Personal comments on school report cards. Discuss.
By REBECCA SPARROW
“Rebecca’s stories are very imaginative and well presented. There is certainly a need to practice the recorder.”
That’s a direct quote from my grade five report card. Reading between the lines, I can see that my teacher Mr Wessling was trying to tell me something … like maybe, “You are shit at the recorder”.
He had a point.
Regardless, I still have every single one of my school reports - from Mrs Robinson in grade one all the way to Mr Rudd (yes, Kevin’s brother) in grade 12.
The marks I worked so hard for back then, mean little now. The high achievements in English and Drama. The low achievement I got in year 8 for Phys Ed. (“Although she experiences difficulties in performing the basic skills necessary for this unit, she always performs to the best of her ability …” What am I? Forrest Gump?).
That’s the thing. I don’t know about you but when I dig out my reports it’s not the grades I care about so much. It’s the personal comments by the teachers I want to read. Partly because they provide a snapshot in time and a decidedly less biased view of me as a (clearly unco-ordinated) child and teen. And partly because many of them are hilarious to read. (“On occasion Rebecca can be exuberant and she needs to contain herself a little more …” Mrs Gifford, Year 9.)
Which is why I was surprised to read that Victorian State School teachers are holding report cards to ransom as part of their industrial relations dispute.
PARENTS are calling for the ban on written comments in end-of-year report cards to be lifted, saying it will impact on children’s education and lead to a loss of support for teachers.
Report cards sent home in December will contain a grade and attendance information only as state school teachers escalate their industrial campaign for improved pay and conditions.
But the work ban has alienated many parents, who say it will hurt children, especially those who have learning difficulties or are applying to attend another school next year.
Initally, I thought perhaps it wasn’t such a big deal. After all, aren’t “personal comments’ what the parent/teacher nights are for?
Jessica Rudd, Year 9
Um no, not according to my friends with school-aged kids. They were all in agreement about two things.
First: that personal comments were important.
Second: that report cards had become far too generic over the past 20 years.
“Report cards have become far too generic.”
For those not aware, in the majority of schools teachers access a bank of hundreds of comments (approved by the principal and related to the curriculum) and simply – for want of a better word – cut and paste a report together. How ‘personal’ the report ends up, is really up to the teacher and whether they choose to add more in.
My friend Lisa who has kids in grades 1, 2 and 7 complained to me that the comments were so generic on her kids’ last report cards that the three of them were nearly identical and had proven to be a waste of time.
“The only unique bit was when they said Tom seemed to enjoy the Christmas pageant. Except Tom didn’t participate in the Christmas pageant ..”
But others – like my friend T – said it was the comments that helped boost her son’s self-esteem.
“My son’s not a strong student so a C or a D with a comment like ‘Has worked hard and made great progress this term’ makes us both feel positive about school, even though the actual mark may not be great,” she wrote to me on Facebook.
And that’s what those truly personalised comments did. They gave you the bigger picture. Told you that Tom or Sally was empathetic, a leader, helpful, positive or kind. Not to mention their prowess at playing the recorder.
Do you remember what was written about you on your school report cards? If you have (or when you have) kids, would you want their school reports to include personal comments from the teachers?
Comments
233 Comments so far
Lucy? Luuucy!
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Present!
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Seeeee? I totally learned.
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I’m a teacher. The reason report cards are generic is that we have had parents take legal action over words used – such as words as challenging, difficult & poor behaviour cannot be used. We are told to be diplomatic & only write positive comnents. All negative comnents must be treated with care. I personally find it a very stressful time, i’m always worried my comments will be taken the wrong way. It usually takes me 3 weeks to finish reports, over 50,000 words & completed outside of school time (weekends).
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It does make it hard to have open communication between parents & teachers when this fear of being sued or abused is hanging over everyone.
After my first P&T interview I was wanting my sons prep teacher to give me her profesional opinion on if my son should repeat the year & she couldn’t say a direct yes/no. It was only after I said that I wanted him to repeat that she said she would suport me if that was the decision I made but I still couldn’t get much out of her except for the facts eg. (child) knows 8 of the golden words etc…
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I had the same scenario with middle cherub. She was borderline young for the year but emotionally immature. She had a spectacular teacher who very gently suggested repeating her. She was so incredibly diplomatic, and I was completely fine with the idea. Made me so sad that the teacher couldn’t just make the suggestion for fear of negative ramifications.
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As a parent whose child is going to be attending school next year I want to hear the truth even if I might not like it. Perhaps they need an opt-in system where parents can asked for a on filtered version (perhaps for their eyes only) in exchange for a promise not to complain!
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You know what Chris? I’ve come to discover after quite a few years now as a school parent, is that the parents who need to know the brutal truth would be the ones to opt not to receive it….because they think their darling is simply perfect!
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The problem is ALL parents think they want to know the truth….it’s only when they hear a truth they don’t like that they can’t deal with it.Catch 22!
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I have to agree with you. As a teacher, I am often told that my comments are too negative and to “find something nice to say”. This means the comments often don’t match grades. A report will end up with a “John has been a conscientious class member this year…..” with a mark of 35/100. Reports have become sanitised to avoid offending anyone and are pretty meaningless. Please keep in mind that marks are also moderated and do not reflect the marks you child actually received.
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My children are at a small systemic Catholic primary school where, twice a year, the class teacher is given time away from the class during the day to write the school reports. This means that the teacher is away from the class for almost two weeks whilst a substitute teacher takes the class. Personally, I would much prefer that the regular teacher was paid extra so they could complete the reports out of classroom time instead of the disruption caused by this arrangement.
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Good grief! Most of us do it in our own time and there is certainly no extra pay. Where does the money come from to pay these subs?
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It made my day when my now year 4 daughters year 1 teacher wrote her in her final comment that she loved my girls smile and that her charisma kept the classroom bright . I don’t think it was a cut and paste job and in year one , thats the kind of comment that means a lot . You have years ahead to prove how academic ( or not ) you are.
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Unfortunately, they are the comments that another parent will complain about. “My daughter smiles a lot and it wasn’t mentioned on her report”. “You said that xxxx was a delight to teach, but my son’s report says he is focused in class. Is he difficult to teach?”
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As a school teacher it makes me smile when people tell me how lucky I am to get all of the holidays that I do, that I am home by four etc… I ask them very politely what they do … nod my head and say…. oh yes sounds difficult I do something similar and supervise 22 different children at the same time in a room with little support…. think you could do that? funnily enough they get very quiet.
There are good teachers and there are bad teachers just the same as there are good and bad in every profession. And its the parents who are the worst,,, you know the ones who won’t let little Jimmy have a party because they cringe at the thought of supervising 10 of his little friends at MsDonalds for two hours…..
