Thoughts on this description of a 5 year old by a teacher.

[NorhamGardens]

What do you think of this description of a just turned 5 year old by a teacher?

'Georgia is a quaint character, she can be very mature and confident in her approach to adults but very infantile indeed and irresponsible when it comes to more practical issues such as looking after her own belongings...Georgia lacks confidence in her ability to achieve success and has poor motor control... her work is spoilt by poor presentation.'

I imagine that it was a bit hurtful, but agree with some posters that at least you are getting some real feedback, not just generic "aren't they all wonderful". I agree the wording (infantile esp) isn't v helpful, but suggest you ask for a meeting about how to tackle any practical issues she is experiencing. Reception is all about sorting out this sort of organisation, and I very much doubt that she is the only one finding this sort of thing tricky (also true for cl1!).

It's a horribly written report: 'lacks confidence in her ability to achieve success' - no wonder when a teacher writes like this about her. the child must have picked up on this kind of negativity.

This is terribly worded, and unprofessional in that anyone with an ounce of sense should see that it is likely to cause you to be less likely to help in addressing any issues. One of the things I found hardest about adjusting to teaching youngsters was phrasing reports to parents, but I'd have never written anything like this.

But there are some really important points being made, and I would take the negative comments as being relevant to the age group, even if the pomposity suggests otherwise.

Have a meeting, ask for clarity on specifics and on what you might do, but also make it clear you find the tone innappropriate. Remember you don't know the tecaher well, nor (s)he you, and that your feedback on her report may well be valuable. (S)he does at least seem to know your child a little, and be willing to raise concerns.

When this five year old is a highly successful adult, she can dine out on this report, just like the following

Beryl Bainbridge, novelist: "Though her written work is the product of an obviously lively imagination, it is a pity that her spelling derives from the same source. Geography: Her knowledge of the subject is so poor as to make one wonder if she is simple-minded."

Winston Churchill: "is a constant trouble to everybody and is always in some scrape or another. He cannot be trusted to behave himself anywhere."

Actually, I'd like to receive reports like this with the gory bits left in. All we get is anodyne and it's impossible to tell which child the report is written about, let alone how well he's progressing.

Good on the teacher. Some people are far too touchy about these things.

Indeed, Wheels, but she may well become successful because when she was five the teacher identified some problems and the school and the parent worked together to overcome then.

id be happy with certain things and furious at others , the infantile comments pathetic but the aspect mentioning poor motor control needs you to seek a more full explanation and then if your still worried go to see gp for a referal to a child development paed but overall ignoring the teachers awful non PC speak its a good report

It's not pleasant but I'd rather have detailed than pleasant.

To me it sounds like stop leaping in to help her at her first moan and encourage her to do stuff for herself. And work on her motor control.

i would rather have a report like that than one like my old Music teacher wrote about me - detailing that "She tries hard but has no natural skill in music" - I had, at that point, A) near perfect pitch B) 3 years of music lessons under my belt C) grade 4 ability on the electric organ D) grade 4 ability on the cornet and E) fluent sight-reading ability for musical score.

She very clearly didn't manage to remember who I was whilst writing the report. She could have more realistically written "Colditz is bombastic and over confident, and needs to learn to play in a group instead of trying to dictate" - but she didn't.

I suspect that what you have here is an accurate report, rather than a scatter minded generic one.

have a meeting with the headteacher and ask why the head is allowing such unprofessional comments to be made. The teacher clearly needs re-training.

It's just a bit waffly, isn't it? What the heck is a 'quaint character' when it's at home? Or an infantile infant?

Teacher needs to learn to write coherently.

Why do so many people suggest rushing off to the head when the first port of call should, of course, be the teacher?!

It's no wonder teachers stick to vague phrases for reports if, when they try and write anything more specific, they get slapped down.

Agree it's not the best phrasing but there are some important words there.

Maybe we should just write "Your child is lovely" every year and be done with it.

I would respond:

"So teacher x, whay are YOU going to do about this, and how would you like ME to help?"

Or, better put, would be what SnapFrakkleAndPop (hello again!) wrote.

I think its time the OP had a face-to-face chat with the teacher who wrote that report for further clarification.

Absolutely agree - why would you talk to the head before you have talked to the teacher?

Having seethed for a while, I think if this were my child I would welcome the thought that had been put into it, resent (but probably not mention) the appalling phrasing, and go and ask the teacher for a meeting to discuss what you and they are going to do to help DD.

What I would think is ... that the teacher lacks tact; but as long as I thought she was fair to my child when dealing directly with her, I wouldn't complain about that report.

"Poor presentation" just means "messy writer", no?!

Maybe infantile was a polite way of saying she lays on the floor and screams because she can't be bothered to look for her PE kit?

I think the word 'infantile' was used because it is a polar opposite to her previous word 'mature'.

Agree that it's a shame that this directness isn't used more often but the wording is a shock when we are used to more honeyed phrases.

But - is this your DDs school report?

sounds like my dd... but you would not put it that way on paper now would you? the teacher should have written something along the lines of..

but g has not yet learnt to organise and look after her belongings and needs to learn this before going into year1.

the rest is not too bad, although it is best to finish with a positive statement.

I am a teacher who says it as it is when I write reports (bit I'm not primary)

As a parent, I'd rather I got the truth than over the top positive (which are the guidelines usually!!).

I'm a teacher too, I write accurate reports which are well-phrased and give clear guidance on how we could progress.
So I wouldn't have written this one.

I'm a teacher, my first thought was REPORT BANK. Well slightly amended word bank.

OP- I don't think the teacher likes your child. I would read that as she thinks she is very demanding of adults time and wants the teacher to look after her stuff in the way you would. I think she is hinting that you should encourage her to have more faith in herself.