To ask what you hate reading in school reports.

[Pipbin]

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?

If your child is about to sit 11+ or common entrance you need to know where they fall with respect to their classmates (or year group).

sittingatmydesk the comment about your ds never smiling is so sad . It upset me and I don't even know him!

Parents may not know what level of attainment is average for each year group but I found it in 30 seconds on Google. But teachers should discuss this at parents evening, definitely.

www.pupilasset.com/resources/national-curriculum-levels-and-targets-explained.html

You see, some people like to know where their children are relative to others and other people don't want to know this. In a sense, being told the expected level at that age group gives a bit of a sense of this.
I think we need to know about personal progress since the last report/meeting and also attainment against national standards. If national standards are not used (such as in private schools which might not use SATS) then knowing where a mark fits with the rest of the class/year helps put a child in context. I don't think it is good enough to know X is making good progress, if we are not also told where they fit compared to others. We need to know if they are significantly behind.....we can still be pleased about their good progress, but need to see it in the wider context.

I worked in a secondary school. Don't want to say too much here but the teachers had a lot of set phrases / sentences that they had to use. All they were ordered to do did was cut and paste what they thought was the closest to what the child was achieving / doing.

They were not the personal remarks about a subject that we used to have like 'Happy should spend less time talking in class' or just 'Very good this year'. I would not have been satisfied with the standard remarks.

I have no problem with bog standard comments such as "talks too much in class" because there's no point in reinventing the wheel with each report. But if you think my child is lazy (I do too), then please say so rather than "XX is an absolute delight to have in class and I have enjoyed teaching him. He sometimes struggles to find the motivation to push through longer assignments but he's making good progress in this area" = Lazy.

1. failure to comment on something significant e.g. DC has only moved one NC level for the second successive year

1. long, boring, space-filling lists of what topics they studied (we know this already - we did half of it with them as homework!)

1. large font 14+ (compared with previous reports) because the teacher can think of nothing to say. It perhaps reflects the interest they have in my child, but it is still irritating.

1. statements that show the teacher almost definitely cut and pasted for the whole class e.g. "DS overcame his fears by bungy jumping (or whatever it was) whilst on the residential course" when I know that DS simply wasn't scared of that at all. If she's going to write stuff like that about their personal development, she could at least write something about my child's personal development, not just a bland statement that applies to some and not others!

1. I wish the teacher was obliged to give www, ebi comments, so at least there would be something to focus on

I want to be told, explicitly, whether she is doing as well as she can be. Not how she compares to the class, nor to national expectations, but whether she personally could do any better. And if she could, what else should she be doing and how should we be supporting her.

For KS1, a bit about the social interactions in class (generally positive or negative) and how she manages (or not) socially would also be very useful.

He sometimes struggles to find the motivation to push through longer assignments but he's making good progress in this area" = Lazy

I would have thought lazy was more not demonstrating the required effort, can't be bothered. Finding something difficult but making progress with that skill is not lazy, it's determined.

For all I said about plain speaking, I would never like to see "lazy" or "naughty" or for that matter, "clever", or any sort of blanket character assumptions/judgements return to school reports.

Although the nc levels are a way of benchmarking, pushy mother or not, I don't really expect my kids to be achieving averages. The school as a whole has very supportive parents who generally value education highly, are involved both with their children and with school, and often are pretty highly educated themselves. So on the basis of this, I expect my children to achieve above national average. So then I want to know roughly where they are in their year group. When I was studying for my professional exams, every practice paper's results (we did A LOT) were pinned up on the board in order and we were put into quartiles. The bottom quartile failed. I wouldn't want something as harsh as that, but knowing which quartile or third they are in their year group would be helpful to me, with accompanying comments as to where they actually should be.

It would also actually be quite nice to know how they're doing in the non-academic stuff too: PE, art, music etc.

My DSs secondary just give a coded report, i.e, a separate grade for effort, attainment and behaviour in each subject. No words needed.

And in primary, the reports give the child's grades and you get a sheet showing what the average expectation is within the NC. Then you can compare your own DS with the NC expectation. Very simple.

My DD barely spoke for the first 4 years of High School, she might as well have been a selective mute, but she was doing well academically and had plenty of friends so it drove me mad when every single teacher commented on how quiet she was and how she had to address it and contribute more to class discussion. All it did was cause her even more angst.

