School report been copied

bonty44

I have to write 550 (yes, 550!) reports at the end of the year. I start all of them with a comment about what the expectations for the year are; what the topics are; what progress the child has made and a personal comment at the end. It is a VERY time-consuming task and I know I don't always get it right; yes, there is an element of copying and pasting, there has to be otherwise I wouldn't have time to plan let alone teach lessons! And no, there is no software available, just me and an excel document ... but I speak to the children every lesson and give praise wherever possible. HTH.

lindsaygalaxy

I think if you knew the DAYS (in their own time, not school time) it takes teachers to write reports for a class at primary even if some of it is copied and pasted to some extent you would understand. I would think however that it would have some individual comments too.

MummyMoo

As somebody who has worked in eductaion for six years, in many different settings, I've found this copy and paste method to be very common place. Only in the last few years have teachers been allowed paid none contact time. In this time they have to do their planning, evaluations, etc. And its something really stupid like an hour a week! NOT enough time at all. My daughter is in nursery and I hate that the staff have to waste time filling in these bloody daily diaries for every child instead of spending time WITH my child! grr! To be fair, your children are statistics in league tables, thats all. Schools/government as a whole do not generally care about personalising, they care about league tables, statistics, SATS etc. Individuals do, most are in the career cos they want to make a difference to childrens lives, but are still strangled by red tape. I studied Education Studies at uni for four years and am so disappointed by our education system and the ways its conducted. We as parents have to stamp out feet and make them listen, the kids cant do it. You dont like the system, TELL the system. Ask them for a real, reflective, personalised report if thats what you want. You are well within your rights.

milliebear00001

Many school use software to write reports (there are many different kinds). This is why you will sometimes see 'cut and paste' errors like using 'her' instead of 'him'! The idea is to use ICT to lighten the load of what is an extremely onerous task - usually completed over a number of weeks. How secondary teachers with hundreds of kids to comment on, I really don't know.

The software provides standard statements that can be selected by the teacher if they are appropriate for the child. The italicised bit is the most important thing. Did you feel the report was representative of your son? If his and his friend's reports are very similar, it is likely that they just ARE similar in terms of achievement in different areas! Does this seem likely?

Penny_Watcher

DS1 Yr9 and DD2 Yr7 have come home with exactly the same PE report - word for blimmin' word. Same ten lines - same four paragraphs. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I come from a family of teachers and I truly appreciate the need for stock phrases, but come on guys - play the game. Looking at the reports side by side it appears that there is a stock 'report' for each subject with click boxes for each level of achievement.

There are personal reports from Form Tutors, Year Heads and the Headmaster. I know these are accurate because DS1's form tutor has suggested politely that although he is very bright and a high achiever, he is a little git on the sly and I tend to agree :rolleyes: .

I'd never have known about the 'One Size Fits All' reports, but both kids attend the same school now.

smeged

Well I had a meeting with the teacher and he totally admitted that he had copied and pasted most of the subjects but the core subjects he hadn't, still they were very similar to that of his friends. It just amazes me how they seemed to have the time to write individual reports when I was in school and the classes were so much larger then, strange they don't have the time now with only 20 pupils in the class ours was over 30. With the use of computers it must be so much easier now but teachers say they have no time. They print out worksheets from a computer, so not a lot of preparation there, a lot of the homework don't get marked.

My friends son is very good at I.T. and my son is very good at P.E and art but these were exactly the same word for word, when they should have been totally different. I certainly won't be looking forward to next report as I have done in the past, seems such a shame.

emlou2009

would you rather your childs teacher spent hours writing personalised reports or would you rather they spend those hours lesson planning and dedicating time to teaching the class?

its a bit of a non-issue really - i'd be happy that my child had a average report, its better than a essay about how they are a little slow to learn, or even very disruptive (like mine always were :rotfl:)

milliebear00001

smeged wrote: »

It just amazes me how they seemed to have the time to write individual reports when I was in school and the classes were so much larger then, strange they don't have the time now with only 20 pupils in the class ours was over 30. With the use of computers it must be so much easier now but teachers say they have no time.

QUOTE]

Very simply, this is because today's teachers are expected to do far more work, preparing, assessing and planning outside the classroom than teachers 'in our day' were! This of course, is the side of the job parents never see.

smeged

QUOTE]

Very simply, this is because today's teachers are expected to do far more work, preparing, assessing and planning outside the classroom than teachers 'in our day' were! This of course, is the side of the job parents never see.[/QUOTE]

Didn't they prepare, assess or plan "in our day" then?

milliebear00001

smeged wrote: »

QUOTE]

Very simply, this is because today's teachers are expected to do far more work, preparing, assessing and planning outside the classroom than teachers 'in our day' were! This of course, is the side of the job parents never see.

Didn't they prepare, assess or plan "in our day" then?[/QUOTE]

Not nearly as much, no. Nor were they required to fill in a million bits of paper every term to prove they had done so.