To think that a school report isn't much use

[Floppysphonics]

Especially when it talks about where my child was in March.

I would be perfectly happy with no report this year, given the circumstances, but to tell me where my son was, against end of year targets, back in March, isn't much help to me now.

Your son is year 5. He has a long way to go academically between now and 18. Trust me, the main thing now is he did work over lockdown, and he is happy. Try not to focus on figures. In this academic climate, they arent accurate and honestly, they dont matter.

Ours was lovely. It didn't comment on specifics more about her personality, her commitment to working, her friendships and her growth.

Gin sparkles, I think that would be a safer approach - calming down now, but I think any numbers this year are largely pointless and, evidenced beautifully by me, more likely to harm than help.

We got DS(5) and in Reception report and it is so overwhelmingly positive and gushing that we are pretty skeptical. In February we were told at the Parent talk that DS still makes no effort for reading and writing yet according to the report now the teacher is ‘continually amazed and impressed by how how hard he tries with his reading and writing.’ He’s only been back at school for 5 weeks and was not expected to meet the EY standard for literacy, and was having extra help in small groups prior to lockdown (which he was still not engaging with).

I say it’s either rubbish and designed to make parent & child feel positive after 3 months off school, or DS has found a new appreciation for school and is now listening to what he’s told to do (unlikely at 5).

Whatever, as others say the schools have to provide them but how much of a true reflection they are is open to interpretation.

I would second what a pp has said. I'm a primary teacher and almost all of my reports are working towards ARE as we couldn't teach and asses all the content. We had where they were at in March + an end of your prediction on ours.

Well, they’d completed 2/3rds of the year. My dds only get them at the end of the year. It’s not something I’d take notice of this year. I think they’ve done well in the whole scheme of things tbh 🤷🏼‍♀️

Unfortunately Ofsted chop your head off if you dont release numbers. They are pretty obsessed with them. Nothing drives me more mad than meeting year 7 parents at parents evening who are freaking over their kid who is targeted for a 4 and is getting a 3. I try to tell them the main thing is they are focusing on their self motivation, they do some work at home, and try their best.

I just wish they would do handwritten reports, they seem much more personable.
I think just a couple of lines on each subject is all that is needed rather than a generic computer generated report with a lot of tick boxes.

The reports are a statutory requirement, which schools and teachers didn't get any choice over.

But I've always read on here that reports shouldn't contain any surprises.

CallmeAngelina that's what I hope for. I am letting it go little by little, and won't make a scene, but it did feel very surprising.

@Rudolphian

I just wish they would do handwritten reports, they seem much more personable. I think just a couple of lines on each subject is all that is needed rather than a generic computer generated report with a lot of tick boxes.

I am not handwriting 30 reports every year!

We normally write a small paragraph in Writing, Reading, Maths, Science and Topic and then a large general comments paragraph. I don’t make stuff up. I am honest about behaviour and attitude to learning but try to always focus it back on the child’s good qualities too. None of it is computer generated.

I'm ancient enough to remember doing two A4 sided handwritten reports 😳

I'm ancient enough to remember doing two A4 sided handwritten reports 😳

Which was great until you made a mistake in the last paragraph and then had to start the whole bloody thing again😭

I teach a subject that rotates. So from Easter I’ve had 2 new classes in year 7 and 2 in year 8, I’ve never met the year 7 classes in person, I’ve not taught the year 8 since December 2018. I’ve had 8 kids (out of 96) hand in work. I’ve had to write reports for all of them kids - genuinely!

My line manager commented on the fact that I had written the same thing for each and this wasn’t acceptable, he was worried as there are twins in both years and both would have received identical comments and their parents would question this. Luckily my head teacher is more reasonable and agreed I didn’t have to edit it, baring this in mind, I wouldn’t take this years reports too seriously.

Spanieleyes oh the agony 😣

I once calculated my class of reports had 17000 words in total. Nightmare!

I teach 300 students a week. Handwritten reports can go F themselves haha.

Kids these days, they don't know they're born spanieleyes (ducks and runs for cover...😳)

😁

OP what would you actually like the school to do? Genuinely intrigued.

Honestly? No levels just a shortish general descriptive paragraph about strengths etc. Or equally very very happy with no report at all.

We've vastly reduced ours this year to a 'General Comments' paragraph and an acknowledgment of their Home Learning engagement.
We had a parent consultation (with written feedback) a week or two before Lockdown started, so there's not been much more evidence to report on.

🙄