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.

You have to do what the Head tells you - if you're lucky, you'll work for a Head who values his/her staff's opinions.

Cheetah report automaton

I feel the need to download this and send some choice remarks back to DDs teachers coming on...

Our Head will not let us use them at all. She wants all phrases, for all subjects, "from the horse's mouth," so to speak. We can copy and paste a few generic sentences from one child to another for the foundation subjects, but the overall effect must still be personal.

lol valhalla do it do it [childish glee emoticon]

As a teacher I resent the implication that I hate my job and don't do it properly. I love my job and do my best.

Training adults is not the same as teaching children - the adults are (I would guess anyway) interested in what you have to say and want to be there, unlike children. Adult trainers are not expected to differentiate work accross a broad range or deal with SEN and behaviour problems as well as do all the emotional issues children face. You just deliver what the client wants and leave the adults to it without worrying they will mess about and if they do no one will blame YOU for it.

They also don't have to be constantly supervised and have lessons delivered with no resources. Added to this we don't just write reports - the amount of other admin is staggering and I don't get two days a week to plan and prepare!

Saying that if the report makes no sense you should complain but I would do it to the LEA as the head hasn't checked the report properly - I admit that a lot of stock phrases are used but they should apply to the child and make sense

I still don't understand why the databases are used. I don't think it's terrible to use stock phrases like "X is an active participant in discussions" as it could easily apply to many children, but isn't it quicker just to type/write that sentence? it took me what, 10 seconds, surely it'd take more than that to select it from a list?

or am I not understanding how the database works?

I'm a secondary English teacher and I write all my reports from scratch; they are all personal to the child. Kids often have the same targets as each other (e.g. to progress to a level 5 in his writing, x should aim to...) because one often finds that several students have similar weaknesses. I tend to copy and paste stock phrases between reports but I've never used a statement bank, only my own words.

However I generally only have one or two classes from each year group so the maximum I ever have to do at one time is sixty reports. My colleagues who teach drama, music etc. often teach an entire year group for one lesson a fortnight and, in a non-core key stage three subject, I can completely understand the careful use of a statement bank. They never do it with their key stage four option classes.

Somehow - I'm not sure why - it just feels wrong for a primary to use statement banks though. I suppose kids and parents have a much closer relationship with primary teachers and so you'd expect a more personal service?

Schools have strict union guidelines to follow about workload (for good reason imo) so you might find that that explains SLT instructing teachers to use statement banks.

We have a few foreign teachers in our school, and they find it very difficult to write reports. While I might be able to take an hour or two to do a class set, it takes my colleagues a whole day.

They are generally well punctuated with good spelling, but the turns of phrase are 'awkward'. I have to check reports as a form tutor, but I would never dream of sending back reports that are not super-perfect English. I can 'hear' my colleagues speaking in these reports and they are very personal. They should stand.

In general, all of our reports have correct spelling and grammar, consistent tenses, etc. I wouldn't expect anything less.

Ooh, we get ours sent back by our HoD or Head of House if we're not absolutely spot-on (I've only ever had one back in 5 years ) I'd be soooo if one of my reports was sent home with an error!

MathsMadMummy, don't tempt me!

On a more serious note, even accepting that the education system appears to be designed to test children and create admin work for teachers, I find it peculiar that some teachers claim not to have time to write reports themselves.

My secondary school had 360 girls from ages eleven to 18 and most subjects had but one teacher. Thus most subject mistresses were required to write out 360 reports at the end of each year. Looking back at my reports, the aim seems to have been to remark on the child's ability at the subject, point out major weaknesses and describe what should be done to improve, followed by a sentence or two on the child's behaviour and personality.

For example:

"X works hard at Latin, understands the subject with ease and shows good potential. She has mastered the subjunctive and provided that she studies Pliny with as much enthusiasm I have no reason to doubt that she will acheive the A grade she aspires to in her O Level.

X is a pleasant, mature and responsible girl who has a wide circle of friends and has gained much confidence in her abilities over the past year."

Not hard, is it?

One in 6 people struggle with literacy in the UK. This means that their literacy is below the level expected of an 11 year old.

So in a class of 30 children, there will be approx. 10 parents struggling with literacy. This is in addition to the parents who simply find their child's school report hard to decipher or confusing.

I'm wondering if these very wordy, complex 'cut & paste' reports are actually fulfilling the aim of informing parents?

ROFL at pip - I got through most of your post thinking this was going to be about TEACHERS struggling with literacy problems ...

...well it wouldn't help would it?

Valhalla, I assume - and please forgive the impertinence - that you finished secondary school at least a decade ago? If I wrote reports as vague as the example you give, they would be straight back on my desk. Mine have to be very specific about the skills that a child should focus on in the coming year.

Woolly statements about a student's "circle of friends" would not wash with my HoD!

