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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

school report

111 replies

chopin33 · 02/07/2014 19:02

Today we had our children's school reports, we are rather concerned.
Before we opened dd's report we were approached by another mother who said that she had received her dd's report which had her dd's name on the front of the report and our dd's report on the inside. We then opened our dd's report to find our dd's name on the front of the report and this other child's report on the inside. Headteacher then snatched the report away and said "I will have so speak to (dd's teacher) about this I am not very happy). Furthermore we then received our son's report and we quote "he enjoyed our trip to Jodrell Bank and loved exploring the centre. He learned so much on this trip and really enjoyed looking at the stars"
In fact ds was at the hospital that day and missed the trip.
We think that this is totally unacceptable what do you think.

Aibu?

OP posts:

Wantsunshine · 02/07/2014 19:44

Not exactly a huge issue you swapped them over and no harm done. I would have to mention the trip your son didn't go on though. Although I would have found it quite funny also.
I received my Dd's report yesterday who is in reception and it is five A4 pages. I can't imagine how long that must have taken the teacher. She must have started them back in September!

Eebahgum · 02/07/2014 19:46

I'd agree the issue with dds report was an admin error. The most serious of the two because if data protection, unfortunate, not a lot can be done but apologise. The issue with ds is different - I know colleagues who've made this error. It tends to happen with a child who is lovely, works hard, behaves well - and once you've written that and still have half a box to fill you start racking your brain for something else to say. Ah ha (you think) there was that brilliant trip to Jodrell Bank - I'll write about that. Except you've forgotten that child was ill that day.
Bring back the days when teachers hand wrote a sentence in a box I say - straight to the point and the parents were generally happy with what was written.

lizzzyyliveson · 02/07/2014 19:46

Haggisfish, I hope you are writing a similar email for the parents of every child you teach already.

CatKisser · 02/07/2014 19:47

Hahaha, you're joking right? What kind of gold plated school has admin people who put teachers' reports into envelopes for them?! We somehow find time to do it ourselves on the last day of term.
Well bully for you. I've worked in four state schools and never shoved a report in an envelope in my life. Gold plated? For having office staff?

CrohnicallyExhausted · 02/07/2014 19:50

Wantsunshine that's probably not far off the truth. I haven't much experience under the new foundation stage curriculum. But certainly the old one was made up of statements that lent themselves to making up a report, and rather than the children completing worksheets etc, the teacher observes them, takes photographs and makes notes to use as evidence to prove what the children can do. So the end of year report would be an amalgamation of all this evidence the teacher has collected over the year.

spanieleyes · 02/07/2014 19:50

I wrote 55,403 words when writing reports this term, all in my own time, on top of all the usual teaching jobs that don't go away just because it is report time! Yes, of course a mistake shouldn't have been made but it was an accident, and accidents sometimes happen.

( and yes, I counted them!!)

StrangeNewLands · 02/07/2014 19:52

It is very, very clear in STPCD that teachers should not be doing those sorts of admin jobs. Everyone needs to stand up and say 'no' otherwise the workload will just continue to increase.

ReallyTired · 02/07/2014 19:53

"Bring back the days when teachers hand wrote a sentence in a box I say - straight to the point and the parents were generally happy with what was written."

100% agree. I feel that school reports is often an area where less is actually more. Secondary reports where there is just a grade and small boxes, one for a strength and one for area of improvement is a puncher form of communication. Looking at ds' report its clear that he is a lazy sod as very teacher has written "home learning" as a cause of concern.

School reports should be understandable by someone with a reading age of eight as many parents struggle with literacy.

Wantsunshine · 02/07/2014 19:57

Chronically - yes we got the EYFS scrap book thing too with all the photos etc. I think I am going to have to get her a case of wine!!

If my child's report had been handed to someone else and read by one of the parents I really couldn't care. For anyone to consider this being a safeguarding issue is a bit extreme.

BoneyBackJefferson · 02/07/2014 20:01

Eebahgum
"Bring back the days when teachers hand wrote a sentence in a box I say - straight to the point and the parents were generally happy with what was written."

Does that mean that I can write down exactly what I think of the child with no come back?

And if we are harping back to the ye olde days can we also bring back the cane?

ReallyTired · 02/07/2014 20:06

"If my child's report had been handed to someone else and read by one of the parents I really couldn't care. For anyone to consider this being a safeguarding issue is a bit extreme."

A lot depends on what your child is like. If your child is on the special needs register then prehaps you would feel differently.

