School report not given yet

[YourSarcasmIsDripping]

We break off on Friday. No sign of a school report yet, possibly to be given tomorrow, giving just one day and a half for any comments,asking for clarification etc.

While I don't expect any surprises in DD's report AIBU to think that this is cutting it really close if parents need to discuss anything, especially ones that have children in wrap around care so they might not even be able to see it straight away or see the teacher at drop off/pick up?

In DS1's school they are given on the last day of term.

Ok it can be worse then..

In DS1's school they are given on the last day of term.

That’s seriously bad practise.

Ds breaks up on Thursday, he hasn't brought his home yet. He is just finishing Y10.

I've never known a school that didn't give them out on the last day of term.

Dd broke up last week. Her report arrived today.

At ds’s previous school they were given on the last day of term.

My dcs school tried a new way this year and they gave them out after Easter and then had a parents evening to discuss them.
Also so that if there are any issues they have time to work on them rather than just sending them straight off for the summer.
They got given a short progress report last week.
I though it worked out well this way.

That seems late to me and bordering on poor practice, although I would imagine there's already been parents' evening.

For secondary schools are you sure there will be a full written report? Some schools I've worked in don't do full written reports and send home progress information termly (which is better in my opinion as written reports are usually very time consuming and fairly useless).

Sorry I should've mentioned, DD is in primary. Last parents evening was early February if I remember correctly.

Question: what would you do about a bad report at this point in the year?

Ds’s reports were always bad but they were rarely a surprise.

belle
That's why it's poor form for school to do them this late.

By secondary, the last round of reports tend to go out late june/early July and that's due to staggering it for staff as some will teach upwards of 300 students. For primary I would expect them to be out by May/June half term at the latest, and no surprises should be in the report.

Just checked 11th of February last parents evening and "official" contact with the teacher about progress and how the kids are doing.

It just feels really late(possibly a bit bad practice too) maybe because all the other schools in the area sent them last week at the latest.

No idea what options parents and children with a bad/inconsistent/inaccurate school reports might have, but the time frame definitely won't allow for many options.

Not once in any of my children's entire time at school, 6th form included, did I ever feel the need to discuss a report with the school.

Last day of term.

They are not looking for your comments they are the ones making the comments.

If there were serious issues that needed discussing you would have already been called in or contacted.

Well there's always a slip at the bottom for parents comments, so the might want some kind of feedback(positive only I guess).

No idea what options parents and children with a bad/inconsistent/inaccurate school reports might have, but the time frame definitely won't allow for many options.
If a student was a concern during the spring term then I would imagine home are already in ongoing discussions with the teacher.
If a teacher had a substantial concern about a student then it would have been raised directly with the parent and wouldn t be sprung on them in a report out of the blue.
If a parent had any concerns over the year they would have already contacted the school.

@LolaSmiles

Agree that there should be no surprises. But reports at this point are really indicative of the year going forward I.e- something to consider for the fresh school year, rather than anything to do now.

I don’t know how primary reports are formatted but if teachers have to give feedback on multiple areas then they will take hours and hours to write and then hours and hours to check. As well as doing the end of year show and getting them ready for transition and filling in data for feeder schools are doing home visits etc.

We get a two weeks window to write them at secondary. I do think that they are entirely pointless. I actually think two parents evenings for each year group would be better and take less time.

YANBU. We were given them on the last day of term for the last 4 years. We have got them today for the first time ever.

When i've mentioned it to other parents ive been made to feel like i am being unsupportive of teachers/school. Thats a general theme that runs through whatsapp groups and facebook groups at our school. Basically the people at school work hard and the school has little funding so we should never hold them to account for anything. I think its unfair on teachers apart from anything else because if there are any concerns they haven't exactly gor much time to deal with them.

So yes i agree with you but doubt there is anything you can do.

@YourSarcasmIsDripping

That’s a formality. You just need to acknowledge that you’ve read it. We have a new computerised system at my school, all online. Our last round of reports was only read by 40% of parents. What a waste of resources!

A report at this stage is meant to summarise the year. If it is grossly inaccurate, fair enough, take it up with them in September.

Not once in any of my children's entire time at school, 6th form included, did I ever feel the need to discuss a report with the school

But you must accept some people do.

if teachers have to give feedback on multiple areas then they will take hours and hours to write and then hours and hours to check. As well as doing the end of year show and getting them ready for transition and filling in data for feeder schools are doing home visits etc.

Of course but bringing the date they are issued forward a week isn't going to increase the workload they just do it all a week earlier. We all have to manage our workload and time and meet deadlines at work. We all have a calendar and weeks/months thay are busier it's hardly unique to teachers.

This sounds like our school, I'm currently waiting for my DC reports. They were meant to be out last Thursday, the infant school (reception and Y1) has received theirs last Friday. They have never left it this late before.

I actually work in a school,so I know how overworked , poorly paid and badly treated/talked about teachers and support staff are.

My school sent theirs last week, as did other schools I know of (4).

It just felt wrong to me so I thought I'd ask for opinions, and I'm more than happy to accept IAMBU. Also, if I wasn't Unreasonable I wasn't going to complain ,just make suggestions either at parent's forum or as an informal chat with the head.

We all have to manage our workload and time and meet deadlines at work

There are other deadlines too. Reports are a big one and need to be accurate but they have to be slotted in after assessments so that the data is correct. You’re essentially asking that the students get a week less to prepare for the assessment which actually passes the stress on to them, not the teacher.

The cycle is generally this: teach, assess, data drop, report (full written, short report or Parents Eve). This cycle happens six times a year in most schools. Every time you get a data update on your child that is the amount of work that has gone into providing you with that data. It is the single largest element of a teacher’s work load.

So please do bugger off with your ‘we all have to meet deadlines’. I know. I have five or six every week.