Teachers - re reports

[Jinsei]

We got dd's report today. It was very detailed and informative, and very personal - I'd have known the teacher was talking about dd even if it didn't have her name on it. Lots about her academic progress but also about how she is as a person. I felt that the teacher really knows my dd. It must have taken her forever to write 30 reports like that, but it meant so much to me to read it.

So I just wanted to say thank you to all the amazing and dedicated teachers out there who spend hours and hours of their own time writing reports that really capture the individual children and what they're like in school. It's time that you will never get back, but your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Oh how lovely. I used to love it with nursery reports when I could recognise my child in them. Looking forward with interest to DS's first school report next week (not least because I have very little clue what he gets up to every day!), I hope we get one like that.

A lovely post! Thank you

:) I hope you do too catkind.

Incidentally, I am not suggesting that all teachers necessarily should spend hours writing such detailed reports. Heaven knows, they've got enough other things to keep them busy and I would not want this to be yet another thing that teachers are under pressure about.

But I would like those who do find the time to write reports like this to know how much they're appreciated and enjoyed.

This is so lovely to hear. Please consider giving your child's teacher this feedback (if you haven't already).

I remember spending weeks perfecting my class reports. My school always sent out a parent's response slip with them. I only ever got one back, which more or less read like your post. It meant so much to me and made all late nights worth while.

Aw that's lovely! Honestly- you should hear how they moan in the staff room about writing them...

Our school sends out a reply slip as well, with space for both the parents and the child to comment. I have already filled it in, and I have said how grateful we were for the detailed and personal nature of the report. Will get dd to add her comments in the morning. Am that you sometimes only get one back!

My only complaint about our school's reply form is that it barely allows any space for the parents to write - just a couple of lines. DD's teacher has been absolutely amazing this year, and I wanted to say so much more. I will write a letter of thanks to her anyway, but it would have been nice to have been able to feed back more formally, if that makes any sense.

at moaning in the staffroom. Bet I would moan too if I had 30 bloody reports to write! I hate to think how long it must take them...

And I can so understand the temptation to cut & paste!

I would second- please tell your teacher this lovely message. Thank you cards/messages always mean tonnes more to me than an end of term box of chocs!

And I third. Tell the teacher.

I had a parent tell me that the child's report had made her cry. She was quite an intimidating mum so I was a bit wary, but then she said that I had summed him up so well that she felt like I'd really got him.

Positive feedback sticks, so please do pass it on. If you write it down, all the better- the teacher can put it into their standards file!

Our primary does reports like this. They are brilliant.

It's then a big disappointment to see the generic computer-generated soundbites that they get in secondary - in DD1's Yr8 report you could clearly see which teachers had used comment banks and which hadn't. The ration was about 50/50.

Ds3 has had a fabulous teacher this year. She's very young and quite new to teaching and I know some of the parents would have preferred one of the older more established teachers but I have not heard one criticism of her by anyone which is really rare. She must have spent hours doing the reports. She knew the children so well. Ds has made her a lovely card and I have sent a letter to let her know how much i appreciate it. This is their last day of school today. They break for the holidays at lunchtime.

We got a lovely report from DD's teacher last year - it was obvious from reading it that she really, really knew DD. I wrote a heartfelt thanks on the reply slip and the teacher was really touched by it, in fact the HT came to see me at parents evening to also say she was touched by our response.

I won't hesitate to relay my thanks again this year - DD has the same teacher as last year, as she's in a small village school. As such, I anticipate the school report - which we will receive next week - will be a very personal one again.

At DS1 infant school the reports were so generic you would never be able to pick out the child being discussed, very formal and nothing personal really, my friend even had her son referred to as 'she' all the way through.

At new school it is much better, detailed grades and more personal comments, I would rather have a list of grades then a personal comment from the teacher than this standard wording that is copied and pasted. All teachers at DSs new school swap reports and proof read each others, a mammoth task really but saves upset with parents when they are lots of mistakes.

I understand teachers are busy as are many people in many jobs but I really think it means an awful lot to parents and children to have meaningful school reports, I think a short personal report is much better than a lengthy generic thing but guessing Ofsted have a lot of input.