Do you discuss school reports and more importantly levels with your children?

[fellcreat]

Hi

We are just due to get our YR2 reports. DS has recently started talking about NC levels: so and so got a 2A for writing e.t.c. This is for work they have done in class.
This has not come from me or I am sure his teacher, he must get it from talking with his friends. He asked to see his YR1 report and was interested in how he had done and seems excited about getting his new one. I am not sure how much emphasis I want to put on his report, I have always praised his effort, tried to look for areas to help hime with, told him he is really good at science e.t.c rather than his actual grades . I can't avoid spending some time discussing it all with him now but I don't want it all to become a competition with his friends about Levels, learning should be more than that. Interest, inquisitivness, following an idea not A, B, C's at 7. Not sure what I am going on about really, must sound a bit mad! It kind of feels like a loss of innoncence.

I don't care about levels, but do discuss teachers' comments with my DCs.

At my DC school each child sees his/ her own report and writes a comment.

Don't really see this as op's 'loss of innocence', but it is v different from how I remember my own school reports, always top secret til parents chose to show their Dc.

And FWIW I think that children DO know pretty much where they fit into the class through day-to-day lessons so don't need to compare report marks. They all seem matter -of - fact about it

The school tells the children what their grades are from about year 2. They do assessments every term and they are told their results individually so their report is no surprise.

Naturally the children compare them. Basically the school admits that part of their job is to improve on that grade year in year out.

I volunteer in school, and even in their literacy and numeracy groups they know which is the top table and which is the bottom table but the ones in between are a bit more difficult for them to guess. They haven't been told but they work it out.

I don't believe they lose their innocence, the grades are just part of learning. My two sons 9 and 6 just take it in their stride, it is just part of life like knowing that little Jack is better at football but hopeless at cricket.

No I do not discuss levels because I am only just beginning to understand them and do not really get the point of them. But I do discuss the comments made by teacher. DS1 is in YR2 too and is not interested in positions yet, because he knows he is doing well. It may change later.

I let DS1 (7) read his form teacher's and head master's overall report, but not the rest of it. He is able and I don't want him to get self-conscious. The school gives out loads of certificates, smiley faces, badges etc etc - so no danger of him feeling that his progress and effort is not recognized! DS2 (4) loves to look at his pre-school 'reports' because they consist primarily of pictures of him playing with his friends .

I mention teacher's comments and we talk about them (the good and bad). From Y3, DS has been told NC levels in school so he is aware of what level he is working at.

DD (YrR) wanted to see her school report. The teacher handed them sealed envelopes and explained the reports were in there and that 'Mummy and Daddy might read some of the report to you'. I let DD read the overall comments from the teacher and HT, but not the body of the report (there were no FSP levels included in it, we received those on Parents Evening) as it was 4 pages long! I told her that the teacher and HT were extremely proud of her work, progress and behaviour this year and that Mummy and Daddy were too.

Would I show DD her levels in the future? No.

no We have only ever looked at the Tried hard column with them, if there is an area they aren't trying in we ask why and if they have tried hard with everything we totally praise.
The only people who discuss actual achievement are DH and I without the kids around.

I discuss effort and behaviour in primary school and all of it in secondary school.

We do let DD read her report, but it is written to both the child and parent as there are areas in it for the child to improve and congratulations where they have done well. We don't get NC levels, but percentages and the group average so you are able to see roughly where the child falls.
Life is a competition and the sooner you realise that the harder you work the further you go the better.

Apart from years 2 and 6 parents are not routinely told their child's level at our school, if parents want to speak to the teacher about it then they can. The reports say if the child is progressing satisfactorily and whether they are working below,at or above the level expected for their age. I can't see why they would need to tell you how your child compares to others in their class, as cohorts vary in ability.

I would and do tell DS (7) and year 3 if he asks. He knows his levels and that it basically means he's year 2 level in writing, year 3 reading and year 4 in maths!

I don't see there is value in hiding them. Everything I have said to DS has been positive and he knows I am meeting his current and new teacher Monday to discuss how we can help him with his writing.

By hiding it all level wise and just being proud you risk your DC's assuming they are top of the class and eventually at years 6 SATS and secondary when hormones are at their worst them also having to deal with the fact they realise that they aren't. < I have seen this happen>.

I am proud of DS whatever his level and he knows it. But it is important that I and he know he needs support in writing or where's the benefit in actually having levels otherwise?

Our school asks for the children to comment on their reports on a return form which has a box for parent comment and a box for child comment, so I do discuss the reports with them. DS2's hand-written comment was 'I finc my report is esxiting I like it' or similar. We did talk about what his teacher had written. DS1 is in Year 3 so he's very aware of his levels (which parents aren't told about on the report or otherwise). He tells me he's aiming for level 4 but I have no idea really what that means.

I think the personal comments at the end of the report are the most important to share with my DSs.

