AI School Report - Ok or not Ok?

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Dc came home with Her School report yesterday, she's in Year 2 (6yr old). The opening statement was long and very professional written, lots of complex language and descriptive words. DB (her uncle) was there when I was reading it and said straight away it's AI written. We put it into an online research tool and it came back as 100% generated, with no personal touches added whatsoever.

AIBU to be upset?

For the record, DNieces also came home with theirs which was very obviously personally written and what you would expect from a Primary School Report.

You will find most school reports are like that now sad but true.

You really can't be sure it is AI.

Some schools have what they call comment banks where teachers choose comments from a drop down - eg "This term we have been studying the great fire of London. This was to develop the children's ability to consider alternative viewpoints. X was able to think about people from history and how they might think".

It's not personalised (because they have all been studying the great fire of London) but some words might get changed.

It's unusual to get a fully personalised report these days if only because most schools pre fill in the topics etc they have been studying.

Is the opening paragraph about your DD or about the curriculum?

You dont know it is AI - those screening tools are very unreliable. All reports are written from a comment bank, so the teacher choses the comments relevant to your child.

YANBU
Reports should be written in clear language that parents can understand.

When I went from working in a school with "time saving" statement banks to one that you could just freely write 3 paragraphs, it was so much easier and quicker to just write what you needed rather tham musing over the least innacur
ate statement to select.

Pre-amble about what they've learned each year is standard, but there should be accurate, factual information specific to the child too.

If it's true about your DD I'd say it's fine, but I understand why it's upsetting. The sad truth is that teachers don't have the time anymore to hand write individual reports like they used to. They get more work piled on with more students and less help every year

what a shit school

admittedly private, but both my two had very personalised reports x3 a year

YANBU - we have free reign over our reports and I know one teacher who did all of hers with AI and said she saved hours.
I wrote all of the personal comments individually for each child so it is just about them and then I had three different levels of comments to put in (that I’d written myself for at expected level, above and below) for maths and English but making sure their next step was right for them - most of them spelling so a lot of the same.

presumably you reported this teacher? she was failing her students and if this was her approach to reports…. then guaranteed she’d have been very shit behind the classroom door

A number of teacher colleagues use AI to help them write their reports. One was very insistent I try it. I did for one pupil and then spent absolutely ages trying to make it more personal. I gave up and wrote it from scratch.

I think the difference between me and the other teachers is they are MUCH younger than me and aren’t used to writing so many at-length reports whereas I’ve had decades of practice!

I think parents deserve a personal and relevant report about their child. I am a bit of a dinosaur though, so what do I know??

Unfortunately this is what we can expect now. Personally I think it's atrocious I'm not against ai but it's not appropriate for school reports.

expect from shit schools / teachers

but not something i expect from my children’s school

Which doesn't really tell you anything about YOUR child though. When I was at school the reports were individually written along with our placing in class exams. For example you could be 1/12 if top of class or 6/12 if middling. And highlighted personal strengths and weaknesses. One of my reports said I needed to practice long division more lol

At least my parents knew how I compared to others my age and what I needed help in

I would be upset if this is the case. I would expect it to be personalised to my child, there are only 30 in the class…however I am pretty sure my school doesn’t do this.

They've been copy and paste well before AI.

AI depends on what you put into it. A teacher might use it to turn key bullet points into prose. Which would mean it would have all of the pertinent information about the pupil, but the teacher wouldn't have to worry about sentence style. I think that's fair enough.

@itistooeasy not if slt want staff to use

It’s hard to write ‘we have studied the Romans or whatever and x has enjoyed a b and c’ 30 times differently. The personal statement about your child shouldn’t ever sound AI though. (Not in my opinion and have been teaching 20+ years) I strive to make mine personal but Jesus it takes hours and hours. Have written close to 40,000 words for mine this year and that’s not unusual.
(Disclaimer some schools do it differently - my own child had to give me a presentation on their best work this year and the statutory written report was a side of a4 with their assessment data and ‘keep working hard’ written on it)
Do you feel like your child’s teacher knows them? Has taught them well? It could be they got overwhelmed and resorted to AI or overused comment banks. Could be their first time and they didn’t know what to do. Could be they’re lazy.

I used AI to write 30 year 6 reports.

Without AI they take about 25 hours.
With AI they take about 12 hours.

I do go through and personalise them after I have written them - I know some teacher do not.

I using AI for the whole of the rest of my career.

I have mixed feelings about this. I can see how this would be upsetting if you were really keen to help your child improve areas of weakness, on the other hand I know that 99% of parents and students don't actually do very much with these reports. I am not sure when reports even became a thing, I don't remember getting them when I was in education and somehow we all managed.
I also have to write multiple reports as part of my work and, having read the recent article about AI being trialled in SS setting to compile reports for meetings/tribunals etc, I started using AI in my work to generate templates which I then fill in with relevant information. It saved me hours a week. I see the value in doing it as a professional and I don't blame teachers for doing it. Their time should be spent teaching, not endless paperwork. I would much rather them spend this time helping my kid to catch up on skills they are struggling with.

@Catza unfortunately teachers are not able to help dc catch up. The way everything is taught means there is no time to wait, they have spefic lessons that need to be taught at speficic times.
For many dc yes reports don't have much immediate impact for a child who is behind however, they are v imp. If a parent is interested of course and wants them to catch up.

I teach secondary, about 14 different classes and I write them all individually. A few stock phrases about developing X technique will get repeated but each one starts with a blank box in which I type a paragraph referencing their test scores, participation in class, standard of class and homework and any behavioural concerns. It does take hours but I know the deadlines a year in advance so you plan accordingly. It's part of the job and using AI is lazy..though I do wish some of my colleagues would use spell and grammar check!

I absolutely AI’d my reports. With maybe 1 sentence at the end that was truly individual.
I have to write 100 word comments for each subject plus targets and a 250 word personal comment.
My finished document was over 40,000 words.
We are given 1hr of directed time to do this, everything else is at home.

This. I used AI to write mine for the first time this year, but I had a personal set of bullet points for each child.

E.g. name ..., favourite topic..., really enjoyed..., does well at..., needs to improve..., proud of them for..., social skills..., behaviour..., etc.

Still proof read and edited to make sure it fit each child, but it saved me hours!

Private school teacher in local school told me their manager said fine to use AI, but they didn’t use it just because they were being conscientious. I think it’s more widespread than we think. It will become the norm.