Annual school reports. Do you trust them?

[btfly2]

Are they reliable and accurate? Do they reflect your child journey in the school? What's your experience?

You sound like a journalist. People are wary of questions like this...worded like this.

Most posters would give some context to their post.

Ok accepted, thank you but not, I'm not a journalist at all. I'm only a mum with insomnia trying to understand more about these reports. I have dc in primary school and didn't get any luck trying to find a mum to share with. I'm too scared to ask directly to them about but would love to know what they think, etc. Apologies for my wording as English is not my native language. I've been posted many times many threads so basically that. I'm a genuine mum not the press/ media.

Ok...apologies!

The problem with school reports is that whilst some will be a fair representation of the child, others will not be because the teacher is und a lot of pressure.

Are you worried about your child's report? Was it negative or worrying?

My children's reports have always said exactly what I expected them to say. I know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and the teachers' comments always mention the things I'd expect them to.

Personally no.

I find it very much depends on what type of school your dc attends.

I have 2 ds in 2 different independent schools and their reports aren't worth the paper they are written on.

I found with my older dc who attended state schools, their reports were more accurate and reflective of how they were doing in school.

I'm a secondary school teacher (not a parent) so I can give you my side although I don't know if it's helpful.

For what it's worth I'm not in the U.K. and I teach at an independent school. I always write entirely individual comments (some schools here use prewritten comments and just string them together for each child). I try to make them meaningful and honest. The problem is that I only have so many characters and it's hard sometimes to convey what I want to say in only 4 or so sentences, especially if the student is struggling in more than one area. I never want my comment to sound entirely negative because every student has areas of strength but I can't always say everything I want to say in the tiny report box so I have to choose what I feel is most important. So while everything I write is true it's not everything I have to say about that student.

Well the reports are accurate to a certain degree; math score on a particular exam, spelling test results over the year. Some personality traits socially immature or impatient always taken with a grain of salt. Attendance record linked to work ethic no relation at all. Grade1-5-11 report accurate as to college university success not really. Even uni grades are not an indication of employment success or happiness.
My 3 are 30+.
I suggest you ask your mom for your reports and reflect if it's an accurate picture of who you are.

Well I'm so glad I spend on average three hours per pupil writing their report then!

My DD's reports have always been pretty accurate (DD1's predicted GCSE English grades aside).
If you post again in the Primary Education board with some more details of what you are concerned / thinking about then you may get more detailed responses.

I trust ds report; but that's helped by the fact that I have to meet with ds teacher regularly throughout the year and what is in the report matches what she says then so no shocks!

Yes I generally find them useful and they help me ask sensible questions at parents evening. They are a snapshot, but if you keep them on file, it's possible to pick up areas where things are slipping and nip then in the bud. We get three or four per year at secondary and I really appreciate the time and effort that is put into keeping parents informed.

Yes i trust them. They're just a summary of how the school year has gone, not an in depth portrait of the soul.

Having said which, it is not entirely unknown for a tired tescher to cut and paste into the wrong report, so if something seems really off I'd question it.

I have had one doozy of a mistake on a report when the teacher had completely the wrong child and I complained

Apart from that (and comments about absence which infuriate me) i have found them useful and do trust them

I have tippexed out the absence comments and kept the amended reports

I try to be as accurate as i can.
I have 250 to do.
Then they are checked by the HoD and the Dean of Studies before being issued.
Each report takes about 15 minutes.

I trust the reports to an extent but they aren't always that useful, some teachers write lovely detailed reports and clearly spend ages on it, others copy and paste quickly and not always to the right child's report, so for example last year DB5 got 'DB is an enthusiastic participant in all sports and has participated well this term' which would be fine apart from DB hadn't been to a single PE lesson that term, he had broken his spine a week before the end of the summer holidays so was spending PE in the library annoying me on whatsapp doing coursework.

My DS has just had his school report and it was extremely negative completely opposite to the report he got last year. She even meantioned him doing dance and gymnastics which he has no interest in doing I wondered if she even knew my child at all. If your not happy arrange a meeting with the teacher we are as he seems to have gone back over on himself when he was really progressing last year so we want to discuss what steps are getting put into place for next year to help him.

I also agree they can copy and paste in reports

My son attends a special school so I value his school reports...every single one .
They give me valuable information about his year as a whole plus more detailed occupational therapy and speech therapy stuff.

To be honest that all parents should expect.. .a general overview of the year. Any major issues would be dealt with in year so they will be no surprises.

I feel sorry for teachers this time of year. Report writing in addition to everything else.

and and for any teachers reading this. You are appreciated

I have taught in state schools and independent schools and my reports are always honest and well thought out!

Report time is very stressful for teachers who often spend hours and hours over the weekends preceding the reports deadline working on them. They are incredibly time consuming. It would be madness to spend that much time and not make them accurate!

Maybe it's a good idea not to start a thread where you speculate on this?
Of course, some teachers are going to cut corners and the report is inaccurate or completely wrong. That's not excusable.
But most teachers are under tremendous pressure to write a great deal of reports, in detail, referring to targets etc. and these are double or tripled checked by HODs, SLT etc.

My son has SEN. I find his end of year reports are generally really positive. When the school writes reports for his SEN assessments they are generally quite negative. Neither seem to give a genuine reflection!

I was told that reports from SN professionals are often written in a mainly "negative" way because they know that if things are too positive the powers that be will use that as a reason to reduce support.

Sirzy. Yes, I'm sure that's the case. From DS's end of year reports you would not be able to tell he had SEN (has an EHCP and 1-1 TA) so I believe he's somewhere 'in between' the reports!

I don't believe them since having two DC in the same class and receiving the exact same report for both but with names changed. The whole thing was a C&P job, apart from a brief sentence written by the HT.
Having mentioned this to another parent whose child was in the same class, we discovered that hers was exactly the same too.
Writing reports on top of everything else must be hellish for teachers, but if they're going to C&P, they might be wise to write a few different versions for variety!