Parents of secondary age children - how often do you get 'proper' reports?

[mrsminiverscharlady]

Last night ds (yr8) brought home his school 'report', which consisted of a printed sheet of A4 with his attainment levels this year along with his 'target' level for each subject. There were no individual comments at all, so it's difficult to put this into context of whether he is working hard, how he can improve his work, attitude, behaviour etc.

Looking at the KS3 handbook we last got a 'full' report in March 2012 and will not get another one until Christmas ie a gap of about 21 months between full reports. I'm really disappointed about this and a bit shocked, but I don't have anything to compare this with - what do other schools do?

One in each academic year, but they are spread out through different times of the year, so the staff aren't trying to write for all year groups at once - if you teach something like RE or Music that doesn't get a huge amount of space on the timetable, you will end up teaching most of the children in the school!
They all have comments on though. What you have described sounds like the 'interim' ones we get, inbetween reports - which is really, really, helpful, but very much a 'bonus' rather than an expectation IMO.

End of each term, Attitude and National Curriculum level for each subject. No comments. Ever.

They used to also do 'academic mentoring' where there was a matrix of good things and things to improve against each subject which each teacher would tick (eg presentation add detail, speak in class). This was great but seems to have been dropped this year .....

At the end of each term we get a progress report, this is for all subjects it informs you of the WAG, end of year target grade and a simple yes/no to say if they are on target. As part of that report we get a graph for maths and english, which shows you if they are progressing as you would expect based on KS2 SATs (shows the line the should follow and the progress made). At half term we get the same but for maths, english and science only. We then get one written report for all subjects, which advises what they are doing well and what they need to do to improve, there are no levels on this report. This is a local comprehensive school and to be honest I am surprised at the level and detail of reports we get!

We are supposed to get a short report every half term (levels and effort grades and longer-term targets IIRC) and we get the full report on the night of the parents evening.

I wouldn't be happy with a gap of 21 months unless there was a parents evening or two in-between. It's too long for things to slide, especially with boys. IMHO!

DS school (excellent comp):

Current levels compared with end of year and end of key stage - end of each term;
Parent-teacher evening with useful feedback on progress - late winter or early spring;
Detailed report a month before end of year exams focusing on where gaps exist and how to prepare for exam;
Final results with revised targets at end of year.

To add to this we occasionally get a well done on his results email if he does particularly well.

Did you notice we appreciate this school and its teachers?

This is for all subjects. The short reports also grade for classroom and homework effort.

The key is getting feedback when it's useful, not after they've broken up, when you suddenly hear that " Johnny isn't working well in French", as we used to at his primary.

Interim report with target grade, actual grade and attitude every half term.

Full report once a year, but at different times, often tied in with other important issues (so just before GCSE choices etc).

Full report four times per year.

I've just had the Year 8 report. No detail apart from the target level for end of yr 9. So whe he left primary with L5s there is no indication of where he is apart from 'on track for L7' but that's a very broad range. He could be anywhere between this. I've asked twice now for the info, though it has been promised. Some schools have a facility for parents to log in to see marks etc. one day!

This is really interesting, thanks. Parents evening is another bug bear - 30 slots per teacher, regardless of how many students they teach. So unless you book a slot within a few hours of them opening the website you don't stand much chance of getting many appointments. Even when you do book an appointment, they frequently overrun and cancel the last few bookings.

It is very frustrating to receive even a basic report the day before the end of term as there is now nothing we can do about any queries we have until September. I'm not really sure what I can do about this for the future; I know people have complained about the lack of information in the past but nothing has changed. Generally it's a really good school, I don't know why they are so weak in this area

Wow! You can book on line and are not at the mercy of your ds collecting appointment ?
Now that is an advanced school, IME.

I think if you can't meet with a teacher you can email them asking about your child. they will provide you with some summary of their levels/progress.
I think KS3 in my dd school we had reports once a year in March, whilst now as she is being monitored much better in GCSE classes - they send it once a term.

My ds school does it termly from y7

full report twice a year (Christmas and Summer) with a grade slip at Easter (Y11 and Y13 get their final full report at Easter when the rest of the school just get an A4 grade slip with attainment/ effort / homework and target grades on it)

Yes, online bookings are great unless you're missed off the email notifying you, as happened to my friend (child in yr 11) who wondered why the school never held parents evenings

We are legally obliged to provide a written report once an academic year, but we phase them by year group. We send interim reports which provide assessment grades, behaviour and effort grade and any concern areas by subject

Report every half term for each subject with comment, effort (class and prep) and attainment number ( 5/6 on target, 7/8 above target, 9/10 waaay above target), plus tutor comment.
Each end of full term we get all the previous stuff with a bigger comment plus housmaster comment.
End of year report all of the above plus exam results.

2x full reports and 1 x 'effort and attainment' and sparse comments report sheet