School report been copied

smeged

Hi there, my son has had his report from school and after speaking to a friend (her son is in the same class) they are word for word the same in most subjects, obviously they have been copied and pasted, I have even got her instead of him, my friends is her and she all the way through one paragraph, the question is I am going to the school to discuss it this evening and would liie to know how to go about it, don't want to upset the teacher but do feel it's very sloppy and want a more unique report.

kindofagilr

I think that quite often happens? I mean it does sound ridiculous that its exactly word for word.

But even at my job now, the bosses basically use the same report and just switch certain things about.

I don't know what to suggest I am afraid?

callow

I think most reports are copy and pasted for the average child.

My 9 year old has a great teacher, but I could tell her report was copy and pasted. There were no individual comments.

My 11 year old on the other hand had a wonderful report. Full of individual comments and I felt she understood my daughter to a tee. Unfortunately that is not the reality. My daughter has had a bad time in the classroom. She is always being picked on and sent out for the most minor things.

In the end I would rather have a year of good teacher than an individual report.

Perhaps you could make an appointment with the teacher if you want more individual comments.

Idiophreak

I think it's relatively common for teachers to copy reports in *some* subjects - how many subjects do you *know* are the same?

Typically, "key" subjects, such as english, maths etc will have hand written, unique reports - but others, like IT, PE and so on will have "mass produced" content.

That's not to say, however, that the report isn't still relatively unique - there may well be a set content for higher ability, intermediate ability and lower ability.

This, in my view, isn't unreasonable. Having seen the amount of time these reports take to produce, a little corner-cutting in the "less important" subjects is more or less essential.

That said, failing to replace "his" with "hers" and so on is a pretty poor effort and the teacher should be called on it...

So I'd be prepared to ask about which parts of the report are hand written, which are based on ability and so on, just so you're clear on what it is you've received - but if you storm in saying "all his report should be written by hand" it's not going to get you anywhere.

Curlywurli

When we write reports they are checked by the head teacher or deputy head so any mistakes can be corrected. At the end there is always room for child specific comments.
It is extremely hard to write 30 individual reports though and some will have been copied. This year I have had to write reports for various different classes. A couple of times I have been writing a report and then realised that I have already said exactly the same thing about another child, which reads exactly the way I want it to so I have copied it. It doesn't mean that it's not exactly what I want to say though. Some subjects would have been organised into lower, middle, higher ability and the child's comments reflect their ability level.
It's unfortunate that mistakes have been left in- that is quite poor, but as long as the report reflects your child's ability and progress I'm not sure there is much other than that to discuss.

blackcoffee

a little bit sloppy of the teacher I think !

Most school have software now to help with thier report writing, so Im not suprised that it has come to light, its one reason why i darent compare with the children in my sons class! though us mums do have a giggle about certain phrases used !

I find it totally appalling that a childs report isnt actually worth the computer paper it is written on, thank goodness for parent teacher evenings, however I find that teachers are so restriced in what they can tell us there too!!

I only wish my husbands reports in work were as short as my son & daughters class report this year! he cant copy and paste his and has no software to write them with either! maybe he should change profession !

Idiophreak

blackcoffee wrote: »

I find it totally appalling that a childs report isnt actually worth the computer paper it is written on

Nice attitude.

Curlywurli

blackcoffee wrote: »

a little bit sloppy of the teacher I think !

Most school have software now to help with thier report writing, so Im not suprised that it has come to light, its one reason why i darent compare with the children in my sons class! though us mums do have a giggle about certain phrases used !

I find it totally appalling that a childs report isnt actually worth the computer paper it is written on, thank goodness for parent teacher evenings, however I find that teachers are so restriced in what they can tell us there too!!

I only wish my husbands reports in work were as short as my son & daughters class report this year! he cant copy and paste his and has no software to write them with either! maybe he should change profession !

Could you please let me know the name of the software that writes teacher's reports for them as I'm sure my school would love to have it too- instead of spending hours sitting and typing (and yes sometimes copying and pasting)?

How do you come to the conclusion that a child's report isn't worth the paper it's written on? That would certainly be the case if teachers randomly selected sentences and wrote about completely different children but it's not what happens! Teachers spend hours, and I mean hours, writing reports- I'm sure they'd love to know how important they are to you.

the_rottweiler

I had this when my son was in year 3,
"J really renjoyed the farm visit and had a keen interest in the rare breeds"
I asked his teacher if he had really enjoyed the visit and she said yes, I then pointed out that he did not enjoy the trip as he was in New york that day.:rotfl:
This was a handwritten comment that she had written on the every report

ljw2701

I was interested to learn in my 8 year old's report that both his effort and progress are "Very Good" for French & German - he's in P3 and they don't get languages until P6!!:rotfl:

phunkles

A certain register system used in some secondary schools lets you chose from the nice drop down menu - and then theres a small box for individual comments.
I teach secondary and after doing 120 reports for one year group of 5 i do end up using a comment bank - but i do try and add a individual comment even if its just Bob enjoyed creating animations this term and this is reflected in his high level for this piece.