What would you like to see on your DCs school report?

[ItsDecisionTime]

I'm in the "information overload" category and like to have a real-time portal so I can see exactly how DD is performing on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, her senior school is in the "less is more" category and it's driving me nuts. What information would you say constitutes a really informative report?

DCs school now have GO4schools which has the sort of information that you want on a weekly basis. It has all the scores of the assessments this year. The termly progress report and the written report. Also has behaviour monitoring

DD's is dreadful a sheet with the subject name, the target reached and a comment saying below target, reached target or above target.
DD was below target in every subject but 2, I was horrified after hearing how well she was doing at parents evening.
I spoke to the head of year who said it just meant she was working towards the target, it is a long term target and she was predicted to reach or exceed it in every subject

I'm curious OP why do you feel that need all this info weekly. I'm on the other end of the spectrum life is so much easier here I'd recommend it.

I made a considered decision to send DD to a private secondary school and I suppose I'm very focused on whether I'm getting any value from my decision. A report which just shows how well she performs against other members of her class isn't cutting it and I don't want to get to GCSEs to find out she her options are limited and I've wasted a lot of money when she'd have done just as well at the local academy.

I as many on MN are aware also send my DS2 to an independent (boarding) school. I'm not hard up but like value for money like you do.
We get reports termly in them is usually written his position in his class, and I often know which set he's in for many subjects so if I take the view that if he's in the top set for a subject and 3rd in the class at a super selective he's doing pretty well what more do I need to know? How many times can the school tell me this? I don't need a breakdown of all his class work, tests etc. Surely it's the overall marks that matter not that your DC doesn't do as well one week but well the rest of the time? We also get the termly exam marks although the marks are only a reflection of the level for the exam sat so 85% on a past pre U paper (he's yr 11) is for me more impressive than 100% on a past IGCSE paper, on top of this we meet with his teachers once a year that plenty for me. We also I think get effort marks 1/2 termly on line which I usually forget to access. I trust the school if there was an issue they would sort it out, isn't that what we're paying for? If there was a very serious problem I have absolutely no doubt they would contact us, if I'm worried I have all staffs emails I can contact them at any time, academic expectations are exceedingly high the boys are very aware of this and that those who are not meetings them will eventually be asked to leave.
I personally there is nothing more I need to know and don't feel any more reports parent teacher meetings etc would make any difference to my knowledge of how well my DS is doing.
One last thing I also ask him how he feels he's doing, he's sensible and ambitious so if he's happy then it's likely he's doing OK.

I can see where you are coming from and I too send DS to a private school. I like to know how he is doing because we are in a hideously competitive area for schools. We are making sacrifices and we need to know he will get into a good secondary school or we would have to move. But really I just need to know that DS is meeting his potential. The school is very aware, from their testing, what that potential is and have always shared that with us. We know his predicted levels at 11. DS is the sort who would get eaten alive in our local secondary and our area is notoriously badly served once you get to 11.

We do get 2 school reports which always give marks in all subjects for both school work and the exam. I also get the class average and effort ratings. The narrative does not usually tell me anything I did not know but often gives a brief idea of which areas in the exam DS lost marks. That way, you know where to give support if you want to. Exam scripts are always available from the teacher if more information is required. The school also do the NFER progress in Literacy/maths/reading/spelling and you can therefore get the 'external benchmark' as to how well the school and your child fares within their age cohort.

We also get two parents evenings but the teachers and headmaster make themselves very available at other times to discuss anything. They are very responsive and never defensive regarding any concerns.

I cannot imagine wanting more information. If you worried about GCSE's your school should know now something about her potential from CATs or similar. They should also have predicted levels, although these are not cast in stone. If you know your DD's class position and you know how well the school does generally, that should give you an idea of how things could pan out.

I would rather the teaching staff were teaching, and planning interesting work for the next day/week, rather than spending ridiculous amounts of time reporting every time a child sneezes or puts their hand up to answer a question.

I would too BackforGood but I think my point would be that all schools spend a huge amount of time testing children (and I think our state school did more testing than our private school) but not all schools share that information with interested parents. If the info is there, it does not take much time to share it in written form.

I would not want a weekly account but relevant information termly is brilliant.

Thank you justbecause. It sounds like your school has their finger on the pulse. I don't know what DDs levels are, whether she's progressing in the right direction, what her targets are. I don't even find out that in Maths she's dropped from 3rd in the year to the bottom 5% of the year in one term until I see it on her school report. The school collects really good data from CATs and YELLIS but they don't do anything with it. All I want is for DD to work within her potential, I'm not interested one bit in how everyone else is doing in the class when there's no supporting data around her mark.

I'm happy with the half term assessments & full term reports from my DD's school (it's a step up from the 2 reports yearly that she had before). They both show grades and targets/comments are on the full report.

I trust that the school and my DD would let me know if there was a problem outside of these timescales.

I think weekly reporting would take up too much of the teachers' time and is totally unnecessary in my opinion. Can you not look at your DD's books/homework to see how she's doing?

Just to be clear, I'm not looking for a weekly report. Just a transparent parent portal where I can see how she's been marked for class, homework, tests, behaviour, effort. I know this involves the teachers diligently marking work and that might be the issue. Some of her work books haven't been marked since September.