School reports

[lunalovegoodasgold]

What do you think?

DD's reports are well written. They are very persoanlised and haven't obviously been created from statement banks. DD gets one report a term. The first two were about 2/3rds side of A4, written in paragraphs more like a letter to DH and myself. The final one this term was divided into the 5 (or 6?) early year goal sections, with writing about what she can do, what she has ahcieved, with examples. They refer to the targets, but are not word for word from the documentation IYSWIM.

Was very happy with the way they were presented this year.

We have the three tier system here. when DDs were at first school (from R to Y4) their reports were the cut and paste waffle variety. When they moved to middle school (Y5 to Y8) they were given targets, which I think are linked to the SATS scores, eg 5a etc. This system works so much better. My DDs know exactly what target they are expected to achieve and also know the maximum they can achieve and so I have a really clear idea as to where they are performing in relation to the rest of their year group. There does also seem to be a bit of healthy competition amongst the pupils as they (mostly) want to do well. AFAIK the results are not public knowledge but my DDs usually know what scores their friends have.

We used to have the cut-and-paste waffle with no quantitative information, but now have markings for attainment against national average and effort (1-5, 3 average, higher numbers good). There was a questionnaire to find out whether parents preferred the additional information, and, surprise surprise, an overwhelming majority did.

lljkk, I would have refused to answer your question on the grounds that it's my child's mark, not mine, and for him to decide whether to divulge the information. That's the line I took when asked about Year 2 results anyway. Having had several teachers demonstrate a complete lack of social skills in communicating to me that they thought my children had problems in that direction, I have lost all respect for that particular section of the report.

cece, I had another child's ICT report as well. Perhaps we've got each other's

Reports aren't really worth getting steamed up about until the Year 5 one (some secondary schools ask for that). But I'm keeping them for the amusement value when one of my children sorts out the Middle East despite a lack of social skills (well, I can dream...).

There was a lovely personal co0mment from the Head, and glimpses of personal, subjective comment from the class teacher - "well done Professor BoyBlu!" in the science bit.

I have ni interest in knowing how he is doing in relation to the rst of the class - that is not so much an indication of ability as the range and average of other children..being bottom in a class full of geniuses would not necessarily be a problem, Class position tells you nothing objective. But I would find it helpful if therewas some simple grading of how he is doing in relation to next year's SATS levles, or 'above, on or or below ' expected levels or national average.

But overall I am happy anyway, and very happy with what is happening. The teacher told me(when I asked, in response to DS's garbled explanation - I wouldn't have known otherwise) that DS was in a group who did v well in thier end of year assesment tests that the Deputy head suggested they take the Yr2 SATS test, just to see - and that DS did v well in it. But that isn't in the report.

I like Hallgerda's approach of 'it's his test to tell about, not mine'.

Nothing onm DD's report about how well she does against others in the class. However still only first year so I gyuess that may change. No SATs here, so we won't have that, but they do start doing their own exams from about Y3 onwards.

Head teacher also added omment on this last report - lovely touch.

We get the standard cut and paste "XX has done this and that and has a good understanding of X and Y". Blah blah blah... But some of the report is personalised, if a child has done particularly well, improved a great deal (like my DS#1 in maths ) or has specific problems. Also the class teacher and the head write summary paragraphs for each child which is personal to them.

We get a bit about how well the child is doing in comparison to national average on the years when they have done SATs but strangely no actual SATS scores this time.

I went in today and saw the Head - she was very nice and apologised. The report is being reprinted with the correct name.

I was really shaking though!

As a teacher i would like to add our point of view to this, in our reception class we currently write a half A4 page on the child's personal and social aspects of school, then a quarter page on numeracy,literacy and RE. For Knowledge and understanding, creative and physical,we do a tick system, 6 comments in each section and 3 attainable levels working at, below or above the expected level. This takes approximately 1 1/2 hours per child, often longer. This is a massive improvement on the previous format which took me 3 1/2 hrs per child, for 30 children that is a lot of extra, out of hours non paid work, we receive not a word of thanks from the parents despite the effort and time invested. Parents should not see this as their right but be thankful for the feedback from already overstretched teachers.

We get a printed list of subjects and above/at/below expected level. Nothing hand written no targets no evidence that a teacher has been in a room with the child and knows who they are.

In fact last year they had not removed the extra text. Therefore my child was found to be working below, at and above the expected level in maths, english and science at the same time - clever DD