AI School Report - Ok or not Ok?

[whathappensnextthen]

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.

Sounds like the VAT issue is making you cranky.

I mean I doubt I’d know if anyone was asked to rewrite reports!
I don’t think that would be sent out as a public message.

This. I remember quoting something from DD1's early reports to a friend, and she had had the exact same phrase. We then compared the whole comments section and they were exactly the same, only the name was changed. It really changed my view of that teacher and whether he (and he was head of year) actually knew my child at all.

You're a big part of the reason so many children don't actually have a qualified teacher to teach them.

well if she keeps on doing this…

You said this was the opening statement. Is there a further section which is personal to your DD?

The main reason teachers use generated statements is because they have been told to do so by their local authority. This is mainly to ensure consistency - otherwise some teachers write long, personalised reports while others are more succinct. It also saves a member of the management team having to spell/grammar check every single report that goes out. Otherwise, I can assure you, parents queue up to complain!

A lot of my reports were copy and pasted from children from the previous years with a few sentences changed! A lot of teachers don't get given time to do reports and it's not quick to write 30 individual reports.

I know our school has said it's looking into AI next year to write reports

This why we have word counts for each section. Every report is the same length no matter who has written it.

But how many parents are actually interested in whether the child has studied Romans or Tudors etc? The kids could've mentioned that themselves. Majority of parents are more interested in what level their kids are compared to others, behaviour in class and stuff needed to improve. Waffle about curriculum is unnecessary and unhelpful

I tried ai this year I didn't like it as was far too wordy or too simple so stuck to writing my own. It is a lot of work though I had 33 reports to write and it takes hours of work. The personal boxes are the easiest as you know the kids but there are only so many ways to say they can do the 4 operations.

I don’t think it’s a big deal. In a primary class of 30 like my DD is in I wouldn’t be bothered if I got an AI report or one from drop down sentences. It’s huge amounts of teacher time and I’d much rather my DD’s daughter was well rested and ready to reach the class which is much more important than writing a report.

Teacher here, and I agree. I hate it! The language is wrong for younger children. I do not use it and I can’t see me starting. I look forward to my children’s reports and I want one reflective of them and I want that for the parents of children I teach as well!

Feedback from parents on reports is usually:

I want to know what my child is doing at school

I want to know how my child is doing

I want to know how I can help them do better.

Most reports therefore have a bit at the beginning saying what has been studied. At primary this is usually more along the lines of topic plus PE plus page plus art etc. At secondary it's more detailed (eg this term we have looked at Victorian gothic and read Dracula)

This answers question 1

Parents then want to know how their child is doing. It's not considered good practice anymore to list where the child is in the class (and anyway that doesn't tell you very much - could be a very low or very high achieving class). With a few exceptions (gcse results, sats results, phonics check) schools generally report three levels.

At primary it's either meeting age related expectations (your child is fine) exceeding (your child is doing very well) or below (your child is not fine).

At secondary the student will have gcse targets generated from sats levels. So a kid who got low sats will have have targets or 3 or 4, a kid who got high sats will get gcse targets of 8 or 9. Schools then report whether the kid is on target to get those results.

This answers question 2 although a lot if people do find the secondary system confusing.

To answer question 3 there are usually some statements along this lines of "on this topic your child can do this but not that." So for example for maths we might say your child can add fractions but can't multiply them.
This means as a parent you know what to work on if you want to help your child improve.

Oh I agree.
I absolutely agree, every year I sit here moaning to DH about having to write 1000s of words nobody needs to read.
I would rather send a tick list of objectives they’ve met and a paragraph about how their year went so I can include more of the personal touches that show I know each child as an individual.
edited to change an autocorrected homophone.

I used AI this year. It was a revelation. Worked really well. Told it things like 'write 100 words about X who got a good exam score, works well, exellent homework etc' as a starti g poi t and then put thins like 'using first report as a basis, write 100 different words about Y who struggles but is hard working' and so on. I tweaked and personalised where I needed to. I don't get the problem. It saves time. Why do you not think teacher's time is important?

I am currently a class teacher, previously a UK Head Teacher (moved country). We were asked to proof read a 'random' colleagues reports. The ones I had to read were all AI generated; incongruous, contradictory etc. In my opinion totally unacceptable. I reported this to my Principal and heard no more. They went out in original form. I would NEVER have allowed this. I wrote 28 completely personalised report for maths English and general. I think students deserve a personalised report.

Teacher here! Using AI for the bulk of the report would be great, with personalisation in the ‘general comments’ box. Unless you have written a set of reports, you can have no idea how long they take - most of my May half term so called holiday. In addition, now assessments are complete, we have to go back in to add those. We are not given any extra time to complete them, so all done in our own time.

I deserve a work/life balance.

If you want to be a martyr, you go for it - I won't be joining you.

Really?
You really wrote thousands of words with no copy pasting? I don’t actually believe you.

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

That really tickled me.

All this thread is doing, is confirming that the majority of people don't know how to use AI for individual tasks and wrongly believe it's for mass production only.

I bet there were similar views c. 2000 with the switch from handwritten reports to typed and printed.

This 👏 Report writing is so time consuming and we are expected to do it all in our own time. I spend my whole May half term writing reports.

I agree that reports should be personalised but

I agree that reports should be personalised but if I can use AI to reduce the time it takes to write them then I will.

I think it’s a great idea as long as they are tweaked for each individual. Teachers usually get a couple of hours directed time to write reports.
Why should teachers spend an additional 30 plus hours of their own time writing the same stuff over and over without being allowed to say what they actually want? Hours and hours spent trying to rephrase,
’Your child is a complete pain in the ass and does not know when to sit down and shut up’!

I would prefer to see some kind of tick sheet with expectations of each year.
eg can multiply by 2,5 10
can multiply by 3, 4
Has quick recall of all number bonds to 20
Can complete work independently.

My son’s report was obviously cut and pasted as he was called his name at the beginning of the comment and Isaac in the middle. I thought it was funny.