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.

Reports can take ages to write.

My daughter teaches y6. Mammoth task after/during preparation for SATS. Every child x evert subject + general comment.

I was in secondary - I taught every child in y7, half of y8, quarter of y9 + 2 exam groups in y10 + y11. Some for short periods - but they all needed a report.

They also needed teaching, lessons and materials prepared.

The school staggered them so that they came at a sensible time for most year groups. However I rarely had a week when I wasn’t writing reports.

Whenever they are issued there will be no pleasing some - to early, too late.

There isn’t an ideal answer.

It sounds like you don't trust the school, and thats the problem, in which case, get your DC down on waiting lists and move them.

If you've been told they're bad at maths, get a maths book to work on over the summer?

Ha ha ha NO!
Look Noble, it's one thing teaching a child that wants to learn that's easy, but trying to teach your own reluctant child, absolutely not.
I've taught my children to behave, I've taught them listening skills (as far as it's possible to teach a child with SEN to listen), I've taught them good manners and continue to teach them life skills and how to be decent members of society.
But there is no way I'm teaching them maths, English or any other part of the curriculum. I'll encourage them to do their homework, I'll help them find information on something they are studying, but that's it.
I work, when I'm not working I'm balancing chores with giving dc 1:1 time, they have time to tell me their worries, or their achievements or what ever they want...this is my job, as a parent, seeing to their physical, psychological and spiritual needs. But I am not a teacher in the academic sense of the world. It's not part of my skill set, and it would either break me or them either which way it would be detrimental to our relationship.

You can get descriptors on the internet if you want to of what a child 'should' be able to produce at each age. You just need some time and effort and Google.

Isn't it great that teachers get paid a living wage and stop working after their 40 hours are done.
It's also a massive bonus that teachers don't have to deal with parents who are completely and utterly clueless about the fact that writing 30 reports takes a very long time.
Your DC is 5 years old, is he happy at school? Does he play happily with other children? Is he beginning to read and write? If yes to the first one I'd let the teachers do their job until there's an obvious issue. Meanwhile you, as a parent, could support your very own child at home over the summer. Or, you could just give your kid a break and let them play over summer because, erm, oh yes - they are 5 years old.

But there is no way I'm teaching them maths, English or any other part of the curriculum.

It's your kid. They'd do better if they had extra support with the curriculum outside of school, that's just obvious.

If you're happy with the level that they're working at then whatever, but if you're not, then it isn't just down to the school to do something and wailing and gnashing of teeth if they don't.

But why would parents need to complain? That’s part of the problem now. Parents think they can dictate and so schools are trying to give them less opportunity to do so.
The teachers I know who have left, it has been due to parents unreasonable demands.
It’s such a shame. We should be working together but a small number think they’re in charge and schools need to do as they’re told. They wouldn’t accept us going into their workplace saying you need to do it like this! The minority ruin it for the rest. The number of times I’ve been told my child does not lie and it’s been witnessed by an adult etc. Its draining.
It is a minority but they are so loud, aggressive and entitled. The job is incredibly hard at the moment with increasing demands, lack of staff/resources and external support and angry parents at the end of the day are finishing many teachers off.

I'm a teacher and I also think it's ridiculous to send reports I the last day of term.

Towards the end of term? Fine and normal
At the end of the last day? Entirely stupid.

Teachers can't have it both ways. We expect and want parents to be engaged and responsive to information about their child. Any school that does a dump and run report on the last day is absolutely not engaging their parents in any kind of way.

I think a lot of the problem is the new curriculum. Children are either at expected, greater depth or some wording to the effect of 'below'. The last doesn't really tell parents how far behind, or not, their children are. When we had levels, it didn't sound so stark if they were Level 3a when they should have been 4c.

I will repeat though that there isn't money for all children who aren't at expected to have interventions, and interventions often don't work anyway. I'm afraid at primary level I think a huge amount is down to parental support if you're not happy with where your child is. As I already said in a previous post, the school will have been doing what they can do! A class will never have everyone at expected or above, nor is that the aim. With funding the way it is, in most schools interventions will mostly target children who are more than 1 year behind, not those who haven't practised their 8 times table enough so can't be expected standard for Y3.

Reports are advice the school is sending home for you to discuss with your child (or ignore).

They are not draft documents which require parental input and discussion before being finalised.

If you do have concerns, organise a phone call or meeting with the teacher early in the new year.

Teachers can't have it both ways. We expect and want parents to be engaged and responsive to information about their child. Any school that does a dump and run report on the last day is absolutely not engaging their parents in any kind of way.

Thank you

I think a lot of the problem is the new curriculum. Children are either at expected, greater depth or some wording to the effect of 'below'. The last doesn't really tell parents how far behind, or not, their children are. When we had levels, it didn't sound so stark if they were Level 3a when they should have been 4c.I will repeat though that there isn't money for all children who aren't at expected to have interventions, and interventions often don't work anyway.

