School report - to think this is a bit crap

[SlipperyLizard]

DD (year 7) got her end of term report, showing effort scores and (for the first time) a progress score. All subjects meeting or slightly above “expected” progress, but one subject was “below”. She had a test in this subject a couple of weeks ago and got 44/50.

I emailed teacher so I could get feedback on what DD needed to work on to be meeting expectations. Got told there was nothing to worry about as the report had been written before the recent test, and so progress was based on a test done in September (I.e. just after starting secondary when they did baseline knowledge tests).

AIBU to think the teacher could have based the progress mark on class & homework done since September, even if they couldn’t (for whatever reason) update the report to take the recent test into account?

Feels like teacher has just phoned it in.

I would definetly expect an end of term report sent now to at least reflect on their ability as at the end of the winter term, not the start. Preferably it would be more up to date even than that.

Indeed, it is a big school so I accept reports need to have a cut off point, but rating a kid “below” based on a Sept test when who you’ve taught them for 2 terms and can see their work, seems a little disinterested by the teacher.

I doubt the score is based just on that test, surely it takes account of her work since then? As she is clearly making progress in the subject it doesnt really matter.

The teachers don’t know the pupils individually. They will sit there with a spread sheet. A bit rubbish really.

Honestly the crap on here.

Teachers DO KNOW their pupils and don’t just sit on a spread sheet.

They will have been told to base the assessment on the last test. Attitude and efforts may have been based on class work but attainment is now based in exam scores.

As Gove has switched education to assessment by exam only, then school reports are now based on most recent test or exam as this is what would happen at GCSE.

Blame the Tory government not the poor teacher. It’s their obsession with exams which is causing this.

I was a manager in a very large secondary school responsible for managing the roll out of digital school reports rather than the old style handwritten ones. For every 3 or 4 teachers who know their students well and take the trouble to give accurate assessments of their work and progress there will be 1 who just dialled it in.

The school graded every student A-E on Effort, Achievement and Behaviour in every subject. A meant absolute perfection. E meant they're was a massive problem and the school should have already have been in touch with the parents. One teacher (who had been there since my husband attended the same school 35 years before) would flood fill the spread sheets for every single student he taught with Cs in every category. He would then go through and downgrade a few bad apples that he particularly disliked to DS (Not Es because that would have required him contacting the parents). He was an extreme example but he wasn't alone in treating completing reports very casually.

I cherish the memory of the English teacher who commented on one student that "He is very carless with his spelling and should profread his work before submittin it'.

YABU the teacher will have had to write and submit the report many weeks ago. We aren’t allowed to write them the weekend before, they go through an audit with head of year etc and to the head weeks ahead of being sent out, the teacher would have had no way to predict the recent improvement. Be pleased there has been a recent improvement and if it continues this will be reflected in the subsequent reports.

When you contacted the school, was it because
A- you were actually genuinely concerned that your dd might be struggling helplessly in that subject and needed extra help
B- you wanted to highlight the difference between her grade in that subject and the others, with the ultimate goal of some kind of consequence for that teacher?

Yabu

@BuffyFanForever

YABU the teacher will have had to write and submit the report many weeks ago. We aren’t allowed to write them the weekend before, they go through an audit with head of year etc and to the head weeks ahead of being sent out, the teacher would have had no way to predict the recent improvement. Be pleased there has been a recent improvement and if it continues this will be reflected in the subsequent reports.

Yes, this. Subject teacher deadline is around 4 weeks before publication at my school. We get in trouble if they are even hours late. So we can't update them based on a more recent test result

YABU.

(This is why I refuse to teach year 7 any more. Year 7 parents can be particularly helicoptery. If your child is happy and generally getting on fine, just leave them to it!)

You don’t just score on the one recent test.

Also, we have to hand in our reports a few weeks before they get sent out as they all get checked so maybe they wrote it before the test.

Yep, the report will have been written at least a couple of weeks ago. They therefore go for checking and auditing. Ours would initially go to the head of year/dept to be checked, and then a random sample to the SMT. It takes ages.

Long gone are the days when they got written and then sent straight out. But even then there'd probably be at least a week between writing and sending out. All the reports aren't written on the same day, for starters! It'd be at least a week between the first one I wrote and the last!

"They THEN..." even

What subject?

There's a difference between Drama where the one teacher sees every year 7 student for an hour a fortnight, (impossible to know every single one) and say Maths where teachers will usually have maximum two classes in a year group.

@Mummy1608 it is not "helicoptery" to query something about your child's progress at school and to want to engage with the school on it. I hope to Christ you're not a teacher at my children's school. In fact I suggest you resign from the profession altogether as you clearly have nothing but contempt for the parents of the students you teach

It'll be the system, not the teacher.

Maybe teacher means latest test shows meeting expectations so back on track. Perhaps before the test it was unclear. Also I would rather the marked below as a precaution for us to work on than on track when borderline below.

You don’t just score on the one recent test

We did at the school l taught at. And my daughters reports in Year 11 are the same. Just based on exam scores.

[quote Queuing4Fergs]@Mummy1608 it is not "helicoptery" to query something about your child's progress at school and to want to engage with the school on it. I hope to Christ you're not a teacher at my children's school. In fact I suggest you resign from the profession altogether as you clearly have nothing but contempt for the parents of the students you teach [/quote]
Lol, bit extreme telling her to resign 😂

And yes year 7 parents can be helicopters. It's a big transition from primary where you usually only have one teacher and total focus on your child and a lot of parents struggle with less communication

The report will have been written before the test was done probably. The September test will have been the baseline they have used to judge progress from up to the point the report was written

@Mummy1608

When you contacted the school, was it because A- you were actually genuinely concerned that your dd might be struggling helplessly in that subject and needed extra help B- you wanted to highlight the difference between her grade in that subject and the others, with the ultimate goal of some kind of consequence for that teacher?

Yabu

I was genuinely concerned that DD was not “getting” part of the subject to be graded “below”. I emailed the teacher directly to ask for feedback to help DD.

I don’t want any “consequences” for the teacher.

Subject was history, DD did pretty badly in a lot of the early year 7 tests in humanities (her geography knowledge was especially woeful), the September history test the teacher told me the progress mark was based on was to test what they knew from primary.

The 44/50 mark is not a “recent improvement” as far as I understand, it is a reflection that if DD is taught something & revises it, she can do well in tests.

I’m not a helicopter parent, but how can I go through DDs report with her if I can’t explain one of her progress marks - I bet she’d have been really deflated to get 44/50 and be told she was below expectations.

My OP says I know the report was written some time ago, what makes no sense is to base the progress score (which they didn’t give in the pre-Xmas report) based on a test in September.

@Sirzy

The report will have been written before the test was done probably. The September test will have been the baseline they have used to judge progress from up to the point the report was written

Teacher explicitly told me the progress mark was based on the September test - that’s what I don’t understand, yes the report was written before the recent test but it doesn’t seem to take account of any progress.

I honestly don't take that much notice, they don't tell us that much, I certainly wouldn't ever demand it was re-looked at. One parent in my dd's year was annoyed as one teacher had given them a 2 and wanted to know why when every other score was a 1.

Ours is actually "working towards" , I did actually pay a bit attention to one last night as ds decided he wanted to do a particular subject at GCSE which isn't a great position on his report.

My motto is "As long as you do your best, I can't ask for anything else."