My dd has read her report it is important for them to recognise what areas they are good at and what areas need some work.

I think it is also very important for them to see how thier effort and hard work is also valued and what it means to thier own development. what is the point of putting all that effort into learning and getting on well with other people if they cant see the importance and how what they have achieved relates to moving on.

My dd asked what the levels mean and I showed her the explination grid. I did however explain to her that average attainment is very broad with in the class room and so where it says expected does not mean that everyone should and does fit neatly into this bracket all of the time. She is 6 and fully understood this.

Im not a mathematical person but I did explain that it is where all the children across the whole country at the same age are compared and so she understood that her class is very small in comparision so may not always be representative.

I dont think it matters that children are able to discuss levels amongst them selfs, what matters is that they are able to respect everyone for what they contribute so it does nt matter that little jonnie is only a 1c in reading at end yr one, but he is really good at understanding science of sports etc.

or sprorts not science of sports. that would be exceptional

We discuss comments - what is going really well and what she should try and work on a bit more- but not levels. But then we don't get levels on the report (hooray) . We just get a sheet sent to us telling us where she was in relation to the class in her exams and her percentile nationally.

I don't ever discuss levels...DD is 7 and in year three. This year she moved 2 levels in everything and was on target so I just told her that I was vry pleased for her and that she shoud be proud of herself because her teacher said she has done very well all year.

She gt As for effort which she was pleased about...I let her know that because to me...this is more easily undertood by a 7 year old.

Schools are encouraged to let all children know what level they are working on, and what they ned to do to achieve the next sub level. OFSTED love it!
Why do you say it's not come from the teacher ? Whatever teachers personal thoughts are about it, it really is flavour of the month / yr / decade with OFSTED, and sadly, too many people trust what OFSTED say, for many schools to then choose to ignore that.
When I mention levels to my dc (and they are now older - there wasn't the same emphasis when they were in Yr2) it's more about measuring their progress from a previous measure, than any kind of comparison with 'national average'. They come home, proud to have got the next level.

Ds took one look at his report this time (year R) and read the first sentence. "XX comes happily into school" and commented "No I don't I hate school!" He doesn't really, he just likes to keep that image up.

I usually let them see after we have looked. If there are negative/areas for improvement then we discuss them, why they've got that, and how they/we can help. I don't usually worry about academic result/levels.

I always discuss the reports. I also think we have a much nicer way of handing out the reports here. Kids are given their first report in a very nice folder to take home and subsequent reports fit nicely in said folder year on year.

When the reports are handed out, the teacher calls each child to the front, hands the report over and says a few nice comments to each child. Small gesture but makes end of year more special.

I have always read the entirety of my children's reports with them.

They do not contain levels - just above / in line with / below national expectations and a grade for 'attitude to learning' for each subject.

Can't see any reason why not to, tbh. They also write their own 'reports' as an exercise in self-evaluation, and these are included in the same envelope, so we read those as well and have a bit of a giggle if the same phrase is used in both teacher's and child's versions, or if the two are very different. Equally parents' evenings always include the children as well as the adult.

I can't remember what I did with KS1 SATs results - don't think that I shared those. I read DS's KS2 ones with him.

I write reports knowing that most children will see them - in some cases, they will read them to their parents as we have a high level of parental illiteracy where I teach. I would expect a parent to share the main messages at least with their child. If there was a major concern or worry about a child, I would be addressing it through inviting parents in for a meeting anyway, rather than waiting to write it in a report....

I would also be very surprised if your children were in any way surprised by anything written about them in a report IYSWIM. In this day and age, talk of progress and targets and learning objectives and next steps and even-better-ifs etc etc are a normal part of formative assessment every day in the classroom. Your child, unless they are very young indeed, will probably doing a fair bit of self and peer assessment against learning objectives on a regular basis. They should be very aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and of what they need to do to improve, and so what is written in their report should not ne new to them at all.

Inspired by my own children's reports, I got my class to write a small section of their own reports based on their self evaluation. None of them are wildly off the mark, and in soime cases their language is much more robust than mine though it contains exactly the same messages ('X is rubbish at spelling' is the child's version, 'X needs to think carefully about the phonics he knows when writing new words down' is mine.) They know it already - why keep their reports secret??

We read them together this year. DS2 promptly walked up to his best friend next day, and told him his levels (Reception).

DS1 - doesn't get levels on report, but teacher told me verbally. I wouldn't tell dS1, as he is bright, and he knows he's near the top of the class. I don't think he actually needs to know any more.

we let the Dc read the reports before we do, and then ask them what they think, and then discuss. We are more conceerned wth effort and participation and progress than the levels

They read their own reports avidly.
Their reports never say anything I didn't expect.
DH finds reports amusing & loves to quote bits back at DC.
I Barely discuss at all. More likely to discuss non-statuatory-reporting SAT numbers that they occasionally mention. Discuss stuff they need to work on, more like, all year.