To the parents who support us and thank us for all of the great things we do for your children, please don’t stop, it makes our job even better.
Meg xx
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I hate to disappoint you, but as a teacher I can tell you that most “personalised comments” are electronically generated by modern reporting programs. There is a dropdown list of comments from outstanding to needs to try harder and you just click on the one you want and the kid’s name is automatically added. Sorry to burst the bubble.
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At your school, maybe. That’s not true for every school – mine we have to write from scratch. No select and drop – we have to write them ourselves.
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Yes! I have worked at 3 primary schools in my 15 year teaching career and I have never used a computer generated program to write my comments. I have always written them from scratch. Maybe in highschool?
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Nope, not in my high school!
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Way to generalise. My school doesn’t have anything like that.
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I’ve worked in 5 schools my husband has worked in 6 and neither of us has worked in a school with drop down comments except for drop down curriculum objectives. I’ve never heard if it in SA.
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I don’t agree about that ‘most’ personal comments are generated electronically. Maybe some schools do it this way but it is not fair to generalise and say that most do it this way. Even as a teacher, how do you know what every school does?
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Ok, lets remember that this is a one off instance of teachers not recording comments. The state government here has refused even a basic increase of 4% pa (which was a standard increase when I worked in the federal public service). This after promising in opposition to make Victoria’s teachers the best paid in the country. This is, of course, a very potted version of events, but I guess I’m trying to make the point that this is not just some petty decision, it is not one that teachers feel good about making and it is a last resort following extremely protracted negotiations during which the govt has refused to budge. Nothing in a report should come as a surprise – parents with kids who are having problems should be being kept in the loop throughout the year. Let’s keep it in perspective (I have a grade 2 daughter in a public school, so I am speaking as a parent).
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Federal public servants aren’t getting 4% any more! Try about 8% over 3 years……
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‘In her attempts to complete her work on time, Rebecca has let her presentation standards drop…’
My daughter’s Year 2 report. Her name is not Rebecca.
When I approached her teacher about it (I wanted to know if the comment applied to my daughter or had the comment been meant for Rebecca and had been inadvertantly transplanted into another report) the response I got was ‘Wow, I’ve never seen that before. Wow. I don’t actually remember who I was referring to in that comment.’
I didn’t query it with the Principal as I had bigger fish to fry. In hindsight, I think I should have.
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Ah!
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Another example of our similarities Bec! I was always being told I was good at writing stories (imaginative) but the only thing I ever truly failed at during school was the recorder.
I think personal comments are important. Just today I received a report from my daughter’s kinder teacher. It is a document that is going to her school which she starts at next year. Reading the report not only filled me with confidence that she will do well starting school, but that her current educators are ever so proud of her and have genuinely enjoyed having her as one of their charges this year.
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I am a teacher. I get paid for 38 hours per week when I work 50 hours + every week. The extra hours I work are by no means offset by the holidays I get throughout the year, I am still in arrears. I write honest, personal comments for my students, only to be challenged by parents who see their children far less than I see them, stating I don’t know them. This is plainly untrue, as I spend an extra 12 hours a week monitoring and assessing these children that I apparently don’t know. I have been threatened and judged, stood over in my work place and have been the unenviable recipient of threats and harassment. Anyone who’s been to school thinks they are an expert at my job and can therefore judge. Write honest report comments and you’re left wide open for criticism. Don’t write them and it’s just not enough either. Lucky I do the job because I love working with the kids. Want to know about my students’/ your childrens’ progress? Ask the kids.They know exactly where they’re at and what their areas for improvements are. None of my students wait with baited breath for their report card so they can have their ego stroked. Parents shouldn’t wait for it either.Just take the time to talk to your own kids. You’ll find out everything you need to know.
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You know I nodded my had the whole why through your comment – until I looked at the time it was posted.
Ditto for all the other teachers comments above. Eg mistress meg, kellyborg
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Not sure if your aware of this but teachers can work part time as well. A friend who is a high school teacher works 3 days a week & as she doesn’t teach in the last session of the day she finishes at 2.15pm so that she can pick her primary school kids up.
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Are teachers not allowed to have a break when the children leave the classroom for the day before sitting down to go re-read reports and make any final changes (as I did this afternoon)? My school finishes at 2.50pm. I often flick over to Facebook at this time to see whats been happening and if something from the Mamamia feed sparks my interest have a look. We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t. I absolutely love my job and I know that most of the parents of children in my class are extremely supportive, but this comment above makes me so mad!!
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You do realise teachers are actually allowed to take a lunch break. High school teachers sometimes get free periods. Not all teachers are full time.
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Not every state is on the same time you know. She/he could be in Queensland where it would have been almost 4.00pm.
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I’m a teacher – I work part time because I have a daughter. I have been commenting today whilst my daughter has been having a nap. There you go again making judgements about teachers.
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Whilst I have every sympathy for the important and difficult job that teachers do, I don’t agree that teachers know my children better than I do or see them more. Teachers see the children in a large group for a maximum of 30 hours per week during term time. There are at least 84 waking hours a week (even if kids sleep 12 hours a night, which mine certainly don’t!). So there are approx 50 hours a week when the children are with me, plus more during school holidays…
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But they do see your children when they are in a different environment and with different demands placed upon them. Children are often very different at school.
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I am glad you teach for the love of it, and I do admire the dedication of teachers. My sister is one and I see how hard she works.
However, teachers are not alone in that. I sometimes wonder if teachers understand that the rest of us also put in lots of extra hours. I also work 50 hours a week and I get paid a lot less than the average teacher. This is normal with everyone I know. Many of my friends work weekends without extra pay and all of us are expected to be on call when we aren’t in the office. I have 4 weeks holiday a year (which I don’t take beyond the Christmas shutdown of 8 days because there isn’t a budget to replace me). Plus 30% of my colleagues have been made redundant this year so those of us who are left have had to pick up the extra work. I got a 2% salary rise this year, which is the first salary rise I have had in three years. Most of my colleagues got 1.5%. This is the real world.
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What do you do? And do you cop as much shit from the community, media, commentators as teachers do?
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I wrote the same thing last night, Kris (although far less succintly!) and it has either disappeared or been moderated. There are few professions who deal with this. And funnily, most of them seem to be community/society based ones ie teachers, nurses, police etc.
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Hi Kris – I am a journalist. Yes, it has been a bad few years in the media for employment. I don’t think people generally know how badly we are paid, but yes, the media do get blamed for a lot of things.
