End of year school reports

[Over40]

What do you expect to see in your DC's end of year report. Our school recently asked parents this question to try and improve what is currently sent out (although I think it's pretty good!), and the responses that came back were so varied it makes me wonder whether it is possible to have one format that delivers against everyones expectations.
Just interested in others opinion and your experiences.

Not so much what but when. I don't understand why end of year reports are sent out on the last day of term. It means you have to wait at least 6 weeks if you have anything you want to discuss with the teacher (who will not be your dcs teacher by then). Why can't they be sent out a couple of weeks before the end of term?

when teachers do a teacher to teacher handover of a class of children from one year's teacher to the next year's teacher, do they give more detail and clarity than the parents get in their reports or is it exactly the same?

Also i don't understand this whole target thing... if a child is (for example level 2A in something and the national target is 2A), then does that mean the child is in the 3rd quartile for what's expected of all children at that stage? If so, then getting children up to national targets doesn't sound very ambitious for the brighter kids... can someone explain how the national targets relate to different ability levels??

I would like NC curriculum levels, but the head does not agree with this, so we only get them in Y2 and Y6 when it is statutory. Instead we get two arbitary scales for effort and achievement which is hard to translate in how they actually are doing, and generic comments.

Being in the middle of writing end of year reports and looking for a handy diversion, I stumbled upon mumsnet!! Read a few comments and felp compelled to add a few of my own. I agree with fellow mumsnetter who would prefer to spend whit holiday with her own children rather than writing about the children she teaches. Especially when emails are then sent saying how unhelful reports are and how the teacher barely knew the child they were writing about.

Teachers the country over spend hours thinking of ways to be positive about all the children in their class because that is what is expected. We think of creative and imaginative ways to let parents know how 'difficult' and demansing their children can be. But too no avail. Be too positive and parents fell we are letting them down by not being honest enough. Be honest and accusations of negativity abound. It's a lose/lose situation.

I aim to be positive but honest when needed. Let's see what happens this year!

Loverofredshoes that's interesting your last comment.

May be I have been very lucky with my dc, but there school reports have always been xx is good at xxx, they like doing xxxx, they enjoy xxx, their xxx is doing well.

And I always feel like all negative things are avoided, as I can't believe there is nothing constructive negative that can be said.

Are school reports normally written on only positives, or should they be more rounded?

Surely that's reflective of the whole 'no child must feel a failure' culture we have these days in schools. It's well meaning but taken too far makes reports bland for everybody.

Glee that's what I think. Sometimes it can seem that they have used find and replace in word and just inserted the relevant name.

I have spent ages writing reports in years gone by, and try to be as honest as I can. However, your hands are very much tied. If a child is lazy, you cannot say 'Esmerelda is lazy.' So I would put something like 'Esmerelda is a very passive learner and must realise that, if she is to make the progress she is capable of, she needs to put in more effort.' However, then the parents would tell me that she works everso hard at home and it's simply that I scare her and so she can't work well. Needless to say, they haven't told me over the previous 9 months that I scare her!

As for having reports sent out on the last day of term, in my opinion that's rather naughty of the school - I was under the impression that parents had to have the opportunity to discuss the report with the teacher. Ours went out end of June and then the parents returned a slip to say they had received the report and any written comments they wished to make, and then there was an informal parents evening where the children's work was out on display and the teachers were available for a chat but no appointments were made.

Our reports get sent out in the post after they have broken up. They obviously want to ensure that we don't respond at all to the bland positive comments!!

Our reports are very negative honest - too honest really....sometimes things don't need to be said, things that can't be fixed and that don't really matter - dd enjoys music but sings out of tune. Call me precious but I found that comment totally unnecessary, I know she can't sing well but what does that matter?
I'd love to get positive reports but it's not within the culture of our school, they'd rather rip our kids to shreds, very few kids get a glowing report.

MintHumbug one year I called my dc teacher's bluff. Unfortunately I think I came across as not being able to take a compliment of the children.

Parents evening -

Like Timmy is the class leader - so I said so he bosses the others around, oh no not at all, they want him to lead

This is the child who'll have us all doing exactly what he wants and knows it!!!

Jane is a very enthusastic contributor to the class - oh so she has my trait of non-stop talking, oh no not at all she contributes greatly and thinks about the discussions taking place.

This is the child who very much has a mouth before brain attitude going on.

But I know what you mean maryz about senior school and the percentage. Although ours do it in A-E gradings, i.e. the average mark of the class is C, and where your grade was is in the A-E. Therefore now I'm happy if they've got Cs, anything higher great. But they also get an A-E grading for effort, and that's where I'm stricter I say I want As and minimum Bs for effort as all I ask is for their best and if they aren't getting As for effort they are not perceived to be trying.

I can tell you what makes a bad report!

My DH's DDs are twins but in different classes, so different teachers. In junior school they had virtually the same report - copy and paste gone too far we felt! Totally insignificant comments about a few things they'd covered that year (which is fairly meaningless when they only choose a few random examples?). The really frustrating thing is that the twins are SO different, in terms of interests, ability, effort, attainment, everything!!! Haven't read their yr7 reports yet, worried it'll be the same bumph. Their parents evenings have actually been similarly generic - speaks volumes of the quality of the school IMO.

I don't think it's idealist to ask for a little better than that. Maybe it would be easier if it wasn't all separated into the subjects?

I seem to remember my reports were personal and handwritten, they said specific things that I was good at and things that needed to be worked on (I remember something about being generally good at writing but needing to work on putting paragraphs in. Constructive criticism that was easy for a 6yo to understand!)

' cryingfoul Sat 29-May-10 23:46:14
when teachers do a teacher to teacher handover of a class of children from one year's teacher to the next year's teacher, do they give more detail and clarity than the parents get in their reports or is it exactly the same?'

No, I've always used that time to pass on unvarnished, accurate information that covers a much wider area, such as friendships, home issues, vulnerable children and specifics of how I've dealt with things during the year.
Plus ability groupings and specifics about an individual's learning needs.
Most of which is not written down.
A parent has the right to see written records on their child, so some information is communicated orally. Those meetings are very useful, although we also bear in mind personalities and that a child who irritates one teacher may be another's idea of a lovely child.
I'm sure all professionals discuss things with each other in a rather different way to how they would communicate with a parent/patient/client.

Place in class is very difficult to judge really - I had one child whose arithmetic was excellent - years ahead of his age. However, give him an open-ended investigation in maths and he would cry. Another child was not quite as quick or confident with arithmetic, but was able to tackle investigations confidently and extend them in interesting ways, drawing conclusions and applying them to the general case. Which child is top of the class?

DD's school they get ranked in percentage form and rank or where they are in class. Eg Maths 98% - 2nd place in class. This is broken down for all subjects. Also included is information from teacher and headmaster (which is a nice touch).

sawbridge - just wondering, what do the percentages actually mean?

Sawbridgeworthmum - but is that a private school?
IME private schools are more likely to give class rankings etc.

Yes it's a prep school.

The percentage shows results for exams during the summer term. Shows your own child's percentage and rank and next to it shows the class average %. It also shows same for class work, which relates to work during the year. class average and own child's percentage and rank in class.