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.

If there are a requirement we havent had one yet ds yr 10
And we nornally get termly target predictions , not had one since christmAs time , parents evening was due couple weeks after lockdown
Dont even see his school work marked but the do mark of app if not done

Ours acknowledged that my children missed 35% of their academic year and I'll take their glowing reports as a nod to my epic home schooling

Am not sure what they were reporting on ti be fair? We've done a but of home schooling but nowhere near enough for the kids to be where they should (just finishing Y2 and R)

Excuse typos... looks like mother needs some home schooling

Our secondary school has not bothered with them. Waste of teachers time.

Ust read so done said they are requirement? Maybe will get one in post... we havent even had the weekly call home for the last 4 weeks though think his schools given up.

Just read someone just said..... that was meant to be 🙈🙈

I’ll go against the grain and say that I was glad to get a report, for one it being another nugget of normality that recognises the half year the children did have in school and their achievements/areas for improvement in it. I took the scoring to reflect where she was in relation to where she should have been by the end of March.

Ours was sweet, a short summary from the teacher and they then asked parents to write a paragraph to go in it too.

Obviously it was pointless but schools were told by DFE to issue them. Given that no one knew in March how long we would be locked down and schools were trying to sort out some online learning, I really don't see how they could have been written then and issued. Suggesting that parents could then have used them to target their child's weaknesses is not very reflective of reality for most people. I don't think this would be very likely. Why you would consider complaining about this is beyond me and yes, you will be seen as 'that parent'.

We sent out mid-year reports just before lockdown and are sending out end of year reports this week.

Many children haven't been in school since then. Those who have been in school have only been taught a reduced curriculum.

Many of us were getting stressed about entering grades. We felt that children wouldn't be ARE because they hadn't been taught the whole curriculum so wouldn't meet the criteria. We didn't want parents to think their children had gone backwards, especially those parents who have been trying really hard to home school their children.

Eventually our SLT agreed to add a section saying that grades wouldn't be awarded due to school closure and parents should use the midyear report to see children's progress. We could concentrate on making (hopefully) more meaningful comments about children's strengths and weaknesses.

I teach at one primary school and have a child at another. The school I work at provided the standard full report with grades from March which seems pointless to me also! We did add a nice letter with it to try to soften it. As the OP says, March information might have been helpful at the start of lockdown, now it just seems designed to make parents worry as inevitably many kids are below the expected level. My DS's school did a report with general comments and no grades and I felt as a parent that is a much better approach. It was a genuine description of his personality, strengths and areas to work on as well as some good suggestions for things to do over the summer to support health and wellbeing. I wish reports were always more like that to be honest.

We got them here, secondary school.

Made my ds cry his eyes out so well done school.
He has not stopped working through this. Literally at the start he was getting up at 7am as usual and working until 7pm at one point.
I have seen that he has submitted work, and that he has completed it. He has nothing outstanding. I spoke to his Headteacher about a week odd ago and his form tutor who said he is one of few who isn't behind and they've not concerns over
They grade their attitude towards school usually 1(excellent) to 4 (very poor). This time it was their attitude towards home learning.
He got 3s and 4s across the board, hence the crying his eyes out (he has Aspergers too). He doesn't get why. I don't get why. He now said if they're going to grade him so poorly he won't bother like everyone else doesnt. One of his mates online afterwards was laughing that he thought he would get a bad report and got 2s but has done no work at all.
I can't really be bothered moaning, they won't change it. I just didn't see the point of doing a report at this time as they've not been in school.

We didn't do any 'results' or grades even though we had done a practice SATs in March. This was a school decision based on government and union advice. All the children would have to have been given working towards expected as we don't have evidence for the whole curriculum and that would have been based on work up to March.

We did paragraphs saying what we covered and what they showed strengths in and areas they may need to work on eg spelling. There should be no shocks though as we sent home interim reports in March which gave targets or areas to work on. We also referred to home learning in our personal comments section.

LadyofTheManners Actually I would moan. It sounds like he’s put in loads of effort and the report was just demoralising. If it was about attitude, the marks should reflect that. It’s the type of thing that might stay with him for a loft time.

i agree. Even if the school won't change it, your son needs to see that you believe in him and are willing to question his school over something that doesn't reflect reality.

Maybe, but only after you've spoken to someone at his school and exhausted reasonable prospects of a rewritten report, you can add your own report with a realistic record of how he has worked at home "under your watch".

@Sailingblue

LadyofTheManners Actually I would moan. It sounds like he’s put in loads of effort and the report was just demoralising. If it was about attitude, the marks should reflect that. It’s the type of thing that might stay with him for a loft time.

Problem is I seem to spend most of lockdown having to nag them and I'm very aware that nagging does nothing but get you the withering look of teachers who see you as a nuisance. My DDs form tutor for instance is a total twat, he forgot (despite asking 4 times) for her to be added to their form tutor online chat group, I had to complain to the head of year and then the headteacher before he finally managed to bother. He hasnt once contacted her despite him contacting the parents of the rest of the form bar another girl as I asked if she was being deliberately ignored. DS form tutor has rung 3 times and chatted for an hour to us both! DD had said before lockdown he didn't like her and treated her like shit but I thought she was being dramatic. Seems not!

Yanbu

They should have sent out the same report to each child covering what had been taught to the class up until March.

But they should not have recorded any grades or levels.

If the child has been submitting work a short encouraging comment recognising this effort would have sufficed. If they haven’t then a comment saying they hope to see progress and look forward to more engagement next term would be appropriate. Just an acknowledgment of home learning participation would be good. But grades, levels and judgements are likely to be perceived as demoralising.

I’m a school governor. They are a legal requirement (even this year).

We write a couple of paragraphs about general attitude to class, highlighting particular strengths and achievements over the year. These could be based on the online or school based learning. I held parent consultations in mid-February and discussed targets for the end of the year.

We asked for portraits and reviews from the children. These requests were made through newsletters, texts and targeted messages home, set through our learning platforms etc. I got about 50% back (and I teach in yr6 so have 1/3 of my children in school). Parents then received reports which stated that these hadn’t been returned- and complained that I’d flagged up lack of engagement since March and recommended that they accessed any catch up program offered.

For reference I have set daily work on maths and English, including video sections to support methods used and links to free texts. Plus a range of other subjects- from science to French each week. All marked within a target time of 3 working days. Just mentioning that before anyone assumes that I sent home a link to Twinkl in March and spent the next 10 weeks baking banana bread.

We didn't get a school report either. Quite glad as I can't see how it would be that accurate with only being in school half the year and having another 30 children aswel.

Aren't school reports pretty pointless at the best of times 🤷🏼‍♀️

*Squidge
*
It's interesting that you don't give target grades early. DS has been given his target grades from the beginning of Y7 from his Y6 sats results which has caused issues for him. They're a pain

We feel very fortunate that dds secondary school doesn't use flight paths/target grades etc. Not once in her three years so far has anyone mentioned a target grade. They do light touch setting in a couple of subjects and seemingly, from results and value added, it doesn't seem to have a negative effect.

As well as being on school reports it's written on the front of their books and mentioned in class. There's no getting away from them

That's really difficult for the students ☹️