To think schools release reports right at the end of term to avoid being answerable to parents on what's in them

[Yellowlegobrick]

Why do schools do this? Its 2 weeks until end of term and still no reports.

It leaves no time to talk about interventions that might be needed or strategies to try and improve things. It also doesn't give time for parents to support on weak areas at home.

In theory there should be no surprises as there are parents evenings, but ime those aren't reliable, its when something is written down it counts.

They should be provided by spring half term so there's time to plan for the following year.

My DDs school is generally bad at telling us anything. No scores from tests are ever shared, there is a parents evening in October when the teacher tells us they don't know the kids well enough yet to say much. Then a report at the end of the year- usually the last week and it's a copy and paste for every kid, last years they hadn't changed the he/she in half of them. Any requests to meet or discuss are ignored and it's frustrating.

It's a report not a discussion. Discussions are parents evenings.

much like an annual appraisal at work, there shouldn’t be any big surprises in an end of year report - especially negative ones

There are still end of year teacher assessments. We used to have parents evening near the end of term after the reports went out.

You are being ridiculous. You will get test scores or measures of your child being 'on track' or similar through the year.

You don't. Last yr the teacher claimed my dc writing was fine all year comments like "he's really improving", no suggestion of interventions then "below expected".

Then there's the other big con - where a child has the ability to be above expected, and isn't, and its too late for you to question whether they've been adequately given the opportunity to achieve potential.

I've never had a useful school report, they've always been very generic cut and paste jobs. I've even had another child's name in there, more than once!

I've had some pretty shocking parents evenings though!

It's a report not a discussion. Discussions are parents evenings.

My experience of parents evenings has beem that teachers sugar coat and avoiding commenting on attainment at parents evening - focusing on behaviour, effort, attitude to learning, improvement, but not attainment, unless a child is very far behind.

Its not the same as a written record.

He can be making progress and still be below the expected level for his age.

What do you think is going to happen in the last 2 weeks? If you have concerns arrange to see the new teacher early in the new year.

The only thing that can happen now is you tell them why you think their report is wrong. They're not going to provide for 30 parents to do that.

I hate ours. One word about each subject : good. Given the last week of term. Utterly meaningless.

I totally agree, last year dd had been apparently at the right level in March parents eve, no issues raised, get to July last day of term and was below expectations for maths, reading and writing with a short generic sentence of well done… It was entirely unhelpful and then had to wait until Oct parents eve to speak to the new teacher to see how they are actually doing! It’s a daft system.

Get over yourself

Abbimae · Today 20:46
Get over yourself

I'm a bit fat it'd be a struggle

Er, you do know you can contact the school to ask for clarification? Magic things called phones? Emails? Dear Mr Teacher, please would you be able to clarify the comment xyz in Wolfcub's report."

I totally agree, last year dd had been apparently at the right level in March parents eve, no issues raised, get to July last day of term and was below expectations for maths, reading and writing with a short generic sentence of well done… It was entirely unhelpful and then had to wait until Oct parents eve to speak to the new teacher to see how they are actually doing! It’s a daft system

This is exactly the common scenario i mean.

Then you are supposed to take it up with new teacher, who doesn't know your child from adam and says they need time to form their own opinion/assess child etc.

Dsis dd theyve only said how bad her maths is right at end of year having done no meaningful interventions all year.

One child's excellent and very organised school sends them out three weeks before the end of term and one week before parents evening so you can actually discuss the report.

Another child's school, disorganised and regularly infuriating, send them out at 5pm on the last day, yes so you can't discuss anything.

I think this is OP's point they send them out on the last day so even if you do send a message or try to call there's no one to respond which we do

Er, you do know you can contact the school to ask for clarification? Magic things called phones? Emails? Dear Mr Teacher, please would you be able to clarify the comment xyz in Wolfcub's report."

Not at 4pm on the last friday of term you can't! Which is precisely the problem.

Yes exactly it’s the end of the term so no the ‘magic telephone’ is of new use!

And when the teacher has left to go teach in Dubai the next term I don’t think they’d have answered my magic emails either.

So at parents evening you get no info about whether your child is at/above/below expected? That's unusual? I'd be checking in with the school through the year in that case.

Well said.

Just to clarify these are the statutory tests that must be reported to parents and timings .. hence why reports are often sent at the end of the year:
EYFS Profile - submitted June
Y1 phonics - sit in June
Y2 phonics resists - sit in June
Y2 SATS - submit June
Y4 multiplication test - sit in June
Y6 SATS results published July

So you’re right in that Y3 and Y5 don’t have statutory tests / assessments in the summer term but they will have teacher assessments and probably sit a standardised commercial test.

Teachers then write the reports, wait for finalised data. Someone then proof reads and adds comment (usually HT). Office print / email individual report and ensure matching statutory data report is attached. This all takes time.

I wouldn’t move written reports to the spring because we would then be producing additional reporting in the summer.

I also wouldn’t send out on the last day of term. Something we agree on 🫣

I think there's just huge differences between schools and how they keep parents informed, engage, offer interventions proactively, etc. That's why some parents sound content and some find it all utterly unhelpful.

There should be standardisation in regular assessing (not saying exams as such) and making sure results are regularly communicated to parents throughout the year.

My experience (2 children in primary school, one now Y6) is not like yours OP.

Parents' evenings in Oct and immediately after reports are shared in June. I've never had any surprises in a report; the wordy bit is always meaningful and makes sense of whatever the attainment 'scores' show; and when teachers or I have had any concerns, we've made contact with each other outside of the parents evening / year end report cycle.

I have definitely experienced a headteacher in a previous school who avoided contact with parents though, so I can well believe that some schools have a culture of doing it exactly as you describe.

What? How are they allowed to get away with that? I'm a peripatetic music teacher, teaching in 4 schools, ages from 7 - 18. Even I am expected to do 2 reports per year, with full paragraphs on both attainment and future targets.