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I’m a teacher in Qld. We get paid for 25 hours per week (full-time). The idea that school holidays are time in leiu is laughable.
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Hi Rebecca, I’m not sure “the majority of schools teachers” actually do simply “cut and paste” reports. Definately not in my experience and not according to the majority of comments below. A bit of a fleeting, blanket statement I suspect, that is rather hurtful and disrespectful to teachers. I am a teacher, and I am surprised by what you written.
Please read GoodGirl comment below. I believe it to be a much more accurate portrayal of report writing as it currently stands in Victorian schools today.
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If parents want personal comments then schools need to give their teaching staff the TIME to write them! My husband is currently writing report cards with a large part being personal comments…he hasn’t seen me or his daughter all weekend nor any night this week due to the work load expected of him in his own ‘personal’ time, that is after school sporting commitments as well! And that’s just comments, the last 2 months have been nights in the study marking to work out grades.
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This is a genuine question not a dig at your husband or other teachers. I always thought that the benefit of school holidays evened itself out with the personal time taken for writing reports. Does this work out when compared to other jobs such as admin or retail?
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I’m not a teacher (mum is) so I’m speaking from her experiences…
Teachers holidays aren’t the full 8 weeks for summer and 4 weeks in the middle of the year- class preparation, from what I gather, is by no means an easy feat and so its not unusual for teachers to return to the school 2-3 weeks early to get everything ready. This is on top of the (almost!) extra week following the end of the school year to pack up/clean up (even some pre-pre preparation, lol).
I wouldn’t necessarily say this is the case for every teacher, but the vast majority (including my mum) are dedicated to providing a quality education, doing their job right, even if it means they must do so in their own time, and therefore miss out on spending time with their own families.
I guess the other thing with admin and retail, you can plan and choose when you take your holidays. If not for long service leave, teachers can’t take holidays when say, prices are cheaper because it’s march or september etc. , so the trade off is school holidays. Not exactly a terrible trade off, but I wouldn’t hasten to say teachers get all the goods
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Well, I’ve just tried to figure this out. I could be wrong (tired brain today!), but I’ve had a go!
As a Gov primary teacher, I am paid from 8.50am to 3.50pm every day. That’s 7 hours, or 35 hours a week. There are also 3 hours a week added into our pay for meetings and planning, so 38 hours a week. Teachers work 40 weeks of the year.
I actually work 7.30am until 5pm, sometimes later. So that’s 9.5 hours a day or 47.5 hours a week. So that means there is an extra 9.5 hours a week that I work that I am not paid for. 9.5 x 40 weeks of the school year is 380 extra hours that I am not paid for.
Then, I work during the evenings and most weekends, especially around report time. Honestly, reports do take me about 80 hours to write, twice a year. Plus I do assessments, parent meetings and interviews, school concerts, sport finals, the Christmas event, display nights, the school fair, marking homework. But lets be modest and say I work an extra 4 hours a week during the school term, on top of my 9.5 hours a day. So that is 160 extra hours a year.
So, if my maths is correct, I work 540 hours during the school term that I am not paid for, on top of my 38 hours a week. If I then split this 540 hours between the 12 weeks of paid holidays we get – ignoring the work we do during school holidays – then it works out to be 45 hours of work each week of the school holidays.
So I’d say holidays are more like time in lieu really.
I
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As a teacher, I agree with you to an extent…and then I had kids. Trying to explain to your own kids why they have to leave you alone for a few weekends but don’t worry we’ll make it up in the holidays usually doesn’t cut it. But at the end of the day I chose this job and teachers have always had to do reports. The problem is that state and federal governments have started meddling in the reports and turning them into a government red tape document rather than something useful for parents and taking a ridiculous amount of time to complete. But reading many of these comments I feel very reassured that parents do care about the comments that I spend so long agonising over, often I wonder if they are ever read.
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Fair question. My belief is the benefit of holidays is for the children as they need a break, not for the teachers. The problem is that reports need to be finished before the end of school term, so it’s not as if he can use his Xmas holidays to do report cards (which I know he’d prefer!) But his ’8 week holidays’ get cut to about 3 when you factor in a sport trip, coaching, classroom preparation and professional development. The same with other holidays, usually cut by half in preparation for a number of things. It’s just hard when teachers are constantly under scrutiny, but unless you ask you’ll never know, so I’m glad the message is getting out there that teaching isn’t a 9-3 job 40 weeks of the year
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I disagree, I need the holidays too. Kids are draining. I need the hols to plan for the next term, get my classroom reorganised and come back to school with a positive attitude towards ‘Little Johnnie’ who has driven me to the brink of insanity during the term and whose behaviour keeps me awake at night!
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I’d also add that public holidays are just part of our holidays when they fall within them-which is usually. So we don’t get extra time for Xmas, Boxing Day, New Years, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Often ANZAC Day, October Long Weekend. On the other hand if my partner takes the 4 days after a long weekend off he gets 9 days off work.
I know it’s minor, and not really the argument, but that is a week of holidays that we aren’t entitled to.
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I first started teaching in country WA in 2005. I was starting up two subject areas that hadn’t previously been in the school. We were required to use comment banks. This was an administration decision, and it was to save them time proof reading teachers’ comments. If they already existed, there could be nothing wrong with them, therefore, no work on the admin’s part. As my subject areas hadn’t been in the school when the comment bank was built, there were no specific comments for them. My students got the most awful generic comments in a learning area (arts) which deserves so much more. Not only that, but scrolling through thousands of comments to select 2 or 3 for each student (of which most high school teachers have about 200) took much longer than writing individual comments.
I was so glad to leave the high school atmosphere and move into a specific department that distributes peripatetic teachers. Due to the nature of our work and the selective nature of our program, no comment bank in any school was ever going to suffice the kind of work our students did. Our department distributed our own reports, tailored for each student, and the schools using our service were required to attach our reports to their own.
Comment banks are not a teacher choice! They actually make life harder in a lot of respects. As a teacher, I accept that reports and comments are a vital part of the job. I actually enjoy them, to the point where I have got the process of writing comments down to a fine art. The nature of them means you can only do them at certain times (i.e. assessments need to have been completed and online reporting needs to have opened, and neither of these things tend to coincide with school holidays!), but averaged out over the year, the workload is not unreasonable.
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I woud far far rather one personal comment than any number of generic ones.
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I’m a strong supporter of the teachers striking to encourage their very well deserved pay rise. However, I think it’s appalling that the AEU believe that this action is necessary. It’s the children being punished in this instance, not Baillieu or his government.
