Sons school report refers to ‘she’

[Shinysal]

My son has almost completed his first year in secondary school and received his report card. Each teacher has completed a page and he has 12 different subjects. 3 seperate teachers have referred to him as ‘she’ and one has done it through out the update.

The music teacher has put the wrong instrument and marks against his test according to my son.

The overall report is very very good so just wondering am I being unreasonable to be disappointed that the teachers have not proof read it but I do appreciate they are busy and have lots of kids. Just concerned that they might not even be for the right child!?

This wasn’t a ‘gender identity agenda’. It was a way of making cut and paste of bits that don’t need to be personal easier. Congratulations on making teachers’ report load even heavier.

I wouldn't be happy about this OP. I'm sure certain phrases are copied and pasted and maybe that's ok sometimes but they should be proof read. Its not ok to say someone is busy, it's their job and contains errors. You wouldn't accept that from another professional. It also suggests that this person cannot be trusted to correct exams as they don't have a good eye for errors. In fact their own comments have been undermined and their test results made unreliable. I think you could mention it to whoever is in charge, ask what's going on.

Bloody hell

you couldn’t have just seen the name on the top of the report?

Yes, after all, it isn't as if this is part of the teacher's job that they're being paid for! 😄

It’ll be copy and paste. I’m a school secretary in a private school and I check and edit reports before they go out. There’s rarely any mistakes if at all where a parent comes back and says the information is incorrect.

Copy and paste. Had this at school. Even one of my science teachers, called me Sophie. The only Sophie in the school was in the 6th form not doing any science A-levels.

As in all jobs, generic bits of paperwork are replicated not used to multiply work load.

I have a bank of statements, like "He/she is always, is sometimes, is frequently not" then things like prepared for lessons, engaging in class, working indepently, working with peers, showing a good attitude for learning. I then choose from those for each child, and then add in some things they are good at, and one or two things to work on.

I feel like's that is a good balance between a personal report and how much of my time they take to write.

Not copy and paste them. Where do you think it was copied from?

I once received a handwritten school report which said 'You have tried very hard on the whole, Emma.'

My name is not, or vaguely similar to, Emma. 😂

But if they are children's school reports, they shouldn't be generic - they should refer to that specific child.

Lots of schools use software and the teacher picks the sentences and phrases that best match each child.

So the parents are saying the wording is incorrect - but it isn’t?

or they disagree with the overall sentiment

That's reasonable, but surely the software allows them to specify the child's sex so the right pronoun can be used? If it doesn't, it's a poor show if the teacher can't be arsed to edit the pronouns before it goes to the parent.

The boots saying what the class covered?

Depends on the software I think.

And I doubt that teachers can't be arsed, it's a mistake surely?

All children’s reports have generic bits.

eg

in class this term in English we have been reading (whatever book it is) and looking at writing stories based on it.

or in secondary
this term in maths we have been looking at adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions.

certainly towards to upper end of secondary there is a focus on the reports actually being useful for students and parents so they can say ok, in French I need to work on vocabulary around holidays and my speaking and in maths I need to work on Pythagoras and fractions.

our year 10 and 11 reports are incredibly detailed in terms of what the student can and can’t do academically so that when they are revising for their GCSEs they can actually use the report as a revision guide, but this is generated from question level analysis of their exam papers and is completely comment bank statements.

If it’s done via comment banks (I don’t like them fwiw - as a teacher) you can’t change them. They are set by the system.

No, not normally.

right pain in the arse changing pronouns.

Dd's school always refer to the pupils as they regardless of sex and yes there is definitely a gender identity agenda with this particular school. They used to be part of the Stonewall network but have since deleted it from their website. Yet some of the teachers still pander to the old ways.....

I agree. I used to be a teacher and I didn't like using the report software. It was more of a faff than just writing the reports. But some schools insist on it.

A find/replace fail. My DC reports always had incorrect info, pronouns and occasionally whole names wrong. Im unimpressed with that and would prefer an old school grade and "try harder" that was accurate.

But the parts referring to whole class activity wouldn't be affected by the wrong pronoun being used, because they wouldn't be referring to a specific child, so that's irrelevant.

Well, it would be expected in any other job where a template was being used. Most people have parts of their job that are boring or fiddly to do, but you're being paid to do them, so you get on with it.

I have wondered sometimes if the teachers in secondary had a clue who my child was sometimes, with my youngest. As some of the comments did not tally up. She is very shy, and doesn’t put her hand up. Then out of nowhere (seemingly) at end of year 10 she won an award for most academic as it was based on mock exam results. She hadn’t even been nominated for any until this point, not even for effort. Year 11 they all knew who she was, more so in 6th form as they know she smashed her exams (all wanted her to choose their subject for A level).

I guess they can’t know every child, especially if they are quiet like mine. But i’d definitely ask them to double check with the teacher that the comments are for the right child, given the gender is wrong.