What do you really want in a school report?

[letthembe]

So I am sat here, at the start of my report writing mountain, deadline is set and my 'journey' to the summit has been broken into stages. But what I want to know is what do parents really want to read in the child's end of year report?

Personally, I'm only really interested in the general comments. And I hate reports written on report assist!

What she's doing well?
What she's struggling with?
Is she happy?
What next?

and
Is she behaving?

"Orm3 is a delightful child, a pleasure to have in the class and a joy to teach. He is brilliantly intelligent, hard-working and immensely knowledgable. The best child I have taught in my long career. In fact, aware that I will never again encounter such an amazing all-rounder and delight, I am handing in my board rubber forthwith - life can hold greater joy than teaching this superb child"

That would do.

This:
'Is his reading/writing/maths on track, behind or ahead?
Is he behaving himself?
Is he okay socially?
Is he making an effort, busting a gut or coasting?
Is he happy?'

and some mention of what he does well/likes doing most/isn't keen on/needs support with (my son is just about to start Year One).

Orm - the trouble is, we generally get reports not that glowing, but pretty much along the lines of 'DD is enthusiastic and hard working / her writing is progressing well / she has participated in X this year with great interest'

That would be great, if it actually corresponded to the reality of dd's school career . . . (I suppose it kind of does, in parts, it just misses out some crucial bits!)

I would really like some indication for the main skill areas of how well my child is progressing relative to an expected norm for the year - the KS curriculum levels would do just fine.

Most useful report, a parents evening when we were given back some y5 "SATs" papers, now I know what she's doing in maths and how well she's doing it - Great no waffle and no having to google the NC levels.
Least helpful, a crass cut and paste comment about DD1s lack of social skills.
Not being able to make friends or feel part of a group upsets DD1 and simply stating she needs to improve this is a gross over simplification. The teacher knew DD very well and should have been a bit more tactful, y6s like to read their reports.

Oh I know which skill areas DS2 needs to progress in! All of them And thankfully his teachers can't wait to tell me when he makes some progress so I have some idea already.

But I'd love to see a really glowing fulsome report (but only if it was correct of course) Hence the

(if I am really honest- I just want to hear that you like her, that she is pleasant and pays attention. Then I don't worry about school)

otherwise in terms of achievement : I like to read that she is on top of things and if not, just what exactly needs to be worked on. Tell me straight : following things need to be worked on in maths... then I know where I am and I will tackle it

I can live with clear words and I really don't need it dressed up to sound more positive than that really.

If my dc were unpopular, misbehaving in class etc, I would like to know that. In fact I would like to come in and discuss what to do about it

I want to know his strengths and weaknesses and how he gets on with his peers. Although ds generally receives positive reports, the reports tend to be more negative than the consultation meetings. The consultation meetings aren't really that useful. I would prefer them to scrap parents evenings and send out detailed termly reports.

Phew...i'm glad I'm not the only one. Every year I despair at the politically correct bollocks I'm given in the report.

Do I really give a rats arse if my son has (and I quote) "...investigated cam mechanisms and can identify knowledgeably the different movements produced by a wide range of cams"

FFS. Tell me where he's struggling. How he's done throughout the year (and I'll even accept a sentence like "xx has done great this year...."

Tell me if you have concerns or if I should be helping him in a particular area or not. Above all, I'd like a few sentences which are the teacher's personal opinion, not some politically sanitised computer generated bullshit designed to make sure the school does not get sued by some parent who can't accept the fact that little Johnny is perhaps a "bit of a thug".

I would like you to call a spade a bloody shovel. If DS is a pain in the arse and needs sorting, then I wish you could say so. However, as a teacher, I am all too aware that this is not allowed! Oh, what I could write about some kids if only the Head would let me!

This is a good summary
'Is his reading/writing/maths on track, behind or ahead?
Is he behaving himself?
Is he okay socially?
Is he making an effort, busting a gut or coasting?
Is he happy?'
Also targets for next year
We do not want the who class enjoyed ...
bland working within, below,above comments.
Unfortunately we get the latter.

I like everything in the report - I like to know about art, PE, social education as well as the bog standards reading, writing, literacy, etc. I also like the more personal comments which always make me smile about my DSs' personalities.

I don't like the typos and grammatical errors (perhaps that is just my DSs' school though). It doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Echo so much of what you all are saying. I'm a teacher and a parent. I would much rather spend more words on English and Maths and forget about topic stuff. Unfortunately our schoolbase report set up gave us a limit on the amount of characters we could use so I had to do some clever editing and ultimately leace out things i wanted to include.leave out I am however interested in their sporting and artisitic abilities. The only comment I ever find useful from my own children's reports is the general comment which addresses their personalities. The rest of the report is a waste of time. Teacher speak, blah, blah , blah.
Fortunately as a primary school teacher, I know my own children's abilities and where they are at and what they need pushing with.
I think back nostalgically to my own primary school reports. They said a lot more but used a lot less words to say it!

I'm with Orm

Include national curriculum levels
tell me about his personality
tell me where his strengths and weaknesses are
tell me about his behaviour - honestly
and don't use a bank of comments for school reports - we can tell.

Sorry, this is just an interjection.....and I absolutely understand that not all reports fit parents' requirements.

However.... teacher spend hours and hours writing the reports (personally I spent 3 days of half term (6+ hours a day) then 3 evenings when back to school). If you have suggestions about what to add to reports, you need to inform the headteacher (who also spends many, many hours checking reports). Moaning about omissions here (or saying what you want in a report) does not gain anything.

Don't want any bumph about what has been studied. I know that cos I look in the books and talk to my children. Hate the same on all reports- very obvious if you have twins in same class.
Don't want National Curriculum levels, they mean nothing.
No to reports for PE, Art etc- not remotely interested.
Give me reading ages, exam percentages and class averages and potential for Oxbridge, that's what I'm paying for.

I have found previous reports very wishy washy with a lot of generalisation that could refer to any child in the class. Would prefer honesty, strengths and weaknesses, some idea of whether top, bottom or average in class for different subjects. She has been there three years and I still have no idea. Personality, how she gets on with teachers and peers, just truthful really, none of this cut and paste stuff...

emlu67 Because children work in groups, cut and paste is reasonable, as the same comments often apply to children in the same group.

I would rather have a few lines that are really about my child than pages of cut and paste.

I'm not talking about pages of cut and paste. I'm talking about cutting and pasting for a group's achievement. (The 'group' is a movable feast - it may be different for addition, multiplication, etc,etc.) Obviously, a few personal lines should be included.

But that's just it- I don't want to know about the "group".I KNOW whether child can add etc cos I've seen the work...