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“She needs to stop finishing the teacher’s sentences.” I laughed out loud when I read this in my daughter’s school report. Finally, confirmation that she acts the same way in and out of the house. It gave us a great place to start a conversation – with our daughter and her teacher. That’s what school reports are for. You can smile and take them seriously.
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In year 8 my industrial arts teacher wrote on my report “Sarah works to the best of her ability in this subject”. I still think it’s hilarious – I guess he was trying to say – she tries but she’s crap at it. Funnily enough I went on to a career in a related field – and I am actually now not too bad at it
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I’m really not happy about this at all. I have supported the teacher strike days and kept my son home as a sign of respect for their rights, but this is not the way to get my ongoing support.
My youngest has had some learning difficulties and this year we have spent a lot of money on a weekly tutor and a lot of our time helping him to improve. By all accounts he has improved but I’d like to hear that from his teachers. I think the teachers will lose a lot of parental support over this. Disappointed.
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Go and chat with the teacher. I’m sure they will be more than happy to tell you how he’s going. I bet his report will reflect his hard work (and yours).
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Then why not go and ask his teachers? Why wait for the end of year report?
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If you want to know how your child is going, pick up the phone!! All teachers are available to talk to about your child’s progress and many of us wish more parents would engage more in their child’s education rather than just the parent teacher night format. Don’t wait till the end of the year for 2 paragraphs of writing. Get on the phone and have a chat.
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Jude, are you a teacher? Or a parent?
If you were either, you would know how difficult it is to contact anyone who works in a school, except perhaps the receptionist, via phone. The last thing a teacher wants at the end of a teaching day is missed calls that they have to return. Email…..only if you REALLY have to.
Yes, I am a teacher.
P.S. I find the comment about the “access a bank of hundreds of comments (approved by the principal and related to the curriculum)” and the reports that are”simply – for want of a better word – cut and paste(d)” together extremely offensive. While this may certainly be done at some schools, most people have no idea the HOURS of work that goes into writing personal and unique reports for students, especially about the teachers who genuinely care about their progress and achievements.
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Mel, I would be quite happy to return parent phone calls if they are calling to see how their child is going. I don’t think your comment “The last thing a teacher wants at the end of a teaching day is missed calls that they have to return. Email…..only if you REALLY have to” represents teachers very well at all. I am thrilled when parents want to check in with me about their child; it’s an important aspect of our job.
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I always call parents if they want me to discuss something with them. I find time at lunch or after 3.15pm – also I am available from 8am before school or after school for meeting.
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I am a secondary school teacher at a school where it is not uncommon for teachers to teach 9 classes per semester. That means writing in excess of 180 reports at the end of each semester. That means 180 comments, plus about 15 drop down boxes where you allocate a vels level for different standards, or a high, medium or a low for different behaviours within the classroom. This is at the end of the semester, while still trying to plan lessons, attend meetings and write and correct tests and exams. Anyone who thinks this doesn’t eat up hours and hours of our own time (whole weekends and evenings after putting our own kids to bed) is kidding themselves. Teaching is certainly not a 9 – 3.30 job, no matter what the teacher bashers say.
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Gosh those comments are hilarious. I wonder how much they still ring true???
The use of a “comments bank” just makes the process easier. It may seem like it’s “cheating” for those not in the industry – but just imagine trying to think up individual comments for 200 odd students (HS), some of whom you may have actually only seen a few times because they haven’t bothered to turn up to school. The comments being used are actually comments you would see anyway. If there’s nothing suitable, then teachers do have the option of making up their own, however the reports get approved and those personal comments may not end up getting through.
I think that the parent/teacher interviews are more important than the report. The report just tells you the grade and where the child is sitting in comparison to their peers. If you are worried about your child’s performance, don’t wait for the report. Organise a meeting with the teacher.
Besides – I think I don’t think I would mind seeing repetitions of “she is a delight to teach” or variations of the same, because it tells you your child is doing ok! If there is repetition of the same negative comment across different classes, you know that there is an issue that needs to be addressed.
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firstly I am not a teacher. But…
Teachers do not choose comments from a drop down menu.
Teachers are not allowed anymore to say anything negative.
Teachers are can not fail a student – even if they do nothing for the whole year.
The comments section is now irrelevant anyway as they can’t say anything that could actually help.
I feel sorry for the kids as what sort of world are they being brought up in where they are taught that not trying will lead to succeeding – and you will be praised for your lack of effort.
I don’t want to bring children up in that world
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Mikaela, the principal of my kids school has told me that they do choose their comments from a drop down menu.
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Not at all schools. I have been a primary school teacher for 15 years and I have always written my own.
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Then they are bloody lucky teachers. I have been a teacher for 10 years and I have developed my own ‘bank’ of comments that I change to make each comment every year personal. I write a comment for every subject as well as a general (personal comment) on the child.
I’ve never known any school or teacher to select comments from a drop down menu. That teacher should market and sell that software then… I guarantee they would make a motza!!
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I work at a school and there is a drop-down bank of comments for teachers to use. They can make up their own comment but often don’t. Our software system is used by lots of schools, so I would guess that they are also using this method of putting reports together.
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I’m not sure what state you’re in but last last term in our staff meeting we were speaking about grades. Our principal and deputy were going over some statistics with us and were suggesting that perhaps some staff members were giving D’s that should have been E’s. The concern was that they felt some teachers were too scared to hand out an E for fear of upsetting parents. We have a 5 point grading system that needs to be used honestly, otherwise what’s the point?
Of course if we feel a student is performing that poorly the parents would notified and spoken to prior to the report coming out.
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In WA you can only give a grade between A & E, so techinically there is no failing, but C grade is the one that is what they want a child to achieve by the end of the year, so I find it hard to give anyone a grade above a C unless they are rather exceptional.
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My 1 year old daughter received a report card from day care this year. Apparently she really likes playing. I felt for her poor teachers having to write all those.
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I’m a primary school teacher at a state school and also heavily involved in the AEU.
At my school, there are strict ideas about what reports involve.
1. The page of progression points. My class is compared to the other classes in the same year level and sometimes I am “encouraged” to change my marks to have a similar mix to the other grades. Even though my kids are no doubt different to another grade of kids.
2. The section about what a child has “achieved”. This is why so many schools no longer have personal comments. I am not writing about the child’s behaviour, personality, the things they enjoy or are motivated by. I can easily write a page off the top of my head about each child for that. At my school we are only allowed to write positive comments from a bank that state actual things the child has done in class. Seeing we all generally study the same thing as a class (e.g. addition) its no real surprise that every child in my class gets a sentence about how they can do addition. Nothing about the fact they crawl under the table to avoid maths or they still count on their fingers or they did addition but then forgot it three weeks later. It must all be positive and fact about what they have done.
