What do school reports tell you?

or no speller it seems.. Musician not mucician!

I still have my school leaving report when I left the makeshift evacuee school at the age of 14 in 1944. There was a shortage of paper and I had to show this to any prospective employer that I went to work for.
There were no GCEs or anything else in my day. I will be 86 in May and have got through life quite well and had my books published.
I did not need to go to university to get through life.

My son, who is a teacher, was telling me recently how long it takes him to write reports considering they can't say anything bad. He has to figure out how best to get around it without making anything up. So certainly, not all teachers use a report writer programme as mentioned.

I'm really interested in the comments about only positive remarks being made on school reports. I shall look forward to my DGS's report this year (Y3) with interest, since his teacher hasn't made one single positive remark about him so far this year, during 2 PT meetings (kept strictly to 10 mins despite the fact that he is in her bottom set in the class) and one SEN meeting. She didn't attend the 2nd SEN meeting but left a negative comment already written on the IEP.

I work with him twice a week after school, so I know he has made some progress, his reading has come on incredibly this year, and his mum and I welcome negative comments if they are constructive, but any requests from us for details about specific areas are brushed off.

His Y2 teacher was great, so is the SENCO, and last year I felt we were working together for his benefit, this year I just feel frustrated and so sad for him.

My school report said "she would do very well if only she stopped talking long enough". Probably very true

When I first started teaching in 1966, the children each had a report book, which carried on year after year, right through their school career. I was looking through one of these and, in one subject, I found the comment:"I was wrong." Nothing else! Puzzled, I looked back to the previous page and found the comment:" Couldn't be worse!"

My school reports were generally favourable but said I must guard against flippancy. Pretty accurate, I'd say.

Jack must learn to inhibit his first response when playing = Jack must stop hitting classmates when he can't get his own way.

I spent many years berating DS on his lack of effort at school and telling him about the glowing reports I had. Then I found some of my reports! They were practically identical to his with lots of "Could do better", "Needs to make more effort"

Primary school - talks a lot, and still do.

Mine were always full of "could try harder"and were fairly disparaging..

Our first job at the beginning of each new term was to write the wretched thing up into a big book. I suppose it kept a note of my blossoming handwriting!!!!!!!!! Not to mention my attempts to correct mistakes invisibly. I don't think they had ever heard of positive encouragement at my grammar school.

I often wish they could have seen my future success without them .