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.

So you’ve had no contact all year? No parents evening where they told you levels? They’ve been telling you your kid is a genius then suddenly……… nooooo!
i don’t believe you’ve had no feedback on progress. It’s simply not true.
A report written a day after they start would be useless.

They are not exactly personal these days.

My child’s primary school would frustratingly send out reports on the last day of term. It was obviously done on purpose so that parents were unable to raise any points they were concerned about. One year the report indicated my son had fallen behind in maths which was news to me! So the first week back of the new term I arranged meetings with all teachers concerned to get a plan of action sorted to ensure my son got back on track and didn’t fall under the radar.

There are two parents evenings to discuss the things you’ve mentioned. The report is a summary of the year. YABU.

Op the whole systems is a nightmare to navigate.

Non of its transparent... Clear etc.

Shouldn't it be the child that is answerable to the parent as to what is in the report?

It’s an end of year report. A summary of how the year has gone and an update of the current state of affairs.

The time for interventions would be at the half year report, and also into the next academic year.

@TimeToLose8 🤣🤣

I'm can just see a year 2 child explanation why they get 0 out 10 for spell..
Well mummy, I need to see words in context they need to make sense.
I can't spell because rhe school does nt provide this

All the way through primary school I was told at parents evenings my DC's were doing well and everything was fine - reports arrived along with levels during the last of week of term. The reports also said how well they were doing but levels did not agree with this. I do not like being lied to and I could tell it was the influence of the headteacher who was known to have the touch of the Boris Johnson about him

donquixotedelamancha · Today 20:56
Terloz · Today 20:32

@donquixotedelamancha not sure about other people but I’ve had no test scores or measures through the year. Report due end of next week. As @Yellowlegobrick says, it’s too late for intervention by school or parent.
So at parents evening you get no info about whether your child is at/above/below expected? That's unusual? I'd be checking’

as a pp said, the early October parents evening is deemed too early for the teacher to have formed a view. No scores are shared. No notification of tests is shared. It’s hard to form a view. Appreciate reporting writing is a mammoth job for teachers but my child’s school sounds like one of many where the balance and timing isn’t right.

I think it's about time some parents become answerable about how funking awful their kids are.

This is just like a certificate stating the child finished this and that class and how they think it went. A proof of some sort

School reports shouldn't contain any surprises. Any issues and concerns should have been discussed with you during the school year and then the reports should be a summary of that year.
I agree and I don't think it's a coincidence that on the whole, other than the ones who pick a fight with everything, my relationships with parents are positive.

Common sense says they'd rather have a quick phone call in January, rather than a surprise at parents' evening in March, or worse an end of year report in June.

@fiftiesmum

Well I was told the same and our head was more like Jeremy corybn.

I had to pay to get by child help

Witchcraftandhokum · Today 21:25
I think it's about time some parents become answerable about how funking awful their kids are.

true, funnily enough this never comes on here as a topic, parents of kids bullies , parents of rude kids to share and want advice

I’ve only ever known end of term reports. They are comments, not a discussion document. 🤷🏻‍♀️

They sent their END OF YEAR reports on the last day of term?! How dare they!

I've already decided not to give too much of an eff what DS1's teacher puts in his, I found her very vague about where he should be vs where he is during our parent's evening. And to be honest, I don't think much of her generally.

Today she tells me there was "an incident" in which a child kicked mine and taunted him. Only on the way home does DS say he fell after the first kick, and the other child kept kicking while he was down! That's not a couple of kicks, that's giving someone a kicking.

My reports were written weeks ago but we have to wait for the Sats scores before the reports can go out. The phonic screening scores haven’t been out long either. We also have a date that attendance is recorded for all of our trust. All of this data has to be included in the reports.

They are called end of year reports for a reason!

I don't think they do this but our school office gossip manager has been heard commenting more than once they she waits to send communications to parents that might cause a kerfuffle until 5pm on the Friday before a holiday so that she doesn't have them waiting at her window to moan, or make appointments.

Apparently loads forget over the holidays!

I can imagine they send reports late exactly for the same reason - less moaning to contend with! We never get ours until after school has closed on the last day of summer term (primary).

Yep, it's a great plan.
In my primary school, we also didn't find out whose class we would be in until the first day in September - it was pinned to a notice board in the playground. 10 mins to look at it then the bell rang and we lined up, parents ushered out the gates before they could draw breath to complain.

That’s what INSET days are for. Days devoted to thinking of ways to annoy parents whilst having 5 days extra off work and annoying parents with having to sort childcare. It’s in our contracts as a perk of the job.
In all seriousness, there are many reasons why they are done in the summer term although I do know of schools who do it in the spring term.

Sadly there's little money to provide interventions for children who are just not quite meeting expected anyway. You'd know if your child was further behind than that - it wouldn't happen between March and July.

Do you know how long reports take to write? Months! Fitting it in alongside the rest of the job plus all the extra stuff that we have to do.

We have huge chunks to write ourselves, then often swapping/collaborating with other teachers. Then they have to get sent to management to be checked, sometimes admin for absence data, printing, head teachers comments etc. And the heads/management are checking sometimes hundreds of children's reports.

The first 2 terms are parents evenings which are much much more of an accurate, useful tool and perfect time for discussion and clarification. As is a meeting/email/phonecall with teacher at any point in the year.

A report is just a summary of the year, provided at the end of the year. Yes, I agree it shouldn't be on the last day. But nothing should come as a surprise in the report.