3. What to improve in general/at home/in school.
These all come from a bank and each one has to link. We are told we must provide one numeracy, one literacy and one other – even if the child is two years ahead in literacy but still struggles with many maths concepts.
I also wish I could just write about the child – what do they do in class, how are they with others, how they deal with new concepts etc. But I am not allowed.
And these generic reports still take about 80 hours in my own time to write.
We are not “holding the reports ransom” just for kicks. We have tried negotiating for 2 years and the Government keeps walking away. We have been on stopwork and it was ignored. But we are still blasted in the media for our kids “falling behind” other nations, while we teach to the test to get funding and spend our weekends writing generic reports.
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The comments take 80 hours of your own time?
So what? They are a requirement of the job, and if you aren’t prepared to put the effort in to factually report to the parents what their kids are doing, then you should get another job.
How many paid holidays do you get a year?
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Oh my god anon! Yes they do take about 80 hours of teachers own time. I am a teacher. And don’t start about the holidays… teachers work damn hard – and the only real holidays we get are over the Summer break. All the other holidays we will be doing work on most days. Don’t be so judgmental and disrespectful.
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So you would be prepared to put 80hrs of your free time into your job?
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Hey Anon. I have to say that I am so over people having a go at teachers. My husband is a high school teacher at a public school in QLD. He does not get 9 weeks paid holidays a year as people who don’t know a teacher like to think. He gets what is basically time off in lieu. He starts work at 8 and finishes at 4. Then in the evening he puts in at least another 2-3 hours on lesson preparation, marking and calling up or emailing parents to tell them their child is not handing in work, behaving badly in class etc. He also does this on the weekend.
On top of this he has 2 one hour staff meetings after school twice a week. He often runs after school tutorials after school unpaid in his own time to help out kids who are struggling.
Over the past 3 weekends he had put in at least 8 hours each Saturday and Sunday for marking and reporting. The comments he would like to use on reports he is not permitted to and has to use standard comments.
The job is stressful. He has to deal with badly behaving kids who treat their education as an entitlement not a privilege, who waste the opportunities presented to them. He has to deal with parents, administration staff and then ignorant comments such as yours as to how he “gets all these holidays”.
He has always had a passion for learning and that is why he got into teaching. However the impact that this job has been having on our family as we now have almost 2 year old son, is getting a bit much.
I can see why teachers burn out. They are no longer held in high esteem the way teachers of yesteryear were and are instead criticized when what they should be receiving is more support.
I don’t want my husband to be a teacher anymore. He is too smart, too kind and too important to me and my son to be chewed up and spat out by the public education system. It is for this reason that so many good teachers are leaving the profession.
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That is actually a really great way of thinking about the holidays – time in lieu. I’m going to use that from now on when talking about their “holidays”!
I really feel for your husband – my partner is a 1st yr teacher and already I’m worried about how long he’s going to be able to last. He’s been sick so many times this year (and thus I’ve been sick many times this year!), many of the kids at school are so badly behaved and they don’t seem to get much support from the parents. And he’s really affected by all the comments in the media and by people who have NO IDEA what teachers put up with these days that suggest teaching is a cushy job and they have no right to complain. Yeah right. You try dealing with a class of 30 teenagers, many of whom have crap home lives and are acting out because of it, who swear at you in class/play on their phone/listen to music, trying to teach them a massive curriculum when they just don’t care. You feel like you’re hitting your head against a brick wall, day after day.
I sincerely hope that things either get better for your husband at work or, as you want, he finds something that will give him a much better balance
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The first year is the worst, tell him to hang in there! I used to fall asleep within half an hour of eating my dinner every night.
You do get used to the work load and the stress and the exhaustion – although that doesn’t make it acceptable that all of that is just considered “part of the job” and that we are happy to be paid less than someone who washes cars for a living because we love it.
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Thanks for your kind words. This is his 5th year teaching. He has had a particularly unmotivated bunch of students this year, the year 12′s were some of the worst actually! He still gets sick a lot too.
He still gets a lot out of teaching but he admits that he probably won’t be doing this in 10 years time. It’s not the work load as such, it’s the constant stress and pressure of dealing with badly behaved teenagers with little or no support from administration and parents on top of the work. If kids behaved the way they did back in the 50′s teaching would be fine. But they just seem to be getting more unruly, unmotivated and disrespectful each year.
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God knows teaching can be just as maligned as my job, but why is your husband phoning parents on the weekend??? I got a phone call off a teacher one weekend and when I told the principal about it, she actually told me that they weren’t supposed to be ringing parents on weekends as it was time off for everyone.
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He mostly only engages in weekend conversations with parents late in the term when they are freaking out as they realize their kid is going to fail the unit because they haven’t done their work. Most of his communication with parents on the weekend is via email. The kids email him too. Some kids like to submit drafts of work via email for comment or ask for clarification about something. He would prefer to get it all out of the way during the week but he just runs out of time. He got home from work at 6 tonight, bathed our son, ate dinner with me and now at 8:15 is in the other room marking. Teaching is full on.
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I hate to play Devil’s advocate, but that actually seems like a fairly standard workload for a professional. My husband is paid in line with teachers and works a 38 hour week in 2.5 days.
However, my husband’s salary will outstrip teachers in the future, and the respect he gets always has. I agree teachers deserve more pay, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable workload for a professional.
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80 hours is in ADDITION to working full-time! i.e. on weekends, at night. 2 x reports for 200 students over the course of the year and that’s 4 weeks “holidays” used up, right there!
Teachers do NOT get 12 weeks paid holidays a year! They get 4 weeks, like everyone else. And the rest is non-teaching time- spent marking, preparing, gathering resources, writing courses, professional reading, doing endless paper work and attending PD. Any time “off” is time-in-lieu for all the after-hours, at night and weekend work they do.
You really need to educate yourself!
Your report from me “anon:”
“Anon relies on stereotypes and out-dated information when publishing her opinions. Anon would benefit from researching and preparing thoroughly (perhaps by visiting schools and speaking to teachers.) Anon is not a worthy contributor to the debate, relying on ‘teacher-bashing’ rather than presenting an informed opinion. I would love to see Anon take a more pro-active role, perhaps by shadowing a teacher for a week and then reporting back to the Mamamia class. I wish Anon the very best in leaving her ignorant opinions behind.”
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Hi anon,
Of course I’m prepared to do them. I do them twice a year. I think reporting is really important, although a lot of the purpose and value has been taken out by the systems I mentioned above, however that’s my own school that I am speaking of. I personally think a lot of the factual reporting is lost due to the processes I mentioned above. But of course, I do do them to the best of my ability.
