End of year 7 report & I suspect a couple of teachers have confused my son for someone else - does this happen often?

[Strumpetpumpet]

A couple of the comments really stand out as unusual and there is another boy in my sons class with the same name so I'm wondering if this happens sometimes - I know how busy teachers are but it's made me question the validity of the entire report. A couple of examples, my son is a pretty good swimmer and the other boy apparently is in the lowest swimming group, the PE teacher says my son should have extra swimming lessons? My son is very (too) quiet in class whereas the other boy is much more confident; a teacher has commented my son should spend less time shouting out in class and more time listening?? It's not that the report is better or worse than I'd expected, it's just that some of it sounds wrong iyswim?

It can happen...I would query it.I have gone goggle eyed reading reports and writing comments recently
On a family level it happened with my daughter .Apologies were made and accepted.

Yes one whole subject has the teacher talking and naming a different child!

Could the swimming be an encouragement to pursue it a bit more if your son is quite good? Or does it clearly specify extra lessons due to not being confident? As for the other one, it is possible that your son is calling out in that subject, children do act very different in different situations. What does your DS say? Is it worth contacting the form tutor and saying something along the lines of 'I was surprised to hear of behavioural concerns, is there anything I can do to support the school in this?' And see what they say.

Thank you both - ShellyF I'm not surprised it must be an awful job. I think I will contact school & query it. My son is so quiet I'm not surprised if some teachers don't know who he is but I'd rather they said so 😀 X

Thanks MrsKCastle, we discussed it with my ds & I would be amazed if he is shouting out in lessons but yes I might use your suggestion & query it that way.

Sorry meant to say the swimming comment does mention developing confidence in the water, which I really don't think he needs but I will question it. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated x

I'm a teacher, and yes it is very possible that they have got them mixed up. Not great, but especially in subjects where you might teach 400+ pupils each year (if only one or two lessons a fortnight for each class, with 40 lessons/classes a fortnight) then mistakes do unfortunately sometimes happen.

Thanks Susan - I'm glad it's not a case of me losing my marbles! i can imagine how difficult it must be for teachers. I guess part of my concern is, if some comments are wrong, how do I know the grades are correct, and as they're being streamed in year 8, I guess it does matter a bit. Many thanks for all your help x

It happened with Dd, again it was the end of yr 7, they even used the other child's name in the comment.

Just query it :) I know I'd rather know if I've made a mistake:)

Yr 7 I find the easiest to get wrong. You are so busy focussing on exam classes, they probably have the fewest lessons. The photos may not be on the system until near the end of the year, and you just haven't had the opportunity to get to know them in your lessons, and outside of your lessons, so....

Probably a mix-up. Chances are the swimming teacher teaches all of Year 7, once a week, maybe not even for the whole academic year. Sees the students in the water with swimming hats on... hats off (metaphorically) to him or her for even trying to learn their names!

Query with the school and I am sure all will become clear.

Thank you everyone, I will query it. I live in fear of being "that parent"! But I feel very reassured by all your comments xx

I sat through a teacher conference with my DS's form tutor once and was puzzled, I only realised he was talking about the other "X" when he talked about his History result. DS had dropped History.
If a form tutor can get it wrong in a class of 30, a subject teacher can easily make a mistake.

At a parents evening long ago my dad was very surprised to hear that I was doing really well in a subject I was terrible at. Turned out the teacher had mixed me up with someone of a similar name. Always felt sorry for the other girl whose parents were told she was terrible at her best subject!

Dd's school get round this by only having 2 comments on the report

Form teacher saying whether they 'fit in' or not
Head of year commenting on attendance and disciplinary record

Other than that we get a list of attainment and effort grades

I was quite disappointed after the primary school essays we used to get

Yes, do query it, in a non confrontational way, because it does need resolving. It does happen that students get confused with one another, but it shouldn't and if there is confusion, you shouldn't accept it. It makes the report invalid imo.

Easily done - especially swimming where the teacher sees more of the backs of kids heads than their faces.

I remember asking ds's swimming teacher if she thought the class was too advanced for him (as he'd spent the entire lesson in the deep end clinging onto the edge) and she asked me who his teacher was. This was despite the fact that he was stood in front of her dripping wet having clearly just got out of the water with her class and the fact that she'd been teaching him for a year at this stage. he was very slow to swim

Send a polite email to the school expressing surprise at this odd reversal in your ds's behaviour and ask if it's possible that the two X's could have been mixed up in the report because of course you'll be wanting to support the school on addressing any concerns etc bla etc bla

Likewise you'll want to be reassured that any glowing subject reports of young strumpetds are actually about your strumpetds and not the other one.

Thanks everyone. I will email school, I won't be confrontational because I'm not cross just concerned that both boys are treated fairly :-) thank you all for your helpful & reassuring replies xx

I'm pretty sure my DTs form tutor got them mixed up on their report. The things she said seemed far more suited to the other!

I didn't say anything, it was just a comment at the end of the report and they're pretty much the same academically. And I have trouble telling them apart sometimes so I can't complain!

I was mixed up with another girl quite a few times from Y7-9, it was a right pain.

They have to write so many reports it's not surprising if a mistake happens. I remember getting a surprising A for physics on one of my reports. I have a feeling the teacher had meant to give it to the girl who sat next to me. We both had long, wavy brown hair and identical glasses!

I've had this happen a few times. Mostly it wasn't a problem but once it was in a UCAS reference for my DS who was applying for medicine. It was his chemistry teacher who had taught him for two years and had a smallish class. DS was really good at chemistry but the reference said he struggled with concepts and wasn't good at handing in homework. Luckily another teacher noticed and changed it. If they hadn't then I doubt DS would have got into medical school. . That would have been a major fuck up.

I also had a particularly hilarious mix up where the RE teacher was telling my DD2 and I during a parent teacher interview what a brilliant and hard working student she was. DD2 and I caught each other's eye but didn't say anything. We felt a bit guilty afterwards when we realised that some poor kids was probably going to have an unexpectantly bad parent teacher interview.