Do secondary school kids get school reports??

[CommeUneVacheEspagnole]

DD finishes school next week and we've not yet had a report. A family member says they don't do this anymore so I don't want to call the school if it's an obvious thing but I've also received no information over the year and imagine they have to tell us something. Parents evening was in the first few weeks where teachers openly admitted they couldn't pick the kids from a line up. They are also due to be streamed from next year and again no update.

DD is in year seven. First year of secondary.

I'm shocked that some get such basic reports, mine are in private but the detail in reports is great and it covers everything, I feel the teachers really know my children.

I think that's what you are paying for!

DD used to get two a year. It was just numbers/grades. No comments. It would have been unrealistic to expect teachers to find time write comments on reports at her school (1,500 pupils).

We do but they're fairly pointless. EOY test scores which we get from the kids and cut and paste comments. Not teacher bashing before anyone starts, h is a teacher and he says the same. There is a text bank where he can select comments.

It's odd to me too. DM was a teacher and obv I've been to school. We got a report, likely written from a bank of phrases about us from each teacher with grades/numbers, from every subject. This is all at standard state schools.

We also had link books where teachers would write to our parents and parents would have to sign to acknowledge we had been naughty.

We now have an app that records positive and negative "points" but it's super basic info. E.g. has a detention for being late. Did well in lesson. One was that she got on with the work... that's all she should be doing. Don't praise it!

When I was teaching in secondary, we did reports for each child 3 times a year (I.e once per term). One was a full written report and the other two were interim reports - attainment and effort grades. The order of these depended on the term. Year 7 would get theirs in the summer once they had done a year and the teachers had got to know them. Year 11 would get theirs at the October half term to give them a kick up the 🍑 for the mocks. The other years would be a bit more random.

We get reports 3 times a year, but it was all on parents app, so you don't get it if you don't sign up to it.

The teacher to pupil ratio is much smaller in private schools. I'm shocked that you think teachers in schools of 1500 pupils have time to write detailed reports.

It's what you are paying for.

I’m shocked that you’re shocked 🤷🏻‍♀️
That’s what you’re paying for.

State - we get 2 a year. Target grade, predicted grade - so not even a grade that’s actually been tested and achieved, though one would hope the prediction was based on that data. Then as others have mentioned, “attitude to learning” which is poor, good, excellent. And seems somewhat random. Last time my daughter had excellent for all but one. That one had top marks and was among her favourites. The teacher had gushed about her at parents evening. Oh and then there was the year the PE department decided they hadn’t seen enough yet - so gave a blanket B to top set PE and C to everyone else. Not useful.

We get one online. Do you have a portal it may be on?

Yes, 3 written reports per year 1 just before end of each term and then a whole year written report.
Each one is broken down by subject and classified by: behaviour, attitude to learning and attainment. The end of term reports just have comments from Tutor + HouseMistress but end of year have written comments from each subject teacher.

Mine are in state grammars - we get progress grades every term, 2 parents evenings, and a written report towards the end of the academic year.

I would expect something from a state school, even once a year. In private, I would expect a lot more!

Target grade, predicted grade - so not even a grade that’s actually been tested and achieved

That’s because you can’t test for and achieve a grade without sitting GCSE papers so they would be made up rubbish.

Actually they’ve just used GCSE past papers for mocks. Full sets and from the same year for each subject, so the grade boundaries are available. They still don’t put an actual grade on the report. The kids get them to be fair - but I know several parents who have no idea the kids have the results, or even that they’re GCSE papers. The school don’t communicate it. Also, since Y7, they have only given a very wide band of achievement - “developing” for example. Never an actual test result. Unlike my school (OK, decades ago) which gave your % score and the average for the year and set.

Sitting full GCSE papers at the end of Y10 when they’ve nowhere near finished the course seems a bit depressing for the kids.

At DS2 secondary they get termly reports which you can access through one of the many apps we are supposed to have downloaded. They are completely useless though - they say whether DS is working below, at or beyond expectations now, and whether they think he will be by the end of the year, rate him by number (1 to 4) for behaviour, effort and homework handing in (teachers vary so much in how they judge that this is pointless), and also put a random number that links to something ridiculous that he could do to improve (so there are numbers one to nine, and you have to go and look at the list and see that one is "extend learning outside the classroom". Basically I take them with a pinch of salt and don't believe they are worth the non-paper they are non-printed on. Oh, also, you see different things depending on the device you are using to access the report.

At DS1 secondary you still access them online but they are more personalised, with a note from each teacher like in the old days about how they are doing, what they could do better etc.

Yes, ds just finished y7 we had one in November and one last week.

Huge state comprehensive in London that has a 3 year GCSE pathway (so content all covered by end of Y10).

We get 3 reports a year and 1 parent's evening.

Two reports are Short Reports and have target grade, current grade and then scores for organisation, effort, classwork and homework.

The third is a Long Report and has all the above plus a paragraph from every subject and the form tutor. Issued a week before parent's evening.

The term you get a Long Report is rotated to fit with year group exams - so Y10 get theirs in the Spring, and Y11 get theirs at the end of the winter term etc.

In between, teachers are very quick to email or pick up the phone for issues, and parents can email with any concerns.

Ours came home today - grade card with working towards/working at/working beyond and comments from her form tutor and head of year.