To expect DS's scholl report to be written in english?

[Clumsymum]

I mean correct english, with proper sentences, paragraphs that are all in the same tense, and an approximately correct use of puntuation.

One section(knowledge of the world) doesn't make sense at all.

These are all supposed to be checked by the headteacher before they come out to us too!!

I'm a school governor, and having just read the report, I'm inches away from writing a complaint.

If it helps, I have an A level in Latin as well.

Imagine that, a primary school teacher who reads Latin...

I would like to go back to the type of school report that my parents used to get (and I suspect teachers would find it easier too).

A list of subjects with six boxes for each, three for ability and three for effort. Space for a short sentence/phrase, not compulsory for the teacher to enter anything. So two ticks and an occasional phrase per subject. Then space for a short summary, along the lines of "X works hard but is easily distracted and must try harder to concentrate."

Really, that is what I am getting now, but the ticks generate a stock phrase, which I then have to decipher. I'd much rather have the 'at a glance' report of yesteryear.

Shall we have a day of wearing Gown and Square and establishing our authority dear?

Yes can someone tell me why schools use this sort of report software?

Do parents really prefer lists of what their DC have learned (or failed to learn) to the old-fashioned handwritten comments that give much for useful insights?

much more useful

Time saving. We went through a spell and eventually rebelled, we've gone back to our own comments again.

But it does take longer - took me around 3-4 days to write 24, and I've been at it for about 20 years.

I think report writing software should be banned. This week I have written 120 reports, all written from scratch, personal and jargon free. This weekend I am proof reading about 600 reports before writing a further 60. Teachers are paid to do a job and in this case errors are not to be excused.

Oh God, I think I love you, Goblinchild.

i thought the gov had insisted that we give an accurate update on work covered and current levels, within the NC guidelines.

writing out 'x has met the target for ... and exceeded the target for ...' is ridiculously timewasting, so teachers use statement banks. they can be good if done well e.g 'x has handed in every homework on time this term' is pretty useful for a parent to know.

unions have campaigned to limit personal comments to 50 words, so putting in a code for basic stuff (like homework) is quick & easy, then you can type in a personal comment.

however, as with all things, it is only as good as the person who uses it. i'm afraid i've been in schools where the management were stuck in the dark ages and didn't see that a typo mattered. in fact, one school, the teacher had to BEG to be allowed to type them, not use pen. that was this century btw.

YANBU

If your solicitor, consultant or accountant send you such a sloppy yearly update, I doubt anyone would blame their software.

sent you

"i thought the gov had insisted that we give an accurate update on work covered and current levels, within the NC guidelines."

The only levels which statutorily must be reported are at the end of KS1 and KS2 (in primary school). So - no.

"unions have campaigned to limit personal comments to 50 words, so putting in a code for basic stuff (like homework) is quick & easy, then you can type in a personal comment."

That's the problem, though - you can't comment meaningfully on each core subject at primary school in 50 words. Hence the propensity to use software - or to get fed up and write way over union guidelines because at least it will mean something.

a teacher is NOT the same as a solicitor. a teacher is NOT paid by you, and you are not his or her client.
I think a culture where mistakes are NOT to be excused is wholly unrealistic and very damaging. I am interested in this idea that human beings are not permitted to make mistakes - really? But they DO, all the time. It is part of the human condition.
ime if the culture says that mistakes are not allowed, that they are something to be ashamed of, that people who make mistakes are not be be respected, is a culture where human beings are not valued, are highly pressured and where mistakes are covered up.

Sorry to labour the point, but do you not think that the fact that your thread title has mistakes in 20% of the words is some sort of ironic wake up call?

A teacher most certainly is paid for by me

This is where public service and private practice differ

For public servants, the taxpayer is anonymous and faceless and therefore doesn't really exist except as a construct - with predictable consequences

But this was not one or two mistakes.

I was making professional comparisons to solicitors and accountants. NHS consultants are not paid by us either.

A teacher is a professional position, and as such I would expect professional correspondence.

I'm sorry if this has already been said, but this is how reports are written nowadays:

We are not trusted to actually write using our own words and our own opinions.

We have to log on to some shitty software and choose stock phrases - we might be allowed to amend them with our own 'words' -yippee!!

We then have to have them checked by our HoD/Line Manager

They get sent back to us.

We redo them

And when they are suitably depersonalised and asinine they are sent out to parents...

This is why I have been doing supply and will be working as a CS from september. Seriously, it's shite. Please don't think that the teacher is an illiterate muppet - I bet that left to her own devices she would have written a cracking report.

"But this was not one or two mistakes."

Correct, it wasn't. The teacher used phrases from a report application which the OP was, in part, responsible for selecting.

I am paid by you.

There is no excuse for such mistakes, of course people make errors but these should be proof read again an again. I write me reports, proof read them . I then leave them 24 hours and proof read them again. So that is 2 sets of proof reading Reports should then go through heads of subject and then pastoral heads, surely after four levels of checks by educated professional people they can be sent out error free.

Harpsichord there is a difference between a casual post on an Internet forum, and a school report. My posts on here tend to have a lot of errors, not least as I am on an I phone, my reports , however, are error free

But the comment selection was obviously down to the application, s admitted by the OP - so proof reading wouldn't have made any difference, once the decision to use the software was approved by selected staff and governors (including the OP).

Unless we are back to her not including 'Next Step' as a paragraph heading. (Really?)

Regardless of where the phrases came from, why was the report not read through for mistakes at the very least?

Seriously, if any other professional sent you something so shoddy would you happily accept that it was the fault of the software?

Are these reports not editable after the phrase slection?

seriously, you NEVER make mistakes?
NEVER?
I have been in several different careers (well, three ) and I have made mistakes in ALL of them.
My dd's teacher doesn't work for me, in any real sense. Her job, her responsibility, is far far more than writing reports. I think it is important to keep a sense of perspective, is what I am saying.
No one responds at all well to nit picky criticism. IME

As a teacher

(1) I hate writing reports

(2) Not only do I write reports I also have to plan and teach and mark etc etc at the same time

(3) I am crap at proof reading my own stuff - but I am quite good at teaching a 5 year old where to put a full stop - very different skills.