school report

[chopin33]

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?

My dh and I are both members of Ox-bridge and more qualified than the teachers at this school

Clearly have a degree in being smug and belittling people. What a dreadful attitude. What you are saying there is that you are better than these idiot teachers who can't even put the right name on an envelope.

CateBlanket

and I pointed out that the error that the op found was not the teachers job.

I only ever want to know about maths, english, science and personal/social. I hardly bother to read the rest. It's all cut and pasted, often with some other child's name in the middle of it too!
I used to have to write all mine BY HAND!

As to your OP, I suspect too that this is an admin error rather than a teacher error.

For your DS, yes that isn't so good but probably an unfortunate mistake rather than the teacher being silly. She/he may simply have mixed your son up with someone else.

I think the amount of writing for these reports is ridiculous. I am new to working in schools (TA) and cannot believe the number of hours my class teacher works. Most of it beyond her contracted paid hours too.

And OP, you come across as smug and condescending. Did you mean to sound so silly?

Erm... can I point out again that I - the one who has to do the filing etc - work in FE.

We don't get the protections teachers in schools get. So that 17 point list, I do each and every single one of them, daily!

So here, that would have been my error and I would have been made fully aware of my error and reminded of the possible safeguarding and confidentiality issues that could have resulted.

'Members of Ox-bridge' ?? Really? I have never heard that expression used before, and certainly never heard anyone refer to Oxbridge to describe someone who simply comes from Oxfordshire.

I am also a member of Ox-bridge (!), so feel qualified to comment on this matter.

This exact thing happened to me- another child's report with a very similar name to my dd ended up in our envelope- I took one look at it, saw the name was wrong, didn't read the report and returned it to the school who were mortified.

These things happen, I email feedback to 100 students or more a term using individual email and I dread this type of thing happening, I have only once made a mistake in a few years but these things do happen.

Just let them know about the mistake.

As for the generic sentence- does the rest of the report sound like him? I know the teachers write generic stuff for trips and so but I would expect the writing/reading/maths and science to reference his ability quite specifically. If this is not the case, I may pop in for a quick meeting asking them to expand on the report.

My children's reports have always been very detailed and personal, it always amazes me how well the teachers got to know the children given the class sizes. I always wrote in the comments box how much I appreciated the effort that went into writing it. Sadly they were reformatted this year and the parental comments box has been removed so I couldn't do so.

Anyway, I would be really quite upset if someone else received their report as I see it as very personal and wouldn't ever show it to anyone else but immediate family. Ours are so personalised though which may affect my thinking and my dd has SEN and I don't discuss that with anyone but staff/immediate family as it is no one else's business. Her exam marks were printed on the report and no one else needs to know them.

2kids Thank you to you and all other teachers.

I love reading the reports my children bring home and find them very useful.

but they won't understand it some of it, or why we are sending it home.
I have to agree with this. I sometimes feel that the school assumes too much knowledge. I feel a bit uncomfortable approaching the school with questions about what some things mean because 1) I feel maybe I've missed something and I'm the only one not to understand and 2) I know how crazy busy teachers are (especially at the end of term) and don't want to add to the list of bothersome parents.

It would be so much better if the schools made available guidelines for parents to help them decipher what different grades and codes mean.

Secondary school teacher here but I've never put my own reports in envelopes or heard of a school where that's a teachers job so this doesn't sound like the teachers error.

2KidsinTow:

"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."

That's a bit of an assumption, isn't it?

It is NOT unreasonable to expect to receive YOUR child's report in the envelope marked with their name. Of course this is a confidentiality (and potentially safeguarding) issue.

The report should not simply be a cut and paste job as my children's have been (literally word for word, excepting the name, for two A4 typed pages...)

If I got a comment about how much my child had enjoyed a trip she hadn't even been on I would assume the teacher was A. so poor with admin/safety they hadn't even noticed or B. too lazy to remember/check re the report or C. both.

I think the idea to just get rid of school reports is a good one....

Never had one yet, from nursery upwards (2 DDs age 11 and 13) which said anything I (and they) didn't know already. Communication between home and school is what matters - not having it all written down - all that effort combined by teachers over the years - here reports get read and put in the filing cabinet.