A lot of this makes sense, there's not a lot of clarity. But if interventions won't be provided and/or dont work, there needs to be more honesty about that with the parents who need to support their child.

Dsis wasn't told there are no interventions, or they won't work. She was told they weren't needed, which wasn't true. If a child is below the level needed you don't just leave them there, you do at least try to support them to improve!

I think afraid at primary level I think a huge amount is down to parental support
parents need honesty to help.

Well now she has the information and can help her child so the end of year report has done its job. She can get started over the summer, ready for the new school year.

Now she knows that end of year reports go out at the end of the year, she can find other ways of engaging through the year next year.

I actually agree that nothing in a report should be a shock.

They are not draft documents which require parental input and discussion before being finalised.

I just want the information provided earlier so that we can act on it if school can't.

I actually agree that nothing in a report should be a shock.

Of course it bloody shouldn't! Not all schools are doing this well.

But if schools are going to spend parents evenings earlier in the year focussed on behaviour, effort, progress and attitude to learning (and evade questions on attainment or give answers like "don't worry, she's doing fine"), attainment needs to be communicated earlier in the year.

Schools do this because unfortunately one year group has to be last. Giving teachers who teach multiple year groups enough time to write reports, admin to check and send out tends to take up most of the year when you start scheduling them. There’s absolutely no agenda, just lack of time and massive workload.

I think there are a lot of people here utterly unrealistic about the fact that most parents do not have their children home for 6 weeks during summer.

Go on, tell me i should have a 9-3 term only job with all the holidays off, that actually pays the bills....

Oh wait, there isn't one

We don’t get reports till the last week of term, but have had 2 parents evenings this year already and those were the time to discuss any issues/interventions needed. I expect the report to be a bit of a summary, not expecting anything to have changed much since we sat down with DD’s teacher 2 months ago.

Do you mean to work with your child? An intervention would be 20 or 30 mins a week, max. Probably cancelled some weeks because the TA had to cover a class. All parents can find that. 5 minutes a few days a week is more effective anyway.

Its clear that some teachers are much more open at parents evening than ours.

At ours questions were rather discouraged, the teacher seemed to have a script they read from, quite a bit of the content was describing the curriculum covered during the year, behaviour etc, there was a real lack of comment on child's actual attainment and on attempting to ask about this, responses were vague and referred back to fhe progress dc had made not where that actually got them to.

All DC seem "bright" to their parents, its very hard to know whether their reading is good enough compared to peers as you don't often see other kids read.

And some parents are acting like they simply don't have a single minute to sit down with their child.

This is pretty much what I had too.
Both meetings were with different teachers- they were both new to the school (and to my child) at the time.
I asked if dc is struggling with some of the maths and was just brushed off with a quick 'they need to not shy away from asking for help'.

I am a very involved parent, we read every day and I go through the school website to hunt out any information as to what he is being taught at school to try and support dc. No idea if it's paying off at lesson time. (I obvs know his reading band.)

If your primary child needs a bit of extra practice (and I cant stress enough how important repeated practice is) in maths over the holidays, this website is useful.

https://corbettmathsprimary.com/5-a-day/

4 levels of difficulty, 5 questions a day and answers provided.

I used to buy the Bond 10 minute tests books for my dc. Not so much time as to be daunting, but enough time to do a bit of practice every day.

“The school don't give back the homework marked and also give easier homework to weaker kids on the basis homework should not be too hard. Dsis was doing her best to help (PE teacher, no expert in maths) & knew it was a struggle, but the school were implying through the year that what was being done at home was enough to get her to expected level”

So your sister already knew that her child was struggling on the easier homework set for weaker children? And wasn’t ever told that she’d reach “expected” but decided it was implied?

She needed to take responsibility. Of all the subject where it’s easy to check level yourself, it’s maths. She could have spent 20 mins and £5 on a CGP workbook for the year below (or free internet resources) and checked how her child was doing. Answers are in the back. I checked my own niece recently - higher level and hard to engage with actually doing work. So I gave her the book and sone highlighters and said, “don’t even do the maths - colour code me for 1. Could do this, 2. Sure I’ve been taught this but wouldn’t want to do it. 3. What the hell is this stuff?!”

There’s a lot of ground between teaching your child yourself and checking where they are. Parents should be close to what their kids are learning.

So what are you planning to do with the information on attainment? You obviously don’t have faith in teachers. Lots of children start school 2 years ahead of their peers. That support, wether parental or paid for, doesn’t switch off once the children start school. I guess most working parents use the weekends. It is refreshing to have a post about academic attainment rather than school snacks or uniform though.