Here is a typical report comment from me:

X has not achieved her key stage three target of 5b and the primary reason for this is that she is often unfocused and chatty. She frequently takes too long to get started on tasks and then does not complete them. When X applies herself she produces work of high level five standard but in order for her to progress she must take more care over her writing, focusing on her use of commas and her paragraphing. In order to improve her reading skills she needs to focus on locating relevant information in a text and then using quotes to demonstrate her understanding of an author?s purpose. Speaking and listening is X?s strongest area; she is confident in presenting to an audience and answering questions that require her to think on her feet. To improve her speaking and listening X should focus on using Standard English at all times.

feralgirl, "at least a decade ago"?

You're too, too kind! A decade and then another, and not too many years short of a third.

Mine was a selective school where we had yearly exams which reflected the girls' performance rather than that of the school or the staff and of course we had no SATs or the like so there were no levels or targets of that sort to faff about with.

Now, your type of report is what I'd like to see from DD's school, not one reading, for example, "Works consistantly well. Must learn to focus".

We had a ONE PAGE report in primary school. (I left primary school in 1980.) Each subject area was given a box for effort graded A-E, a box for attainment graded A-E, a space for one or two sentences of comment - handwritten - and a summary box at the bottom, also handwritten. Then the usual space for head's comment.

It all fitted on to one sheet of A4. I expect it didn't take any longer to do than today's reports do, and it was a hell of a lot more informative.

The endless pages of meaningless tick-boxes about levels and so on, which my children get now, are useless to me - I just skip to the small paragraph of comments.

Complain. Then get rid of the moronic boffoon pretending to be headteacher.
Ah, I have solution for everything

buffoon even...

In the two schools I have taught the process has been vaguely the same as described here. In one, statement banks are used and you CANNOT change them. Even down to how many spaces are inserted between sentences, the whole thing bounces back to you if you upset it. You're not allowed to make personalised comments.

At my most recent, software was also used but with suggested statements as against enforced. However you're not allowed to make comments that could be construed as anything other than positive, even if what you were offering was constructive advice. Within both the checking procedure was pretty heavy, more so in the latter. Staff 'buddy up' to check each other's before they all go of to the HoD. Once the HoD has approved both the content and technical side he signs them off online. They are then checked by admin staff as they are printed.

As an English teacher in a large secondary I can expect to write anywhere between 30 and 60 per year group, so probably around 150ish on average. I can also expect to receive numerous phone calls from colleagues in other departments checking spelling and grammar as they write theirs.

Regardless of these time pressures I could never let mine go off for checking with errors in, I am too much of a pendant. I know some staff copy and paste into Word to check spelling, but this won't pick up misconstructed sentences etc. In my previous incarnation this kind of error would have cast serious aspertions on my professionalism and the same is to be said for reports. BUT, this doesn't necessarily make me a better teacher than someone who is less of a pedant.

PS: Fora is fine, there is nothing pretentious about being correct!

lol @ 'boffoon' - a cross between a boffin and a buffoon?

feralgirl - that paragraph describes one of my stepdaughters down to a T. she's great at English but always rushes her work. we know this from seeing her do homework etc - that she's not producing anywhere near her best. it's so frustrating. but her report just says 'C is very good at writing' or some such drivel.

nobody's answered my question about why the damn statement banks are used at all...

I'd say something

the teachers do tend to milk it a bit "ohhh we are so busy", aint we all!!!!! no excuse for poor attention to detail

anyway....

So agree with you clumsymum. My dd's Reception report congratulated her on her accurate use of full stops and capital letters in a three line sentence with - you guessed it - no full stops or capital letters. Was spitting blood. Am impressed that your primary school teaches Spanish though!

No porcamiseria - some teachers fo tend to milk it- the rest of us just get on with the job.

I worked in a school once that had a statement bank system which you could also type into to make a personal comment at the end. I found the statement banks counter productive as it slowed me down trying to find a statement that matched what I had in my head. I just typed the reports straight in.

'PS: Fora is fine, there is nothing pretentious about being correct!'

Hurrah!

Thanks everyone for your support, both of my complaint and my use of the word "fora".

I really do feel that my son's class teacher could/should have done better with this. She has 27 children in the class, and as I said earlier, reports don't come as a surprise, she could easily have started doing one or two a day from half-term onwards (or, dare I say it, over half term).

I did mention it to a fellow governor yesterday (while we were working at the school fete). Her child's report, from a different teacher, was a great improvement on the previous year in terms of how it was written. It seems that my son's teacher has just not made the effort that I feel the task merits.

I am going to mention it to the HT, in terms of worrying about how such a document would be received by other parents. I'm going to ask her to tell me what the worst section in the report actually means.

I'm very heartened by all you teachers on here who have said you double-check your reports, and particularly those who properly, personally write/type the reports, rather than relying on a system of stock-phrases which can be pasted in. I think I need to re-start that campaign in our school next year. I allowed our head to persuade me (and the other governors) that it is now ALWAYS done the cut & paste way.