OP, if you are so highly qualified why don't you teach your children at home and then you can be in charge of all admin and report writing. I honestly didn't think people with attitudes like yours existed. It is a mistake, a very unfortunate one that should have been avoided but your lack of respect for the people educating your children is disgusting.

Maybe it's a primary/secondary thing somedizzy I'd be amazed if there's a primary school out there where the office staff do the reports for the teachers. So, if the OP's child is primary, it probably is teacher error.

Happened to my school report in 6th form. Got mixed up with someone with the same surname. Dm said she realised as she looked at the first subject and saw "my" French report. On the basis I didn't do French it didn't require too much detective work to deduct it wasn't mine.
They were posted home after the end of term, so she phoned the other parent and they met up and swapped over, they both thought it very funny.

In our dc's infant reports they state that the back sheet covers a simple statement on what the class has worked on that year in some of the "non-tested" subjects. (can't remember exactly how they say that, but that isn't what they actually say. Things like History, geography, RE, PE etc.) They'll say something like "History: They enjoyed the trip to the museum to study children's toys". That's probably what the trip thing's about.

The only time I've been irritated by a report was when dd2's year 3 teacher very clearly copies and pasted the personal statement almost exactly from the year 2 report. The year 2 teacher had a very distinctive style, and didn't use stock phrases, so I know they were hers and not they'd both used the same software and come out with the same. The rest of the report was a very different style.
I was particularly cross as the year 2 teacher had written something she felt dd2 needed to improve on, and dd2 had felt she'd been working hard that year to do that. It left me not knowing whether the year 3 teacher felt that she still needed to work on those areas or whether she'd just copied them regardless. I know that the year 3 teacher had some personal stuff which meant she probably was not totally concentrating on them, but even so, I was unimpressed.

My dh and I are both members of Ox-bridge and more qualified than the teachers at this school

No teacher in the country has a degree from Oxbridge? Don't we all (or by far the majority) have PGCEs? I work at a very average school in a not so great area - all the staff in my department are qualified to Masters level in their chosen subject area. Two teachers within the school have doctorates. Teachers who don't have a Masters in either Education or their subject area are often working towards such qualifications. I also have a PG Certificate in Management to throw into the mix. Are you better qualified than that?

Unfortunately these days reports are barely worth the paper they're written on. Generic, mass-produced, computer-generated platitudes. Mistakes happen, pronouns are wrong occasionally if you tick the wrong box for male/female by mistake. It has been known.

I am a teacher and while you can use banks of phrases for groups of children who are of a similar ability, the body of the report should be individually written and personal to your child.

Anyone who uses the term "Oxbridge" has already lost the argument.

"trying to recall how little Jimmy's performed in French, I'm not ashamed to use and tweak a stock comment!" catkisser

I think that's terrible catkisser, if you can't even remember how a child performs. How can the child improve if the parents aren't getting the correct feedback if you don't know how each individual child performs?!? I'm glad your not my child's teacher. Using stock positive phrases correctly and stock "needs improvement" phrases, I understand. But not knowing how "little Jimmy did in French" is terrible.

"I am a teacher and while you can use banks of phrases for groups of children who are of a similar ability, the body of the report should be individually written and personal to your child." CeliaFate

This is how it should be CeliaFate. This children (and the parents) are lucky to have a teacher like you. If only all teachers were like you.

I think that's terrible catkisser, if you can't even remember how a child performs. How can the child improve if the parents aren't getting the correct feedback if you don't know how each individual child performs?!? Using stock positive phrases correctly and stock "needs improvement" phrases, I understand. But not knowing how "little Jimmy did in French" is terrible.

Oh get over yourself! I know which of my children participate confidently in, say, French, or reluctantly and comment as such; I know which children retain new vocab and which need more prompting - and I report as such. But no, I freely admit, while writing 30 2 page reports I don't specify how "Jimmy's use of the past tense needs a bit of polishing but his subject/verb agreement is great."

I'm glad your not my child's teacher.
Why? Because I'd teach them how to use "you're" correctly?

This is how it should be CeliaFate. This children (and the parents) are lucky to have a teacher like you. If only all teachers were like you.

Pfft, just seen this. What an idiotic comment. You know nothing about her as a teacher so how can you possibly make this comment?

I think you are over-reacting. It was an admin mistake and quickly rectified. No-one was hurt. If it had been me I would have quickly swapped reports with the other parent and laughed about it. Mistakes happen.....