School reports..How much do you share?

[starlight1234]

I don't mean with fb but with your child. I have read selective sections to my DS but have since wondered if this is what everyone else does?

DD1 is in Y4 and she will be given this year's report to read as she's asked if she may - it doesn't have anything in it that's unexpected, unwarranted or likely to cause upset. DD2 has just finished Reception and has expressed no interest in her report whatsoever so she's unlikely to be reading hers.

DH and I are both teachers so have seen rather a lot of reports by the time we receive the DCs'. I always write the reports to the parents but with the expectation that they will be shared with the children one way or another. Some children will be called upon to translate the report into their home language, others will need to read it to their parents because the parents' own literacy skills aren't strong enough to do so themselves. With that in mind, I try to ensure I haven't used lots of jargon and that the messages within the report are straightforward.

I have to read aloud Ds' report to his father as he is blind so DS listens as I read and has done since year 3, now year 5. Though I do quickly browse through it just in case there are issues needed to be discussed between his father and me without DS being around.

I let DD read hers (Y2) and I did last year too. I've always explained that the levels she's achieving are private and not to be discussed with her friends and I trust her to respect that.

Starlight I'm interested/surprised your DS was told what SATs papers he was sitting. DD's school were very low key and whilst she knew something was occurring ("We had to do our very best writing ") there's no way they discussed levels etc.

Bararawoodlouse I am surprised too. It was only when I read his report he mentioned it. They called them assessemnts rather than SATS . I don't know if he even did sit a 3C paper but he certainly thinks he did.

Mine read all of theirs, but that is because the report is good and they are very encouraged and built up by reading it.
How wonderful is it as a 7 year old to read that you are a delight to teach, or for my year 6 to be told how hard he had worked and he deserved the good results he got.

BUT I read it first, and if I did not think it would encourage them and build them up, I would give them the edited bits.
Sometimes the teacher needs to say something to parents, eg that they are concerned over little Johnny's reading for example, and that reading more often at home would help them, which is not intended for the child to read directly. I would filter that and would expect parents to filter that.

My son yr2 read his school report at school before bringing it home. They are given in envelopes sealed but he asked his teacher if he could have a look at it during free reading time....he got home very interested to discuss the whole thing...including what the different levels meant........we re-read together then did the same with daddy when he came home...he was proud to tell us i know where i need to work on etc quickly getting that over he then revisited all his levels and especially the over exceeded levels he seemed to have received an extra boost in himself...although i really wanted to look at how we could improve his handwriting i left it for that day and let him celebrate.. a week later we are now chatting on what he needs to work on for his next level in year 3. yes sometimes kids are way ahead of us,,i tried to read and share only few bits but he said read it out aloud and read everything!! so some 7yr old might want the whole thing...however in my house we talk and analyse things in details from when he was little so maybe he is used in that...

I share it all, good and bad. At primary school our reports were given to us directly, not issued to our parents, so it has never occurred to me that they aren't meant to be read by the children.

DS (yr4) is quite level focused ( thanks to his school ) so that was the first thing he wanted to know which then meant DD (yr1) wanted to know her levels too (which mean nothing to her).

I did let both DC read their report & DD was most chuffed because the HT comment was aimed at her (rather than me) which made her day

DD2 liked to read hers, if only to see if the HT had learnt to spell her name.

He finally got it right in her final Y6 report!

Not sure I should have let her read ' littler elephant is impeccably behaved' she already had a head the size of a planet.

DD1's I tended to glance over and read her highlights (as she's dyslexic and couldn't have read them herself when small). When older she'd have a massive rant at bigger Elephant needs to learn to work in groups.

"No I don't my class mates need to learn not to leave me out and my teacher needs to put me with nice people!"

Seriously Mrz DCs do read their own reports and they give very forthright opinions of exactly which bits they feel are fair and where they think their teachers are idiots.

Even if we don't give them to them directly, they get left lying around for Dah to read and filed in the dinning room draw, where the DDs are perfectly at liberty to rummage.

DD1 is 16 and perfectly capable of working in groups now her peer group have grown up!

Ours are given to us in sealed envelopes, addressed to the parents, but the assumption is clearly that children will see them as the acknowledgement form has a space for comments from the child as well as one for comments from the parents. I have always shared dd's report with her, but it is invariably very positive so no real reason why not. She always knows her levels in any case.

I picked up DS from school today, as soon as he was out of classmates' earshot, he opened the envelope with great pride and read the report to me.

... Then, after telling me about his wonderful grades, he started complaining on how unfair it was he only got an average in PE (rolls eyes]

In one of my very first threads on MN, I got absolutely blasted for asking a similar question. I also discovered that the practice here of a parent evening which the child does not attend is apparently unusual, and was accused of lying when I explained that it was standard practice in the schools here. I was pretty surprised by the whole thing.

I would word my comments very differently for a child ... it is called reporting to parents for a reason.
Yep. That's what I think. Agree too that it depends on the particular child and what the effect of the comments is likely to be.

My son has just turned 6 and will start Year 2 in Sep. He doesn't know what a report is. He gets good comments and decent "grades". His teachers say he is good at listening to instructions and feedback which is the same at home and often when he has hw he explains the task before I look at the sheet. He loves school and comes home telling us the feedback he received, showing us stickers he earned and telling us that he has to read more Spanish books, etc.

So we don't share anything with him and ideally will keep reports out of his head for a bit longer.

No mrz because in Germany you don't go to school when you are 4.

OK are future employers really interested in what you did when you were seven or nine or tweleve ?

It has never occurred to me not to read the reports together. The report contains information for the parent, but also messages for the child.

I always provide a separate message for the child about their year and wishing them well in their next class ...

As soon as they can read we will both read it, discuss it, then save it to throw on the BBQ in the summer.

I always read mine on the way home from school and attended parents evenings to the annoyance of the teachers.

I just read the teachers personal comment to dd as it was lovely. I told her the report said she'd done very well and that she had tried hard and I was proud of her. I don't think she would have taken in half of what I said if I has read out each comment. She's just turned 5 in year r.

Ours are in a sealed envelope addressed to parents by name. I read them first then discuss them with the DCs. They are quite lengthy and although DS always asks to read them by the time I've finished he has usually gone off to do something else. I'm a bit wary of just letting them read them as they would be comparing grades with one another, aldo DS has SNs and struggles, although the reports are worded kindly it sometimes makes depressing reading. I don't look forward to reading them myself.

Mine is in reception. She just knows that her teacher says she's been a good girl and we are v proud of her. We deliberately have chosen not to share the report or details of it with her.

My DS (y5) read his with me, as soon as he brought it home and we opened it. No opportunity to filter anything out or edit.

I don't see why children shouldn't read it, it's their education. I also don't think anything in there would be coming as a surprise, I've never read anything in any of my childrens' reports that I didn't already know.

We read ds1's report together. Always do. I don't see why a child shouldn't know how well (or otherwise) they're doing, and this is a simple way to show them.

Our reports come home in a sealed envelope addressed to parents. They don't have levels on at all, if that makes a difference.