Another's child's IEP got put in ds's book bag in an envelope with my son's name on. My son's IEP was fairly innocous. He had extra help because of deafness. However the other little boy had pychological issues. I felt as if I had intruded on that family's personal space even though I only read the first few lines of the IEP. No one got sacked over the mistake.

Eebahgum · 02/07/2014 20:13

boneyback I'm not sure what your point is - do you really think we should bring back the cane or are you suggesting if we revert to old style reports we may as well revert to corporal punishment too?
My point is that now we write several a4 pages per report no one is happy - teachers complain they find it hard to fit it in time wise, mistakes are made, and parents feel they're getting a minimal effort or copied and pasted report. If we wrote a simple sentence in each area these problems would be solved.

Original poster

chopin33 · 02/07/2014 20:14

My dh and I are both members of Ox-bridge and more qualified than the teachers at this school, as for the word sod I take it that you are Gomorrahh

OP posts:

spanieleyes · 02/07/2014 20:17

My dh and I are both members of Ox-bridge and more qualified than the teachers at this school, as for the word sod I take it that you are Gomorrahh

And what has that to do with the price of fish!!

NK5BM3 · 02/07/2014 20:19

Well my son's reception report came back with a 'her'. I ignored it because the rest of it described him to a T. But I've remembered it (one year on!).

BoneyBackJefferson · 02/07/2014 20:21

Eebahgum

Why do you want to revert to hand written reports. All of my reports are individual but they are word processed and sent to admin to print and collate.

Why is hand written better?
Harping back to a time in the days a yore helps nobody.

indigo18 · 02/07/2014 20:22

Riiiight ......

Eebahgum · 02/07/2014 20:46

Because my reports are individual too - but I can see that they look kind of similar when I've tried to word each individual child's achievements in exactly the same lessons in 30 different ways. Because I hate that parents think I'm randomly clicking on statements and giving no thought to their child if I accidentally put he when I mean she or say they enjoyed a trip they didn't go on. Because not every change in the world of education has been for the better and there are some things that were thrown out in days of yore that were bloody good.

manicinsomniac · 02/07/2014 20:59

Oh, sorry catkisser it didn't occur to me that you really did work in a school, I thought you were being sarcastic about other people doing teachers' work for them. I've never come across office staff that have time to do things like put reports in envelopes. But that's great for you if they do.

BoneyBackJefferson · 02/07/2014 21:01

Some things were bloody good. Hand writing something for the sake of hand writing is not one of them (IMO), But it would be nice to be able to give a 100% honest report without having to put it in "flowery" "nondescript" language.

QueenofLouisiana · 02/07/2014 21:05

I write each report individually, but mistakes are made. This year my spellcheck kept altering a name as it is a place but spelt differently. I would be miffed that a mistake like that was made, but would accept it.

OP FWIW, DH both teach in state schools and are both Oxbridge educated. It would not occur to me to mention that to DS's School. I assume your child's school welcome your advice based on your PhD in educational theory and practice.

2kidsintow · 02/07/2014 21:12

Oh dear.... this is my nightmare. Teachers aren't paid to stuff envelopes, but we are paid to do our reports and in our school that includes the lot.

Today I had to stick in every child's folder.
Their front cover
Their report
Their LNF assessment sheets (don't ask!)
Their sheet explaining their LNF sheets to the parents
Their CATs results (year 4 assessments)
The sheet that explains what that all means
Their attendance paper.

Not only will the parents only really care about reading a fraction of it, but they won't understand it some of it, or why we are sending it home.

Eebahgum · 02/07/2014 21:14

boneyback it's not necessarily the handwriting I'm in favour of - its the brief comments. Saying things in less flowery language would be preferable too. Sometimes I think the reports aren't an accurate reflection of the child because of how we word things. And I've asked parents on here in the past what they'd like to see in a report and the answer of the overwhelming majority was to just say what we mean instead of using flowery words.

Tangerinefairy · 02/07/2014 21:24

It's not great but it's hardly the end of the world. People make mistakes. Why is that so hard to understand? I am a teacher, I write the reports for my class and then some parts of the reports for other children that I teach across the school. It takes me hours and hours and I do it very carefully and thoughtfully, they are personal and heartfelt but it is utterly exhausting and yes in the 17 years I have been writing them I have made one embarrassing mistake!

I once printed off a child's report from the year before rather than the most recent I had written! The poor parent received the same report 2 years running! Awful! I was hugely apologetic, they were lovely about it, it was a mistake, I printed off the current report in minutes....all sorted. We are human.

NewtRipley · 02/07/2014 21:34

People who went to Oxford or Cambridge do not refer to themselves as being "members of Ox-bridge"

So I'm not quite able to take you seriously OP

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