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!?

We aren't allowed to write our own reports any more. We have to tick boxes next to gender neutral statements. Renders the whole exercise a giant waste of time

The gender neutral thing is even more annoying when I work in a single sex school. Just makes it sound like I can't write coherently

That may be so,but what's the point in a report if it's a load of bollocks ?

The irony.

They often have to be presented as though they are, eg ‘this term Freddie has studied Macbeth, Wordsworth and the layout of formal reports.’ At this point they could become useful ‘they have learned about the background to Elizabethan theatre, the romantic poets and how to avoid bias’.

Is it a "load of bollocks" or a mistake?

One of the many reasons we've ditched written reports is that some staff are unfairly burdened by report writing.

I’ve often wondered the same myself as a teacher…parents like them though. How would you like one teacher to write something meaningful for the whole of Y7 (and potentially 8 and 9 too)?

As has been pointed out, this error doesn’t necessarily mean this hasn’t happened.

We consulted parents when we ditched them. They like them because they tell them things they want to know (but are already told in other ways)
However, staff find them burdensome and - for the first time ever - we've put staff views first.

Oddly enough, no one has complained.

Oh no! I disappear for half an hour and get cut to shreds 🤦‍♀️😂😂😂😂. Must do better next time. Sorry.
( but I’m not a teacher!)

Just say which bits are wrong and can they also sort out the instrument debacle, and correct everything. These reports can live with children forever, you want them to at least be reasonably correct.

One of the only complaints (or borderline negative feedback perhaps) I've ever made to my child's wonderful school is that I thought the end of year report was far too much in terms of teacher workload. I was horrified when I saw how much the poor teacher had had to write about my very average 4 year old. It was lovely to read but even if bits were copied and pasted it seemed ridiculously onerous for the teacher.

Teachers are people too.

In what way do they live with them forever?

Thank you.

Copy paste.

My kid's informed me that they are given written work in class to keep busy so the teachers can 'get on with marking and writing reports'.

One teacher used even tell each kid during the class that she was just after completing their report when she had done it!

DCs school uses “they” which certainly eliminates being caught copy and pasting.

When I was at secondary school 25 years ago my report for one of my subjects referred to me as ‘he’ throughout and they had misspelt my name, so it looked like the male version of my name.
My parents found it hilarious as the teacher obviously didn’t have a clue who I was!

Copy and paste - my son goes to a mixed sixth form at an all girls school and I regularly get letters saying your daughter - I just find it really sloppy and actually quite non-inclusive.
The school reports are always fine, these never have anything other than grades, effort and attendance.

We do 3 performance monitoring reports, 2 full reports with detailed comments, and 1 in person parent teacher meeting per year group every year. I teach approx 200 students. Damn right I'm copying and pasting. I do proof read but seeing as the proof reading is done after correcting exams and filling in reports (all of which is done in my own time), mistakes defo slip in.

Its unfortunate it happened for 3 different subjects on your son's reports. The wrong instrument being mentioned is poor form though, that'd annoy me!

Glasshouses and all that.

An honest report for the first year of secondary would look like this:

I only started teaching your son this term because we rotate teachers due to specialist subject areas. Your child’s lesson is a double period on Thursday afternoon. His year group was doing a Shakespeare workshop for week one. We then had an introductory lesson in which I learnt a few names, your son was not one of the names I learnt. I currently teach 200 students and don’t know the younger ones very well at all. I have had two homework’s in from this class and he was away on the day one was due in. The one he handed in was completely average. This doesn’t mean anything as he may well get a fantastic GCSE grade in this subject or he may not. I have only seen him for half a term and he missed one lesson and one lesson was the Shakespeare workshop so that means I have seen his class of 28 students 3 times. If your son chooses my subject for GCSE, I will get to know him in year 10 and you will get a genuine report about his progress then. I have inflated his subject grade because I can’t really base it on one homework and I don’t want to discourage him.

Mine would also include

Out of 14 lessons I was only able to teach your child 6 times, this is due to the residential trip, various inclusion activities and CATS that have been to take place during none core lessons.
I still have their blazer from the first lesson, which despite various reminders remains on the desk by the radiator were it was abandoned.

Probably copied and pasted the main section from another student
happened to my son when he was year 7