Teacher has given identical reports for both twins - should I be screaming at the head?

[randommoment]

Have received Yr 8 reports for dds, who are not identical in either appearance or ability. While some subjects show traces of the cut and paste that I know some teachers resort to when producing reports for dozens of children in just a few days, they do seem to be considered and relevant. However one subject is absolutely identical, word for word. This is making me wonder if it is of any more use than a horoscope! DP is worried that if we make a fuss she will take it out on the children, but I feel she is being very unprofessional. Either it is an error, in which case which child does it apply to, or she is being very lazy indeed.
The subject is Art, one dd enjoys it and is ok at it but is much more interested longterm in Science and Maths, but the other is very very good at drawing and painting (well I think so anyway!) and wants to take the subject further.

Any thoughts on how I should handle this with the school?

Screaming at the Head might be a tad much but yes, talk to the Head of Department. Unless lazy report writer is Head of Department, in which case a measured but yet slightly menacing approach to the Head would be in order.

That is beyond crap. Do you happen to know anyone else in the Art group whose report you could have a look at? Maybe the whole class have the same report?

My school reports where always wrong and blatantly copied.
Tbh i don't think it matters as long as you know they are not struggling.

DS2 once changed both name and gender mid-report. I was not amused.

I've emailed the dad of a primary school friend who I think is in the same group, I hope he'll let me know what she said about his dd.

To be honest with you, the majority of reports in a class will be almost exactly the same with the right name/grade entered for each child. This is not right, obviously, but unfortunately is what we have experienced. (My nephew and DS2 were in the same year 7 English class and received the same report word for word).

A letter to the head of department would be my first step and if this gave a satisfactory outcome then I'd leave it at that. If it didn't, then I would probably contact the head of year (they have overall responsibility for the collation of reports at my DSs' school) and if I still didn't feel satisfied I'd then go to the head.

Were the names changed in the report because if not it may have just been an admin error? An admin assistant has inserted the wrong report into one of your twins reports?

Art teachers (ditto PE, DT etc) usually see half if not the whole year group rather than the one or two classes 3 times a week that other subjects do so chances are she has done a bit of cutting & pasting and missed the identical surnames (yes, vair poor etc but she's probably has 100+ reports to write based on seeing each child 6 times, 3 months ago).

Worth mentioning in the feedback slip that gets returned to school. It will be noted & she will prob be mortified.
Not worth 'screaming to Head' about as you will seem a loon.

I think that there are ways of the head or head of department handling it sensitively (by reading the full classes reports and looking for lack of variation) rather than just saying to the teacher "the twin's mother complained". If you do raise it as an issue, then you might want to ask for it not to be raised in an identifiable way.

Some subject do have bland reports where the teacher sees loads of children for one lesson a week, but given that children each produce individual work in art and the quality varies enormously it is hard to explain this one.

DD's Year 8 report was exactly the same, word for word, as her best friend's, in every subject except for one word - 'this' instead of 'the'...

RustyBear - that is rubbish.

I think you should give the teacher a call and explain that you think there must have been an error, because both reports say exactly the same.

It may be that there has been an error. Imagine - the teacher has just written over 100 reports and she's seen the same surname, thinks she's already done it and presses send again just in case. It is possible it was just an error at this stage. People make mistakes.

You must question it though.

The first names are correct, so it's not an admin error.
I do have a number of RL friends in the teaching profession and I know how soul destroying trying to write reports can be, but there are a number of very specific things said in this report. It's not just the usual 'little random has worked hard this year', which I know perfectly well will have been cut and pasted into all the reports unless little random actually set light to the classroom.

I would raise it but I would say to art teacher that you think there has been admin mistake and could she check it was done correctly. That gives her chance to save face and say it was admin error and do new one and doesn't make you look unreasonable.

Does the report sound like one twin and not the other? Or does it sound like a mixture?

Thanks for all the replies everyone. Am going to sleep on it now.
BTW would never have ACTUALLY screamed at the Head, but did want to know if you thought I should bring it up with teacher, head of department, head of year, head of college or one of the seven (!) deputy heads first.
Slightly off topic - there never used to be so many different management roles in schools did there? Am confused...

I would also have mentioned it quietly with the teacher to make sure it wasn't incorrect duplication of one due to them being twins. If Primary Parent shows you theirs and that is the same too - I would mention your experience on feedback form (obviously don't mention Primary Parent).

There may be times you really need the school and teachers onside - don't label yourself now.

Re management - no there didn't used to be as many management roles. However schools do almost everything nowadays (have 80% of the budget) or in Academy's even more. There is a huge amount of paperwork nowadays than there used to be - all done in school. Ofsted requirements mean schools do more lesson observation and guidance on improvements, managing of targets and ensuring the data is in place for Ofsted. Using the data day to day to make sure school improvement is working. Pastoral care (for certain children) takes extensive time as agencies and schools tend to work together. Most Deputies/assistant heads do have some teaching timetable too - so they are not necessarily management all of their working hours.

