Primary report cards

[TerrysOrangeScot]

I was wondering what people think of report cards nowadays, I found my own from over 20+ years ago and can see from it where I would have been in each primary year.

My child's report came back two weeks ago and all it says is some progress under target for early level reading, writing. I don't feel like this tells me anything about where they have not made it being on track for their target. Last year it said making progress next to reading and writing so going from the working it feels like they've maybe fallen behind more without any discussion with us.

They've always been on track for listening so we know there's an on track option.

They've been rubbish since CoE came in.

It tells you what they've been working on but no idea how they are actually doing. I know what they've been working on as can see their homework, I'm more interested in how they are doing. The levels are so wide that they could be working on the same one for years so you honestly have no clue until they do their first set of exams at high school aged about 15...

My DC are well past school now but I preferred the 5-15 curriculum which mine started on and you knew that say level B should be achieved by most between age 6 and 9 or whatever it was.

Agree. Totally pointless. At no stage before actual sqa exam results were we given any indication as to whether we should be encouraging our kids that uni was realistic or not. The education system in Scotland are really letting parents down in this regard (add it to the list…). Try asking the school for a 1:2:1 with the subject teachers and no one ever responds either. They just seem too overloaded to do these basic tasks anymore.

Agree. I think you get more from the face to face teacher chats at parents evening. Early secondary a bit better, you get (in our school) graded for effort, behaviour and homework and at least know if they're being little shits who won't try in class and hand in their work. Later in secondary you get more indication of academics with target grades and working grades.

I don't find them particularly helpful. I also didn't find the ones in early high school much better. If you have a child who tries hard, is well behaved and completes their homework you may have no idea that they are struggling. I try to prioritise parents nights as the teachers are often more candid when you see them in person.

I’m a big fan of mathletics, Nessy - educational apps that follow the curriculum and can be used to gauge levels for exactly this reason, it’s relatively easy to see how they’re doing using educational apps and more informative than the report cards.

You could ask for their SNSA results. They aren’t ‘meant’ to give them to you but if they object you can do a SAR.

You really shouldn’t have to do a SAR in order to get meaningful school report. What are they trying to hide? That my child is struggling in say maths? I’d like to know asap so I can arrange tutors. Is that a bad thing (yes of course it is. The SNP are trying to close the attainment gap by making everyone as poorly educated as the lowest achieving).

I agree! Our reports are meaningless. A little spiel about topics covered/to be covered in class. The only indication of achievement is whether they have obtained a CfE level. So in P7 we get told they have achieved first level (that they should have achieved by P4) with no indication of whether they are on the cusp of achieving second level or only just starting the work on second level - three academic years of difference!

have you been told your child’s SNSA result?

Oh I’ve been down this road too, and the HT begrudgingly told me the SNSA scores but if you want detailed feedback, to support them better, the cheapest way is to use educational apps that assess their level yourselves. Much easier at primary than secondary.

i agree, I feel it’s a critical weakness that you aren’t given the tools to support your own children with accurate school feedback, but after years of trying to improve the school angle I’d do as much yourself as you can.

and someone will be along in a minute to say their school is great and we must’ve been specifically unlucky etc. etc.

The school education stats speak for themselves really.

I'd say not only are the reports meaningless but parents' evenings are also pretty hopeless. Our primary school seems to have a policy of the teachers being as positive as possible. So we know our DS struggles with maths but not according to his teacher.

I don't know if our school is particularly odd in this respect but they have a strange attitude to parents helping at home. Our DS practises spelling, maths and reading at home, but we've been told twice that it's unnecessary, particularly on spelling. I find it totally weird.

I had the same experience at parent evening - why do you want to know which maths group your child is in? Isn’t the curriculum note we send enough info on what they’re covering? Implying I had some kind of anxiety disorder for wanting concrete information…

Agree with previous comments and glad it's not just me. "child can do xyz" is useless to me because I have no idea if that is in line with what he should be doing for his age. I want to know specifically where we could be helping or encouraging him. Is he excelling at any subject? Is he behind in another? I don't think its unreasonable to want to know this but even at parent's evening they skirt around this sort of conversation.

