School reports...

[bummer]

just had latest ones. It is early days and I am fed up of everyone saying how clever my children are. Ok they do always get excellent reports but it's very early days and I have no idea how bright they are or are not in comparision to their classmates, comparing with the state figures means very little to me. Anyone else in similar position when it comes to understanding if the teachers just praise everyone when they are at primary school level or do teachers say when it is not so????

I think the reports depend on the type of school, I teach in a school with very little parental involvement or contact. Thereforre on my reports I write roughly what we have done and what skills the particular child has.

We do have reporting software although to be honest I just treat it as word and type them in as no two children are the same. I may just cut and paste the odd statement with regards to what we have studied. I tend to write between 150 - 250 words depending on the child. This can be time consuming , as I teach about 250 kids but I find it pays dividends.

I write positive reports as many of the kids I teach will not get positivity from anyone else in their lives but I will be honest. So if a child misbehaves or does not work I will say this. If a child is not working to their expected level , is not doing homework or is just struggling I will say so and give constructive advice. I tend to use phrases like "lapses in focus and behaviour have prevented from achiveing his target level" or "Too often is talking when he should be working" or * has made little progress in this subject as he finds it difficult to mantain standards of behaviour that allow himself and those around him to work"

THis debate reminds me of the current debate going on about Ofsted's use of satisfactory to describe schools it sees as far from satisfactory.

MB I too wish you taught my kids.
Maybe we'll move to where you live when they are secondary school age.
Having had reception class reports for DS1 and DD, two very different characters, I can now see that DS1's was less impressive in a veiled way.
With DD I can read between the lines and see that she's a bit bossy ("often lets others have their say") etc etc
I agree I'd rather have the honest truth.

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