All things that - I don't think - happened in my time.

THere are only so many ways to say "working well, achievement on target, a nice child to teach" or similar. Do you expect a fully personalised comment such as "the use of blue in the printing exercise was exceptional" ?

With the best will in the world doing a group of ? 90 reports you aren't going to get that- you might in a primary class of 30 and you would expect in a prep group of 15.

Maybe I'm old and cynical (and know our secondaries inside out) but I wouldn't expect that. Doing their best and on/above target is great. Improvement points are discussed with the child at pupil review day. I'd expect a quality 5 mins at parents evening though.

Even if the first name is correct (though presumably it's only correct for one of them ) it's still perfectly possible that the teacher has cut and pasted the same report in error from a master document, ie that it's an innocent mistake. So I would take the suggested approach of speaking to the teacher and saying that - 'the DTs' reports are identical so you must have cut and pasted the same one twice by mistake - can I have the correct ones please?'

Even if that wasn't what happened, she will then be embarrassed into writing them separate reports so mission accomplished. Plus bet it won't happen again.

Agree that there are only so many ways to deliver the stock things that will be said in pupil feedback.

I I taugh twins, I think I might realise that the same parents would read the two reports and make them different.

The OP has said that her DTs are very different in art, It mus be possible to write different reports for them. When I taught we wrote a minimum of:
What have done.
Once acheivement.
One action to improve.

It really isn't difficult to change the acheivement and action to improve for twins if you are aware that they share parents and the parents therefore will read both reports. It wouldn't take much longer than changing the names. I am not advocating individual reports for all children, just twins . I do understand the teaching multiple classes of 30 in the same year group and not seeing them very often.

Thanks Kez. So nice to have intelligent comments - I tend to spend a lot of time on AIBU watching the bunfights, which can be highly entertaining but leaves you with a feeling that some MNetters regard this place solely as a swearing zone!
Little friend's dad has emailed back, his dd's report is different and specific to his child, although there are a couple of identical phrases which she's obviously recycling as one would expect.
I think the teacher has accidentally sent the same report for both children, although managing to change the name but not the content is worrying. I imagine the phone rang or something like that and she was distracted. I'm going to email her now, and not cc any of the heads etc, to give her a chance to save face as yellowflowers suggests. As breatheslowly suggested, it does sound more like one twin than the other, and I would like to have a constructive discussion about littlerandomsenior in particular at the upcoming parent's evening.
Since our school is busy empire building and going for Academy status and so on, I suppose they do need more bods doing what the LEA did in our day. But it does make it more difficult to know exactly who to ask when there's a problem.

Oooh! Lots of crossposting!

Here's the draft of the email - not yet sent as DaddyRandom hasn't had a chance to look at it. Any suggestions from the Wisdom of the Hive will be considered.

'Dear Miss xxxx

Thank you for the recent reports re our twin daughters, Random and Moment Random-Moment, both Year 8 xx.

Unfortunately you have presented identical reports for both girls!

Comment
'Random is a keen artist. She has produced some lovely pieces of work this year; her drawings are strong and her paint work is good. Her coat of arms showed a range of collage materials it's just a shame that it didn't get completely finished. Her recent extended learning task was excellent, her research skills are good and her presentation is fantastic. She has shown a good level of maturity by being organised when having the choice to use a range of materials for her collage in the Art Room.'

Target
'Random should aim to work a little bit faster so as to get all work finished to the best of her ability.'

and

Comment
'Moment is a keen artist. She has produced some lovely pieces of work this year; her drawings are strong and her paint work is good. Her coat of arms showed a range of collage materials it's just a shame that it didn't get completely finished. Her recent extended learning task was excellent, her research skills are good and her presentation is fantastic. She has shown a good level of maturity by being organised when having the choice to use a range of materials for her collage in the Art Room.'

Target
'Moment should aim to work a little bit faster so as to get all work finished to the best of her ability.'

My own instinct is that this report is actually about Random, although the comment about being mature and organised makes me wonder

DaddyRandom and I hope to see you at the parent's evening on March 28th and we would be grateful if you could send us the correct report for whichever girl is currently missing so that we can have an informed discussion.

Yours sincerely

Randommoment and DaddyRandom.'

Not cc-ed to anyone.

Is it okay to use a smiley? - I just want to make it clear I'm being slightly jokey - little Random is one of those children who loses everything and is never on time for anything, whereas little Moment is terrifyingly tidy.

Too right you better run like hell Jajas! Am putting my AIBU hat on and chucking buns at you

Don't copy both of them out - its unnecessary, as she'll probably have a copy. You could say that you're happy to provide copies where needed.

And don't try and joke or do smileys - it could bee seen as sarcasm. By all means be pleasant and relaxed. It's a Y 8 art report, not a GCSE result, so no shouting at staff required...

Cheers crumpet. I ought to go and do some actual work now... will update when there's anything to update about.