Yes we do get paid holidays, through which most of us work anyway.
The reason teachers are currently taking action is because our agreement is up with the state government. Each year, more is expected from school, teachers and students. Naplan results are linked to our funding, all over the newspapers and put on the myschools page for parents to compare. The regions set targets about how high our kids should be achieving, based on percentages, not the kids in the room. The media blasts us when we fall behind other OECD countries.
Victorian teachers are among the highest performing in Australia but are paid lower than WA and SA. Bailleu promised he would make us the highest paid, but then was voted in and went back on that promise. We work much harder than we get paid for, and we work much more than the school hours may suggest. We deserve – as everyone does – to be paid fairly for what we do and what is expected of us.
Reports are expected. They take 80 hours of our own time to do. Why shouldn’t we be paid in recognition of that?
The Government is proposing a system of payment-by-results which would divide teachers and set principals against staff. Performance pay — which has repeatedly failed around the world — would shatter the spirit of collegiality and collaboration that are essential to education. Suddenly teachers who work in a team would be competing to get a tiny bonus.
And its not just about us.
The Coalition is cutting half a billion dollars in education cuts, has axed programs and effectively frozen the $1.7bn building program started by the previous administration. Cuts have targeted VCAL, TAFE and department staff and coaches.
Schools in Victoria get less funding per student than any other state.
We stopped work, we stopped going to meetings, stopped responding to emails and lots of other ways to draw attention to this. We have never taken action regarding reports before.
I’m glad that this strategy is working.
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Actually you’re probably a bit further behind SA now. We just got a 3% pay rise for the next 3 years and a funding increase for IT in public schools as well as a few other ‘goodies’. No industrial action, public stoush or opinions from the peanut gallery. Woo hoo
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Anon, do you have any children of your own at a school? Or have you only ever been a student? Most parents see how much work is put in by teacher and support staff and the bulk of it is in their own time. You may think they get amazing holidays but they earn every bit of them and for some of them who are on contract they won’t get paid for them unless they secure another contract.
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I was going to write an explaination defending myself and other teachers, but then I realised there was no point. Unless you are a teacher or have a teacher in the family, you will never understand the stress or work load we have. Our lives just look like one big holiday.
Maybe if you spend a day in the classroom you might just change your mind.
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Good girl-your comment is excellent. A perfect portrayal of how report writing currently is in Victorian schools. Thankyou!
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Thank you!
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This is a timely column for me as I am right in the middle of writing my reports. Frustrating, very time consuming and really difficult to find the right words to describe a semesters worth of work in a few sentences. I have narrowed my comments down to whether they have done well, worked really hard but haven’t done well, and needs to try harder. I always try to add a positive comment as well ( sometimes I have to channel my inner Dahai Lama-”you can find a positive in anyone, even if it is that they have nice eyelashes”). I tick the interview request box if there is a real problem, but amazingly they never do!!
But I am very interested to know if parents really read the reports or do as I do as a parent and just scan over them but really just care about the grade?
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I read & value the comments in my sons report card. He is a preppie so we have only received the mid year one & I am pretty shattered that there won’t be comments on his first end of year report.
I do have informal chats with my sons teacher so I know where he is at but I would still love a written report to keep.
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I actually came on to Mamamia to take a five minute re-charge break from report writing. Believe me, there is no cut and paste at my school. There is a format to follow – in that we have to start with a positive (and believe me, it can be really difficult to find some of those with some students I teach), then talk about a recent task and how they went, then how to improve overall performance.
It’s taken me the best part of 2 hours to do one class. I teach six.
But that’s ok. I want to make sure that some students who didn’t do well on the exam know that I think they are still doing fine. I want to let the really bright lazy kid know that the laziness is about to stop working because when you hit year 11, it’s a whole new ballgame. I want to make sure that parents know when their kids are talkative so they can work with their kids to figure out strategies to change their behaviour. I make them very personal – not in a negative way, but to make sure the parent realises that I’ve had my eye on what their kids are doing and what I think they need to know.
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I just thought the comment from kindy about Paula needing to show a firmer understanding of reality in her paintings was just so sad! I am glad Paula got out of that kindy before her creative spirit was crushed!
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My fiance’s mum is a teacher and I’m fairly certain she doesn’t have a bank of phrases to use. She spends hours at the end of each term writing up the personal comments and wording them in a way that is constructive whilst also positive so that parents will be able to know where problems lie but won’t feel terrible about them.
On a different note, my year 11 IT teacher copied and pasted the same comment for the class, and while he managed to change my name, he forgot to change ‘he’ to ‘she’. It’s things like that where we know the personal comment isn’t very personal at all.
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Husband just finished his a few weeks ago – hours and hours of carefully choosing his words to maintain the standard generic responses. I was upset for him when one of his comments was scratched for being “too negatve” – he wanted a wonderful student who is truly outstanding at English and story writing to see that he has confidence in her, and hopes she will see her own talent and ability and REALLY shine. He was told to remove it. How is that helping the student? Wouldn’t YOU want to read something that confidence building from your teacher? Or read it about your child?
I prefer more personal comments and hope my children’s school will not use these standardised, non-committal phrases in their reports.
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the worst thing about school reports time is having 15 + facebook friends who are teachers who constantly bitch about their job and how exhausted they are by report writing!
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I had a friend back in the early 80′s whose Year 12 report says something along the lines of ‘x is a very attractive girl’. I bet that’s not in anyone’s comment bank!
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I’m sick of the bland comments that our teachers have to choose – from a drop down menu.
I understand it takes a long time to prepare, write and edit reports, but they are a complete waste of everyones time if they are so airy fairy. I want the truth. If my child is being a shit, I want to know. If my child is top of the class, I want to know. If my child is being lazy and can do better, I want to know. If my child is a delight to have in the classroom, I would also love to know that.
If reports were more honest parents would be aware of their kids issues and wouldnt be able to ignore them, especially when its a case of ‘my child could not possibly do that’..well yes they could, its in black and white in their school report.
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Go to parent/teacher interviews. You’ll find out the truth then.
We cannot write negative things on reports. It’s simply not allowed (at least not at my school).
I agree, it’s frustrating but when it comes to reporting, we are hamstrung by school policy.
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I go to parent teacher interviews. However we have our children with us in the class room showing us their ‘portfolios’. Its all about praise for the child and in front of the child the teacher will not say anything negative (which is OK) Soo..when do I get a real idea if my child is doing well??
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I like the format of parent teacher interviews at our school whereby my child is present for part of it and then leaves the room so we can discuss any other issues. I find reports with just a grade a waste of time. The PT interview really is where you get a more accurate picture of how your child is doing.