But that way Migsy1[speaking about secondary], it is then up to the parent to ask the pupil why or how their effort, and behaviour are B for example.
assuming that a parent ends up asking the child, and assuming the child is able and chooses to give a detailed answer, rather than just saying, Mr B doesnt like me, or gives everyone B, or whatever fob off or truth or non truth they choose to give us [speaks from experience]

I would rather the teacher writes it in black and white, so no need for interrogation and guessing and reading between the lines.

APlaceintheWinter - the teacher was lovely too, and he really liked her. He was just so worried about doing the right thing, that he spent the year in a state of seriousness.

The following year, one of his "targets" was to relax and smile. That really threw him.

The old phrase "distracted and distracting" would be fab - if it's true. That was on several of my reports from Primary and told my mum far more than a lot of flim flam put in these days. Just say it.

But that way Migsy1[speaking about secondary], it is then up to the parent to ask the pupil why or how their effort, and behaviour are B for example. True, but it is interesting to see him justify it. I know that his lack of effort, when there is a lack, is due to him chatting in class. It has always been the case!

If I get a report which does not say anything very meaningful, I ask to go in to see the teacher to discuss further. I then ask exactly what their performance is, whether they have achieved all they are a capable of and how that compares to the year group and national expectations. I ask for NC sub levels and point out any concerns I have about any limited progress since the last year.
I am not interested to be told they are doing well because the national expectation is X and they are above it. That is flannel. They have been above it since they started school, so I am interested to know by how much. I find it amazing that some teachers think all parents will be pleased to know their child is on for a level 4 simply because that is the national expectation. If 80% of children achieve that, it is not the average and many people their children to achieve significantly above the 80th quartile.
When I ask to go in, I outline what I would like to know, so that they have time to access the info, otherwise the meeting can be a waste of time.
I would like it if the report told me this stuff and then I wouldn't have to bother them with a meeting request, but the reports rarely spell this stuff out.

"Gaining in confidence"

I never knew what it meant when I got it on my reports; it certainly doesn't seem to apply to my self-contained, independent DD. Yet it crops up time and again. We may be quieter than the rest of the mouthy lot, but that doesn't make us shy little mice.

I once got a report that said I behaved as though I were partly asleep Same teacher maintained that she believed I had a complete block in her subject. You just can't get that level of bitchiness honesty these days [sighs for bygone days]

but she was doing well academically and had plenty of friends so it drove me mad when every single teacher commented on how quiet she was and how she had to address it and contribute more to class discussion. All it did was cause her even more angst

I agree-I can't see how it is a remotely helpful comment.

x has difficulty concentrating and needs reminders to stay on task/keep working/finish his work.

I would like to know how they are doing compared to the average class.

the teacher at the last parents evening waffled something about ds .. his dad was confused, fortunately, I am fairly fluent in teacherese and translated. he was in the bottom group and needed help.

what I hate is the teachers/head teacher making out she has a social problem because she is an introvert.

Copying and pasting is just lazy.

My ds's last report had obviously been exactly the same as the boy called Ben in his class. The teacher must have just substituted ds's name (call him Jack) for Ben throughout the report. Words like beneficial or benefit were changed to Jackeficial and Jackefit etc.

Delphinium. What I did with mine was we had discusions, and then she did raise her hand more. And also it made her concentrate more, as she needed to, to enable her to be able to raise her hand!
Every child is different, so there are going to be some, for whom the comments are very helpful.

My DC's reports are generally great (as in they are good quality reports, rather than "my DC get fantastic reports") and we get a letter from DS's form tutor at the end of the year as well which covers all the non-academic stuff. The first time we got one of those it made me cry as it showed that the teacher in question not only "got" DS, but also quite liked him . There was one instance where his music report was clearly describing a different child (the name was DS's but it wasn't him in any other way, and I could tell which child it was, too). I did query that one with the head of music, by means of a "DS's music report seems out of character - what has been going on in music and what can we do about it?" email - it was never directly admitted that it was the wrong report, but his next one was the polar opposite .

I agree with PP that "does ABC well, could do with working on DEF" is the most constructive approach, including if D, E or F are learning to STFU in class. I have queried a couple of "keen to contribute" comments before now, and directly asked the teachers if they mean "never bloody shuts up and is a PITA" but they have insisted that they meant it as a good thing - I get on well with them and was asking in a very definitely non-aggressive "please do tell me if my child is a PITA" way, so hopefully they were bing honest.

DD is introverted at school. I hate references to how quiet she is, I already know. Should contribute more to discussion and do more extra curricular activities.
Primary school children don't make friends by doing extra curricular activities, they go because their friends go.