone knows far too much about the rest of the class already (the previous head teacher liked parents working as teaching assistants so some of my fellow parents were also my colleagues). If someone told me ds was 8th in IT I would know who was above and below him, and anyway who cares, what does that tell me?

In theory I would like a crisp set of one-liners like I used to get at school but in practice I spend hours poring over ds's report and casting runes and quite like the lengthiness. I do want them checked; dh and I wasted an entire year thinking ds's writing was OK as the teacher had put the wrong level down. When his attainment appeared to plunge the following year we had a horrible shock and kicked ourselves for not doing more about it.

One of the great things about teaching and having children in independent school is that you can still write it exactly as it is and give and get a clear idea of exactly what children are like.

In my first job the most 'negative' I was able to be about a child who was both incredibly disruptive and showed no aptitude for the subject was 'X is lively and enthusiastic lessons and has had some interesting creative ideas.' Unless you're well versed in 'report speak' that sounds rather positive!

Now I get to be as honest as I like (within reason obviously!) Last term I wrote things as varied as (not exact wording obviously):
'Y works hard at giving the impression of a diligent pupil while actually doing as little as possible'
and
'I couldn't ask for a more wonderful pupil than Z. He does absolutely everything that could be asked of him and more.'
and
'A has had some difficulties with social interaction this term; she needs to consider the feelings of other children and the effect that her words and actions can have on them.'

Last term's reports on my 2 school aged girls included comments like:

'S is very able in English but is a complete 'dolly daydream'. She rarely gets enough down on paper to allow me to judge her true ability and would rather read under the desk than complete grammar exercises (which I completely understand but cannot condone!)'

and

'J can actually do maths. She believes she can't and therefore, when she can get away with it, she doesn't; but she certainly can. There is a difference between can't and won't J - learn it!'

I love reports like this!

"you have to fill a certain amount of space so sometimes you find yourself saying the same thing 3 times in a long winded way to fill up the space. "

yeah, have noticed this, too, I would so prefer short & simple instead.

I would have liked a decent, personalised report. Not long, necessarily, but when I used to see generic c&p, I barely even bothered reading it. Also, please don't do what DD's (ex) maths teacher did... Gave her 2/3 for 'organisination', which drove her nuts until parents evening as she is one of the most organised teens I know. I asked him how she could possibly improve it (my sarcastic suggestion to him was "bring two calculators") and he said she can't. But he doesn't give 3s as that means kids never want to improve. WTaF??

Also, could someone please do something about those bloody target grades? Term after term, I saw DD's target grade being lower than her predicted. So she should aim to get a lower grade than the one she's currently working at?
I ended up throwing the damn things in the bin without reading them. Pointless. Parents evening was far more useful.

Teachers on this thread: don’t ever do what my games teacher did fifty years ago. He also taught history but not to me: he only saw me in games where I was useless and idle.

At the first games day of a new term he (most unprofessionally) asked me about what he had said and what my father had said. And this is what happened:

Teacher: [Name], what did I say about you in my report last term?

Me: “He has wasted all his time and too much of mine”. Uneasy laughter at my expense.

Teacher: And what did your father say?

Me: He said you are right, Sir, games are a ridiculous waste of the time of intelligent youngsters and half-intelligent teachers, you should stick to History, he had heard you are adequate at that. Loud laughter at his expense and he had to join in and pretend he found it funny.

My fellow legal-eagles will know the first rule of cross-examination: Never ask a question to which you do not know the truthful answer!