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Maybe try and organise a time with the teacher where your child will not be present. This way you can have a free and open discussion about issues or questions you have.
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I still remember that my term 1 Year 1 report had some very complimentary remarks from my teacher and “but inclined to be disobedient”. The headmaster’s comment was “A pity to spoil a good start by disobeying the teacher”. I suspect the problem was that I already knew how to read, and got bored in class.
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I think you’d be hard pressed to find any reports of mine that don’t have something similar – “Kristie is progressing well but tends to be too chatty and needs to remember that others take more time with their work”.
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Me too, and now I’m a teacher!!
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…When I was a kid ( particularly grades 4 and 5), my favourite and most influential teacher wrote some very lovely compliments on my report cards in relation to my apparently advanced English level. While she was only my teacher for two years, her comments far surpassed the “needs improvement” comments dominating other educational areas.
About 12 months ago, I needed these report cards again to assist my doctor with diagnosis of a neurological condition.
Reading the teachers’ comments for the first time in years, I realised just how wonderful an English teacher I had had, and how her support had guided me through my (yucky) childhood.
PLEASE DON’T STOP OUR CHILDREN’S TEACHERS FROM HIGHLIGHTING STRENGTHS.
A simple comment of acknowledgement from a teacher can lift the self-esteem MUCH MUCH MUCH more than one would think.
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My Year 6 teacher called me particularly “dogmatic”, a word I had to look up to understand….
dogmatic [dɒgˈmætɪk], dogmatical
adj
1.
a. (of a statement, opinion, etc.) forcibly asserted as if authoritative and unchallengeable
b. (of a person) prone to making such statements
Yikes! I’m hoping I’ve grown out of it… lol!
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As a Victorian teacher, can I just say that it was a relief to be rid of report comment writing this year. We did not strike at our school, but this was a way we could show parents that we care what is happening within our profession. It has allowed me to spend more time with my class working with them to write their own report comments – reflections of their learning and areas they need to work on. This will be sent home with their progression point reports. We have also spent time planning the next 4 weeks of school, organising a school fair, movie making days, crafting, gift making, school concert and community projects. The tone of our school has also changed. The staff have been more relaxed, the kids are more engaged (because they are not being given boring tasks to do while others are tested and benchmarked) and are enjoying the final weeks of school. We are offering parents the opportunity to come and discuss their child’s progress (something we are doing as a gesture of goodwill). We have also been enjoying our own families and in this super busy time of year we have the time at weekends and after school to attend our own children’s concerts, grand finals, family gatherings etc without feeling ‘report writing’ guilt! I understand that people are disappointed, but please understand the reasons for the ban
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I totally agree. Teaching this term has been completely different – we are teaching as we should, not stressing about getting some generic comments down while the kids do assessment after assessment.
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I am a high school PD/H/PE Teacher. I have more then 200 reports to write but I enjoy it, and I think it is important. Personal comments can often explain the results and give a great insite into behaviour. I always comment on effort, attitude or manners. Teachers often have very little say in the format of reports. Decisions like that are often left to “experts” in offices.
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Never kept a report and can’t remember anything from them. I don’t remember any comments. My teachers barely knew I was there, I think. I went to school in a rough part of town and teachers were mostly into damage control. My parents were about the only ones who turned up to parent/teacher nights and were told that they weren’t needed. Teachers wanted to meet the other parents.
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My grade six report had another girl’s name in the English personal comment. Guess we were similar?
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Considering that at our school, the children now sit in on parent/teacher interviews, allowing only a few minutes at the end if you want to discuss anything with the teacher while the child is sent off, those comments are crucial!
Would a 9 -5 working day allow teachers to get all the ‘extra’ stuff done? Or allocating a week out of every school holidays to do planning, programming, preparation etc mean teachers are less stressed?
This is the part where teachers start shouting at me….go ahead.
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I’m not a teacher but every teacher I know works more like 8-6 plus they do have time spent on professional development, lesson preparation etc in the school holidays. My Mum was always at school at least 4 days before the students and 3-4 days after in terms of holidays and when we were at the same school as her we were there just after 8am and on a good day left at 4pm, usually so she could go home and do work.
Teaching is not a 9-3 job.
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I am not a teacher and I am not shouting. I agree that the comments are crucial but really, do you think teachers work only between 9am-3pm (or varying times depending on when schools start)?
I have many friends and family who are teachers who arrive at 8am and don’t leave before 4:30pm. I am yet to meet a teacher who doesn’t spend their holidays writing reports, planning, programming and preparing.
It’s all well and good for you to think they only work the bare minimum, but teacher’s holidays are rarely restful!
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You do realise most of us DO allocate a week or two in a holiday to do preparations…? Admittedly, this is cool because I can do it in my PJs – but it’s still a lot of work that gets done.
As for reports – they have to come at the end of a course, which means an exam needs to be sat, marked, then all assessment tasks compared, then write report comments. This obviously can’t be done during holidays – because parents want the reports before the end of the year.
But then – I’m in NSW and we haven’t stopped the comments – and we write ours from scratch at the school I work at.
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The teachers already do the equivalent to working 9-5, it just is up to them when the additional hours go.
They also work at least a week of every school holidays, and weekends, especially when its report time
When it come to writing reports there are so many things that they must say, and they have a character limit meaning there isn’t much room for a proper comment. And with the political correctness of today I would say they would have multiple complaints if they actually wrote what they thought about certain children
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This is hilarious! You really do have no idea. I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to work 9-5 as a teacher. But instead I am at school (work) by 7.30am and I leave at about 5-6pm. Then I come home and have dinner and more than likely I will sit and watch tv while either a) marking work or b) preparing resources for my lessons. Or if it is report writing time – I come home forget about dinner most nights and continue to write reports until I can no longer keep my eyes open. You make me laugh!
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Beth your day is exactly like mine today. I have a big pile of maths tests and was just considering what show I could watch whilst marking them. Then will be at school at 7.30am again tomorrow to try and get some more planning/marking done.
I don’t want to get all shouty at people who don’t understand what teachers do….I don’t think that helps, but isn’t this post and all the conversations I’m seeing and hearing just showing how effective the ban is, as now there is a discussion about what teachers REALLY do! Surely that’s beneficial for everyone?
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I personally like the comments – it can give a more rounded picture of how your child is doing.
As for my own reports, various teachers always said that if I spent less time gazing out the window, I would do better. Haven’t changed, still a window gazer!
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I’m disgusted you a) haven’t asked a teacher about this, and b) asked why they are taking union action.
