End-Of-Year School Reports Slammed By Parents For Being 'Robotic' And 'Cut And Paste'

Parents Discuss The State Of School Reports

Some parents have complained about the state of their children's school reports.

It's not the children's performance that the parents are disappointed in, but the reports themselves, which some have claimed are "robotic, software-generated", not personal to their children and written in a formulaic structure.

Others have criticised teachers for making obvious mistakes.

One mother told The Guardian: "[The report] was undermined by the mistakes, and I felt sad for my child that she would see this and know that at that moment the teacher was not thinking of her.

"It made us feel really let down that the school does not appear to be giving it as much care and thought as my daughter deserves."

An anonymous teacher told the Guardian he tends to go through each child's report, cut and paste, and then adjusts the name and gender.

He admitted he "hated" having to do it that way but said he didn't have time to be more thorough.

Another teacher told HuffPost UK Parents Facebook: "As a person who has written reports our hands are very tied by what we are told has to be in the report by the powers that be.

"Many/most schools use report writing software which enables 'comment banks' which are used to discuss what we 'have' to. It usually doesn't leave room for personalisation after you have written about what you must.

"As for spelling mistakes - that's just wrong and there is no excuse."

But it seems that parents all over are picking up on this trend.

Many parents were quick to agree with the "cut and paste" method they read on their reports.

Dad Robin Parker said: "I appreciate that teachers have a lot of reports to write but the only parts that didn't feel like they'd been copied and pasted from a template were the comments at the end."

Tillie Mab agreed: "I thought the same about my nephew's report. All apart from the last box which actually describes him as a person, looked as though it had been copied and pasted."

And Charlotte Kincaid said: "My kids' reports were like that, just cut and paste crap."

Other parents explained that although some parts of their children's reports were useful and personalised, others were seemingly just copied on each child's report.

One mum said that in some areas, the teacher "forgot to delete the he/she part of the sentence".

Some parents found even with children in different schools, the same paragraphs were written.

Mrs Roberts added: "I have had a few conversations with friends about [reports]. One friend whose child is in a different school to mine had exactly the same in their reports."

However, not all parents are disappointed with the standard of school reports.

Some parents said their children's reports were personal to their child without (or with very few) mistakes.

Karli Lay wrote: "My daughter's school report was lovely. It was very personal to her.

"At the end was summed up with her teacher writing that she is a pleasure to teach and wishing her well with her new teacher but she will miss her all the same. She is in a small village school though, so don't know if that makes a difference?"

Pippa Needs agreed, adding: "We are at a small school, 130 pupils, our report was very well written and personal to her, one spelling mistake mind, and the headteacher called her an asset to her class."

And mum Lauren Musau also credited her children's great reports that were "personalised", but added that they live in a very small town with fewer pupils in the school.

What was your child's end-of-year report like? Let us know in the comments below.

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