I'm on the PC and at one meeting, when PC members questioned the inconsistency of homework, the head teacher literally said she doesn't think the kids should be doing any at all because the kids without help at home will be disadvantaged and it would increase the attainment gap. I was shocked at the time, but I really shouldn't have been.

The head is naive in the extreme if she thinks some parents are not providing loads of input at home regardless of homework.

C for excellence is rubbish and reports are useless. I actually have just received dc's report / tracking today and it's the first one that I have had that tells me anything, dc is in S4!

The thing about parents’ evening is many of the teachers are scared of the parents and the easiest way to placate them is to say nice things about their child. Anything else risks more involvement of parents or management. We found this approach fell apart quite quickly when you got to S3 and asked about your high support-needs child choosing their subject as one of their options. You are suddenly faced with a lot of back-peddling. (Not all, some lovely teachers still welcomed her which was a good steer for subjects she should choose).

Oh, and ask any parent of a child with ASN and ‘parental anxiety’ is a common ruse to blame parents.

You’re right @SaffronSpice the urge to placate is strong, we hear a lot about how teachers have a partnership with the children, but this is not placing the right emphasis on parental support.

it’s funny, we require parents to give money to univ students if they have high enough earnings, but there are no guidelines for how much you should be doing with your child at primary, secondary etc.

I do thinks there are great tools for checking how they’re doing yourself though, which is one bright spot.

My DCs' school has just revamped their report cards and I find them quite good now. Previously they just told you what level they were working in which was good at say P2 to see they were in First but not much good in P4 as you had no idea if they were on track to be Second by P5.
They now tell you the level plus Exceeds Expectations/On Track/Support Required so you know where they're at, plus there are quite lengthy comments to explain where they're ahead/could do with improving.

Then both my DCs' school and the school I work at are definitely keen on parents helping at home. At work we will put notes in the kids' homework jotters on what parents should be doing to support and in which areas on a pretty much weekly basis.

They now tell you the level plus Exceeds Expectations/On Track/Support Required

Age-based expectations? Teacher-based expectations for each child? Other expectations?

At work we will put notes in the kids' homework jotters on what parents should be doing to support and in which areas on a pretty much weekly basis.

You do this for 33 children?

I only have 21 kids in my class but yes.

Expectations on reaching the appropriate level within the CFE - you and I may not like the CFE but it is the curriculum we have so what else can schools measure against?! (I am talking primary here. Have no experience of academy personally or professionally.)

Glad to see this thread and realised this is a wider problem. Our report cards (primary) tell us nothing at all, and I've just had parents' evening where, for the second time, I've gone in specifically asking "is the anything DC is struggling with, or good at" and still come out none the wiser.

So if this is fairly universal in Scotland, why? Why would you not tell parents whether their kids are struggling? Is this in some way schools wanting to protect their staff from parents? Like if they admit little Jonny has problems with maths they might be expected to do something about it, whereas if they keep quiet they’ll get less hassle?

Just finished Parents’ Nights. I have told all parents if their child is on track or not. We are told to do so byHT. I then explained what we were doing if they were not and made suggestions for ways to give extra support at home. Our L.A. has broken the levels into phases so it’s pretty straight forward to make that decision about on track/ exceeding. SNSA are only carried out in P1/4/7. They don’t even have to be completed at the end of the year. We do ours very early so they won’t have even completed the level before they’re assessed. Not sure why that’s done.

That’s the thing - why only detailed feedback to kids who are not meeting expected results? Of course that is the most important group to get feedback but all parents should be getting detailed feedback on what’s next to support, stretch goals etc.

and of course, huge school by school variation - we certainly never had any specific or useful feedback, even for the one who was not meeting goals. But it is 4 years for me since we were in thrust system so I hope things have improved since then!