Can teachers please go out on strike against the fantastic waste of their time that are REPORTS

[MerryMarigold]

My sister is a teacher and she agrees! (She's been a teacher for 10 years and she said nearly all the parents say the same thing).

I feel so sorry for teachers spending time on these. I had fun 'decoding':
"Takes a real interest in" = is good at
"is beginning to" - is actually pretty rubbish at, but let's try and say it in a positive way

etc. etc.

He's in NURSERY. Can't they just make some insightful observations on how he plays? I am dreading 14 years more of this type of thing! Please, please can this change? Who is it helping?

I'd much rather have one line "Ds1 is very kind to other children, but his concentration could improve." Any teachers out there who would rather write one line per child, or maybe one line per subject for the older kids?

I don't want to imply that I only write negatives, just that I want parents to know that there is still a problem if little Johnny hasn't improved over the year! And SLT have been known to request changes which I think is unfair - most parents do want to know if there is a problem. DS1 was a problem in year 1 and we didn't find out for 3 months - it was really annoying not to have been told.

maybe teachers wouldn't have to spend so long writing reports if they didn't have to think up nice ways of putting negative comments?! my friend, a reception NQT, has had trouble with this. she'd much rather just be honest and use constructive criticism - I mean it's not like she's going to call them little horrors!

I would want to know if my DCs had any problems at school, be they behavioural or with work. how else am I supposed to help them?

it's the precious brigade that spoil it I reckon - as a PP mentioned, demanding a report be changed or complaining about every slight negative remark. Grrrrrrr.

I love reports, think they are essential and very useful (maybe my DDs school is just good at writing them).

As a manager, I had to write annual review reports on all my staff - so they knew how they had achieved against their objectives and how I was planning to help them develop over the upcoming year. It did take quite a bit of time and thought to do it properly, but I felt that my staff deserved my support when going through the appraisal process.

I try to be as honest as I can possibly be, whilst recognising that I am writing to someone's parent about their much loved child. I try to write with humour and warmth.

Last year I got away with something along the lines of:

XXXX has perfected the art of talking and listening at the same time. Whilst this is indeed a great skill, it is not one which his classmates have yet mastered, and as such, his constant chatting causes his, and their learning to be disrupted. (Or something like that).

Our teachers this year are going to put some examples of work into the report such as a good piece of writing which I think is a good idea.

The worst report I ever received for ds was in Year 3. I eagerly opened the brown envelope - to be faced with a list of levels. Can't remember exactly what, but things like 3a, 3b etc etc. There was no comment about him or his work. The only personal thing was "Ds attends the chess club" - talk about damning with faint praise. He won several tournaments - but no mention of this. I threw the report in the bin. Apparently there was a storm of parental protest so I wasn't the only one to be annoyed. The next year the reports were a bit more wordy!

Those of you who write/ receive more individual reports, are those state schools? I am a fervent supporter of state schools btw, but seems that the teachers have to jump through so many hoops (even in reports) that by the end of it, there is no energy or enthusiasm left to notice individuality.

at "Ds attends the chess club" ... a tad insulting to tell you something you already know!

MerryMarigold I teach in a state school. Our reports are as individualised as possible. No comment banks for us. I reckon I spend at least an hour per report - that's 30 hours+ to complete them.

Dc's schools both primary and secondary are state schools.

In my mum's school they use a programme called incerts which is a tracking programme where you put in information abouut each child throughout the year and then at the end of the year you click on report write and it does it all for you, bar the general comment. Job done

I really hate computer generated reports both as a parent and as a teacher ... sorry

Same here - when we used Report Assist the reports actually took longer, because it took ages personalising the comments and translating the jargon.

A colleague announced today that her report count is 45000 words.

I'd still rather have one line, (maybe handwritten!) with a genuinely insightful comment. Worth so much more than 45,000 bland, worthless comments.

Come on Mumsnet campaign!

What would the teachers amongst you prefer, a end of year parents evening or writing reports?

I really valued the parents evening I could ask the questions I wanted to know and was given honest answers. Sometimes parents live in a bubble, if the child is falling behind we should be told so that we can work on it. I really don't mind how that is communicated.

I'm not a fan of end of the year parent evenings and I think beginning of the year meetings are more worthwhile and give the new class teacher the opportunity to express their expectations rather than the old teacher trying to predict what another teacher requires.

Fair point mrz. I would like to know more about how DS is getting on. I sometimes think I am too pushy or my expectations are too high, it is very useful to know how ds is getting on compared to peers.

Complete waste of time-bland educational jargon culled from meaningless database.

I read today that my 5 year old ds needed to 'develop his data collecting skills'.

I don't give a crap about that-I want him reading, writing and doing Maths.

When i questioned some asdpects of it, the teacher told me 'Oh I'm not sure about that, I didn't write it.'

I then asked for relevant curriculum to check whether he could undertake specified tasks and if not would work on them over the summer.

She said she would 'try to remember' to give it to me. I assured her she would as I had made a note of it.

In my job (SALT) I'd chew the arm off a parent in enthusiasm if they freely announced thier willingness to do some work with their child (what a novel concept.)

I'm forever being told that I'm rather blunt when writing reports and my Head keeps toning them down a little. I think she objected one year to "xxxx would make more progress if he could be bothered to sit at the table rather than crawl under it"

Thankfully this year I only have had 22 reports to complete, I've still managed to write over 30 000 words however and it's only in the last 2 years that we have been able to use a word processor to write them on ( although we aren't allowed to use any form of Report Assist) prior to this we had to hand write them and NO TIPPEX. Imagine when you made a mistake in the last sentence

I'm not sure how comparing one child with another is useful to anyone but statisticians but meeting the teacher early in the school year gives opportunities to support your child over the year rather than getting a shock (or pleasant surprise) when the year is over. Of course the teacher should be available all year.

Don't all parents read to the kids and do homework together? I am really living in a bubble?

I preferred my school reports (old fashined boarding school).
A particulalry memoprable one was for Latin which i recall comprised the following sentence or something similar; 'Moondog is lax and has made no effrot whatsoever this term.'

No not all parents can read

I seriously believe most peopel do very little-I've worked with hundreds of kids with communication difficulties over the years, and could count on two hands those that make a meaningful effort to work with their child on agreed aims.

We have a parents' evening too. Thank goodness. I will be requesting some further decoding.