How often do you get written reports?

[HereComesYourMam]

We had proper written reports at the end of Y7 and Y8. We had a progress report in Y9, and have had two progress reports along with grade predictions in Y10. I checked with the school when we got the second one today and we are not due another full written report until January.

So no written reports between the end of Y8 and halfway through Y11. Is that normal? Because it seems pretty dire to me, but I don't know how much (more) fuss to kick up about it.

Parents evenings have not done much to fill the gap either... they have all been online, so fairly plagued with timing and tech issues.

A maximum of one written report per year was agreed back in the nineties as part of workload agreements. Quite a lot of schools seem to report more often but just grades/tickboxes. Which would you prefer? DD's school never gave written reports, but termly tickbox ones seemed a reasonable alternative - provided they were happy to follow up by responding to any questions raised by parents.
If you have questions that weren't answered at parents' evening, or you didn't get enough time to learn anything from the teacher, did you follow up by emailing in?

By progress report do you mean a simple grade to indicate things like level working at, grade for effort and the like?

And by written report, do you mean a fully detailed paragraph from each subject teacher "izzy is diligent and attentive in class but sometimes fails yo do homework etc"?

Those paras ime are just pulled together from a list of standard sentences tbh. So I'm not sure what they add.

Online parents eves can work well - but if yours haven't, and especially if you have concerns or questions, yes I would email the individual teachers.

DDs school stopped doing written reports when DD1 was in Y9/10 so about 3/4 years ago.

DD2 has never had one, we just get a grade from 1-4 working well above to working below for each subject and then a similar grade style for behaviour, homework etc.

Would be nice to get one written a year as parents evenings are still online too so very limited there.

Twice a year.

We get a string of letters/numbers for attitude and progress once a term.
Once a year it is topped with a paragraph from their form tutor.
Never get a paragraph written by a teacher for each subject.

No written reports just tracking against targets.

Don't see the point in written reports tbh. Waste of time for the teacher and I'd expect any concerns to be raised with parents as and when. It just ends up being a game of how many positive adjectives can I use to describe this child. A report is not the time for a parent to find out a concern so I don't have anything against receiving just normal graded ones 1x a year. Previous school did it 3x a year but same, simple grading.

Never.

Everything is by email.

Kind of.
It’s a small chart with a line for each subject. A rating for academic achievement, a rating (1-4) for Attitude To Learning and one of a range of multiple choice phrases for what is needed next.

No actual comments made by any humans. Not put together by any staff member, just generated by the school’s system twice a year with the data scores input by the subject teachers.

I think the choice is 3 date checks er year, or one written report.

We used to do one written report, but then data tracking arrived and then it was data every term.

Expecting a written report on top of tracking is a lot.

We used to do them for Y12 only so they could be used to help write UCAS references.

Year 7-11 get termly short reports headlining behaviour, attitude, homework, current level and target grade.

For DS, twice a year report throughout secondary. But all of them are what I think you'd call progress reports, ie no actual words, just grades/colours for about four aspects (attitude to learning, classwork, independent learning and something else?). Pretty much a waste of time as don't tell us much we dont' already know. Parents evenings slightly more useful for some subjects except that 5 mins not enough. In subjects DS has struggled in, we've ended up having email or phone discussions with teachers to see how we and they can help him more.

For DD, three times a year throughout secondary with grades/colours for each subject, and one of them each year had some words - stock phrases plus one specific thing for her to work on. Much more useful than DS's school.

A friend teaches in a private school and once a year they get really thorough written reports, a para on every subject. It takes my friend forever to write them (as they aren't just stock phrases) but the parents find them really useful.

Thanks for all the replies, very illuminating!

I do think there is a place for written reports, they don't need to be long. I understand that if there was a real issue the teachers would let you know, but what about just generally wanting to understand how your kid could do better, bridge that gap between current and target grades? A lot of parents - me included - don't like bothering teachers with non-urgent emails.

But most written reports wouldn't have that, esp not at secondary school level with the amount of content they cover. The advice would almost always be general, eg read more, practise maths daily etc.

There are 1600 children in my daughter’s school. Granted not every child is taught by every teacher but you’re definitely not talking about 26 written reports a year like in primary. Plus teachers only see them for about four hours a week, not whole days like a primary teacher. Aside from an educational progress report what do you want them to say? Poor behaviour or other concerns will be communicated in different ways. Many children will be unmemorable in terms of specific comments. Not a great use of time.

We get 3 reports per academic year, which give target grade and the grade they're working at, grade for effort in lesson, homework effort grade positive/negative behaviour points and attendance. No comments.

Along with one or two parents evenings and emails about anything specific, it works well.

Taking on board some of these comments, I can see that written reports are very time consuming and perhaps not always that useful. But I do wonder if there could be some kind of middle ground between just giving numbers and writing a full blown report?

I also think that (for us anyway) expectations need to be managed. After we got detailed reports at the end of Y7 and Y8 I just assumed that would carry on each year. So it would help if they set out exactly what to expect in terms of what reports and when, and I'm going to suggest (nicely 🙂) that they add that to their website.

This has been really helpful, thanks again.

Over 2,500 students at DD's comprehensive.

We get two short reports and one long report a year. Rotated so long report comes at best time for each year depending on year group and exams (no point getting a Y11 long report in the summer term!)

Short report has a target grade, actual grade, score for effort, organisation, quality of homework and classwork.

Long report has all that plus a couple of paragraphs on individual student. They're generally very useful.

Often school reports are incredibly useful for other things - especially if you have a child with SEN. DD's school reports were a big factor in her diagnosis and providing evidence of needed support.

When I was at school, we got a single page report with a sentence from each teacher and our exam/term scores. I had a theory that the English teachers went first, and used three adjectives, from which the other teachers chose a couple. It's certainly what it looked like!