School report is so vague it feels pointless

[Whatdoyouthinkof]

My son has brought home his spring term report and for every subject he is working towards..school has sent a separate guide that every child at this stage of the year will be working towards as not completed school year and a few exceptional children will be working at. Am I being unreasonable to wonder if nearly child is working towards what’s the point of sending home the report?
If my child is struggling I would genuinely like to help him but I feel there is such a vague approach to reports these days I can’t work out if he’s doing well or not. Is it normal to receive a school report and feel none the wiser?

I agree. My DC Afrikaans first year in High school consists of a subject then a 3,4,5 after it. 3 being very good and 5 below. No comments about my DC. No parents evening either as it was cancelled as it was the strike days. So my DC is on a number and I have no idea how they are actually doing. A 4 could mean they are doing well or it could mean they should be on a 3 but don’t try hard enough. Awful reports.

Sorry shd say my DC.

We get an effort grade, independent learning grade, and attainment grade. Then we get a table that shows the distribution of effort grades and independent learning grades by subject, so that we can see if their grade was typical of the year.

It seems fairly meaningless. For example, I know from talking to DD3's PE teacher because she has had a problem in his class, that DD3 is one of the 'more able' pupils and that she is in top set girls. Yet she is graded as 'meeting' requirements. This makes absolutely no logical sense, because she is clearly doing well as she is near the top of the top set. In another subject, Music, she is classed as 'mastering' despite playing no instruments at any level (although she is naturally fairly musical).

Teachers don't chose report formatting, type of content and frequency of reports.
They are simply given the instructions and asked to complete them.

Have never worked in a primary school that gives a word bank.

I agree it is hard to interpret reports. While it's obvious if your child struggles to read, other subjects are harder to assess at home. DCs report is more detailed than the OPs DCs. There are three options- exceeds expectations, meets expectations and a third category, can't remember exact wording but indicates struggling. There are also comments, with underlying context i.e. 'full of energy' [can't sit still]. I think if there is nowhere to indicate your child is struggling then a report is a bit pointless, as it's the main thing you need to know.

This isn’t true with ours. We can’t see DS’s work. He’s in Yr 8 and recently gone down a set overall to 4 out of 7 (which they say is based on Maths and English attainment).

We have the opportunity to go to Parents’ Evening but you only actually get called if there’s a problem or concern, though we try and go anyway. In October, we got called for Maths. Got there and the teacher wasn’t as they were a supply teacher and apparently ‘didn’t do parents’ evenings’. Similarly, we got called to go to English this time and when we turned up, they didn’t know why we were asked to come and as they’d only been teaching him for 2 weeks, also couldn’t tell us anything.

You’d think it was a shit school but they got a recent outstanding from Ofsted. And conversely, last year and the year before, when DD was there and in top sets, they were the complete opposite.

We’ve tried speaking to them, including to the head of year who promised to do something and we’ve never heard from since, as well as the deputy head more recently who seems like he’s done bugger all too.

Our son is quiet and always has been and this seems to mean he gets overlooked. All we want to know is how he’s doing, why he’s gone down a set (if it’s possible to tell), and what we, as parents can do to help him at home. I didn’t think that was too much to ask.

Being top of a cohort doesn't mean being above age related expectations though. Sometimes you get a very middling cohort. The expected range is also huge. The music curriculum doesn't require you to play an instrument beyond those you play in class, because that would be cometely unfair. She's being graded against the curriculum.

The difference is nothing to do with primary/secondary, and 100% due to paying vs not paying.

if you pay, you get more. Pretty basic really.

But working towards expectations does mean below, it's working towards/meeting/exceeding.

OP YANBU. I would want to know what targeted support if any the school are giving to help him meet expectations, and what you could do at home to help him. I'd ask for a meeting with his teacher to discuss it.

What year is he in? The mid year reports we got were always very short and then the summer one would have more detail (although still clearly a copy and paste job from a word bank)

Last report I got said DS had excellent attendance. A week after they sent me a letter threatening me with a fine because he'd had too much time off sick.

I barely bother reading them.

Oh and don't get me started on homework. DS yr8 rarely gets any and it's never, ever marked.