I’m not a teacher, and to be honest, I always thought they were whinge bags, until I dated one. He came home and told me it was his (first) report writing time and he’d been told to set aside 30-40 hours. I (being a super efficient comms type professional), told him, very superiorly, that he and his fellow teachers are obviously doing it wrong. And nothing should take that long. Until I saw the reports they’re made to do.
When I was in school I would get ONE sentence from each teacher. Nowadays they are made to write approx 500 words per student. It’s ridiculous! His reports totalled around 10,000 words. A god damn thesis. And FYI – that’s twice a year, not during class hours. It’s very regulated by the Government, and the comments are to follow a strict formula. Hence the ‘cut and paste’ suggestions that the Govt provide.
And the reason they are striking is because of the pay. We pay our teachers about as much as low level office workers. Yet the people in this article seem surprised to not receive comments that are thoughtful, witty and tactful? What do you expect of low level admin office workers? Start expecting that. Or start getting your head around what is really happening here.
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Can I like this comment x 100?? I come from a family of teachers – Mum, sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles. The amount of work they are expected to put in out of class time is absolutely unbelievable. They MUST receive better pay.
And if you have ever lived with a teacher and experienced their levels of exhaustion at the end of a term, you would know how much they actually NEED those holidays. Not to mention the fact that they are back in the classroom a few days later, prepping for the next term.
Teachers deserve so much better!!!
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Bec didn’t ask why they were taking union action and striking. She was surprised, as someone who doesn’t have kids at school that reports and the comments written on them could be a part of the union action that parents would get up in arms about.
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I think that’s my point though – she should be asking why they are striking in the same sentence. The regulations around the comments, and what teachers are expected to do for the wages they are on should all be thought of together. They are one and the same.
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One of my children was an international gymnast who moved to train at the AIS on a gymnastic scholarship. When she was in primary school and was already training over 30 hours per week her report card for PE class she got a C for the gymnastics component and only a B for fitness and flexibility with a comment that she needed to try harder at the various skills!!!
Need less to say even at that point my daughter would have been the fittest most flexible kid in the school and would have know more about gymnastics than the teacher.
That is when I realized the teacher had no idea about individual students and they just went through the motions of writing ‘personal” comments etc on the reports. I never really took much notice after that.
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I had similar experience with my son’s Music teacher at school (a specialist stream mostly funded by parent contributions). My 6yr old Grade 1 son has learnt piano/keyboard at an independent music school since he was 3. He demonstrates great ability as he plays complex pieces beautifully and with impressive natural rythme. The music school he attends also teach the students to accompany their playing by singing the solfège at the same time. He can sight read and knows all the major and minor scales and chords, including chord inversions. It’s beautiful to watch him play. Yet his ‘specialist’ music teacher wrote that he could not keep beat in his gross motor skills and that he did not know his “Do-Re-Me”. When same teacher finally witnessed my son’s playing, she felt compelled to ‘explain’ that she didn’t see the same child in her class that she had seen playing. This revealed the teacher’s gross inability to engage the child and to recognise that it was her failing, not her student’s. I could not bring myself to take issue with her about this as I was so dumbfounded at the great disparity between what he was capable of and what she saw in him. Since then, I can not place any value in the comments she has to say about him.
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Mine always said something along the lines of “She is naturally very bright but needs to apply herself more.” AKA – Only does the bare minimum
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Oh Lordy, following on from last weeks parents requesting particular classes for their children we have another thing that was top of the ‘difficulties of being a teacher’ list. Report comments! They have become so watered down and standardised as to be almost useless. Believe me it’s not because teachers are trying to take the easy way out by cutting and pasting the comments together, it’s because there are ‘approved’ comments and if you try and stray from them you will have your draft returned to you with suggestions on how to improve that comment ie. DON’T STRAY FROM THE FORMULA!
If you surveyed every teacher busily writing their reports I think you would find the majority would all say ‘if only I could write what they are really like’. Instead every comment must start positive, lead into something negative (but not too negative) or something that could be improved and then finish with another sunshiny positive. For some children this is hard to do so you turn to the trusty approved comments and work with that. Somewhere along the way it was decided that parents can’t handle hearing the truth about their children (and in many cases that is true) so we should just try and make the comments as benign as we possibly can. I don’t think this is helpful, nor is it a true reflection of your child’s year at school.
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The school my children attend has three boxes to tick for achievement. The parametres are so vague it tells me nothing. I knew my daughter was average at most things, very good at the arts, behind in reading. I know my son can’t focus and his marks reflect that. There are no grades.
The only part that means anything is the personal comments, and maybe the NAPLAN results (maybe!).
Out of curiosity, the school my children attend gives teachers report days where they have no classes and just write reports. Is this standard?
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I have heard of time to write reports being given, but I think it is more at the discretion and funds available to the school. I’ve never been given any extra time.
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While it’s nice, I will say that the time wasn’t nearly enough. My BFF is a teacher and she says that although her hours over the year work out about right, report time is very stressful.
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In defence of ‘cut and paste’ report comments – I was actually informed when I changed schools – after I had written a couple hundred personal comments like I always did – that I had to change them to USE the databank and made them less personal!
Go figure.
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By the time I finished school (2004) my teachers weren’t allowed to write personal comments – everything had to be from the comment bank, and most hated it!
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I realise that some people may use generic comments and was surprised and a bit horrified to hear of examples, like the Christmas pageant one, where the comment does not reflect the child at all.
Just to prove that not every state or school uses a comment bank (even though they do exist) I am at the tail end of typing nearly 20 pages of comments for my primary school class, as are all the teachers in my school.
I very much hope that each comment does get read! To write personalised comments across subject areas (which is what I think kids and their parents deserve) is a massive undertaking. So far it has taken four weekends and many weeknights. However, even typing each one individually I still manage to have several students whose comments sound almost identical – usually those students who are academically okay, polite and nice kids. I always end up commenting on how responsible, respectful, caring, considerate etc they are, and there’s only so many different ways you can say that
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Oh I remember most of mine were something like this: “W is a highly intelligent and hardworking student. However, she can distracting to the rest of the class by talking too often, and does tend to be distracted easily by the school yard histrionics”.
Well, that just sums up my whole personality right there.
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One of mine (at age 11, I think) said “Quiet, tends to be a dreamer”. Not much has changed for me either.
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My primary school report comments all said pretty much the same thing: ‘Excellent in class but needs to be more tolerant of others.’
Still haven’t learned that lesson…
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One of my primary school reports says ‘she chooses her friends carefully’. 40 something years later I did one of those ‘which box are you in?’ work tests and it came up as me being ‘socially selective’. I don’t seem to have learned any lessons either!
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