In Scotland with the 'curriculum for excellence' (snort) primary school reports descended into garbled, copy and paste, civil servant language - responsible citizen, effective contributor, it meant nothing. Parent's evening was your only hope of finding out whether your child was managing the work or not.

By secondary you at least had exam marks to give you a scooby how your child was faring.

Ours is the same. They get given an optional project every half term and that’s pretty much it.

Yes but the year hasnt finished or, if year 1 the phase hasnt finished, so you wouldnt expect a child to have met the end of year expectations until the end of the year as they wont have covered the content to meet the end of year expectations. They dont need interventions if the end of year expectation is to use capital letters and full stops but they have only been taught full stops and capital letters is next terms teaching.
Theyd only need interventions if they had done the learning on full stops and still hadnt got it.

That's not how it works - my child got exceeding expectations on every report regardless of the time of year. They look at how they're doing at that point in time. A child working below expectations absolutely needs support.

Ok. Thats how your school did their reports and school will differ in how they report. There isnt a set format.

The two schools I work at do their reports as i described and as its a bit confusing they send out an explanation booklet as OP described.

We have had the parents evening and it was very much no cause for concern/average child/could concentrate more.

With the report as he is just below, as expected for mid year, I’m wondering is he just below because of not understanding aspects of the curriculum or just below because of being mid-year. It could easily be either.

No criticism of the teachers; it’s clear to see they only have these options on the report. A lot of paperwork for such pointless feedback.

There was a letter that only in exceptional circumstances would a child not be below as they are marked by year end of expectations not mid year.

I write honest reports in plain English. I get complaints. Lots of colleagues use vague, positive euphemisms from word banks. They get complaints. If we suggest ways to help children at home, some parents accuse us of dumping responsibility onto parents because we're lazy, can't be asked, not doing our jobs. If we don't suggest nightly reading and times table practice, some parents will complain that we're not offering constructive suggestions to help.

There's no winning. I think we should send home a grid with the attainment & effort (easy to read and understand) and 5 or 6 overall bullet points of praise and areas for improvement. The rest is wasted effort, better spent in a face to face meeting. To which some parents won't show up, then complain about.

We always had to have children "working towards " at certain points of the year and miraculously they made progress over the year. Ofsted targets are met. Everyone is happy.

It's a farce. Once ofsted gets scrapped reports will become meaningful again

Same. We get the end of year report which has written words on it but otherwise it’s a table that says below/expected etc and the opportunity to mention behaviour.

I rather like it. My kids have progressed from the report I received before Christmas and are on track to get a few Greater Depths and their behaviour is Exceptional in areas. What’s not to like?! 🤣

So hang on, regardless of ability or attainment, all pupils are deemed to be working towards expectations until the end of the year? There must be another system to communicate to parents how their child is doing, surely they're not left in the dark all year waiting to find out how they've done?

I think any parent who sees working towards/below/emerging should query it with the school, not assume that it's ok because they haven't covered the whole curriculum yet.

We just get parents evenings this point of the year - but the current class teacher clearly hates doing them, spends the entire time arse covering in case the SATs don't go as expected - despite knowing me well enough to know I care more about teacher assessment and don't give a shit about the SATs scores. To be sat there with a child who is easily top or near as damnit (she was doing the Y6 work back when in Y5 so this is Y6 mark 2) trying to couch and dodge that "she may get greater depth" is just a waste of my time and hers. Huge long script and then dodging any time for any queries but you have to go through the motions of showing up or you get snarked like the comments on this thread.

It's an issue with this teacher though because in SEN review meetings she tries to hide actual lack of progress by just throwing scores out with no explanation - but unfortunately I understand the scores so the scores mysteriously disappeared last review...

What do SLTs see as a benefit to generic full reports? Do they want to piss parents off and alienate them from helping their children?

Many of the assessments used during the year test children on all aspects of the subject even if they haven't covered it that year. So if, for example, shape comes up in Maths in the summer term, the autumn and spring term assessments will still have questions on shape for that year group that they haven't been taught yet. That's why the majority of kids will still be working towards halfway through the year.

Honestly, a report at the time of the year is a bit pointless. A decent parents' evening via whatever means where the teacher can say to the parents "Your child needs to work on x right now" is much more valuable. Reports just take time and then don't normally tell the parents very much. One report at the end of the year to show achievements is much better in my opinion.