Why should I have to ASK for my child's test scores?

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Guest

Post by Guest »

That's another thing that bugs me (omg - school reports - another bugbear ) - when my eldest daughter was at the school the reports were all hand-written and clearly personal to the child involved. Now they are all word-processed and it's difficult to tell how much of it is specific to your child. A lot is simply regurgitation of what the class has been doing. (e.g. little Jimmy is now able to xyz.....) I'm all for saving time and effort but don't see the point of reports that say everything but tell you nothing...
I agree that computerised school reports designed to help the teacher often give nothing but useless information to a parent. I really don't want to be given a list of generic targets for that particular school year. The best report that I had was last year (year 4) when my son suddenly changed name halfway through the report to become some one else (his friend). I sent a note to the teacher who said "oh sorry they must have got mixed up on the photocopier". She then gave me a copy of my sons report identical to the previous one with my sons name substituted for his friends. Clearly exactly the same report was being given to more than one child! Hows that for personalised reports!!!
Guest

Post by Guest »

With regard to the school reports, yes they are word processed and I am sure that in certain cases they just change x name for your child's. In fact this was very evident when in our report more than one paragraph in various subjects actually referred to another child who was also in the top group for all subjects as was our son. Also when talking to other parents, the comments were exactly the same for the top group.
Oh looks like we overlapped with exactly the same opinion on reports!! Nice to know the same problems exist across the country.
Guest

Post by Guest »

Our primary school has just started giving out actual test results - NC levels - and changed the format of its reports to give grades for effort as well. I find this enormously helpful as it gives you much more of an idea how your child is doing. As others have said, the children themselves want to know how they did in the tests. Isn't this just human nature? With my older child (now in Year 8) we never found out his results until the end of Year 6 and so were in the dark whether he should apply for selective schools or not. We used our own judgement and fortunately he got in but it would have been so helpful to have had some feedback from the school. I'm glad the school has changed its policy.
Alex
Posts: 1097
Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:10 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

Post by Alex »

Our primary school changed its reports about 3 years ago and now gives curriculum levels for the core subjects where the children have taken the QCA tests. The bits about what they have covered in each subject is on a separate page from the actual report which is divided into 7 different areas. They are generally informative and individual - each of my children's personalities, strengths and weaknesses are evident in what is written about them - you certainly could not muddle up the pages with another child's report like you could with the old style reports.
Torrylee
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:03 pm

Post by Torrylee »

We have always been given the results of the optional QCA tests in the past, but not this year. Instead my year 4 child brought home a list of her targets for each subject. This showed the level she is working at, the individual targets she has achieved in class work, and those she is still working towards and would need to achieve before progressing to the targets at the next level. The school is arguing that tests give a one off picture of achievement on one particular day whereas the targets give a broader assessment.

I agree that it was useful information but I requested (and was given) the results of her QCA tests because I think it is valuable to be able to monitor these from year to year - I would be concerned if there was no improvement.
Guest

Post by Guest »

When my son was in year 5 his teacher asked me whether I had considered the 11plus for him as he was quite bright. I then asked if she had the optional sats results and she siad she could tell me 'if I asked' and scribbled them down for me. She also said that they look for '4a' at this stage (April of year 5) to recommend for grammar.
Following on from this meeting we started work on 11plus material for the next 6 months until the tests and he got a place at grammar.
I know my daughter took optional sats a couple of weeks ago (she is in year 4) and I know the results won't be in the end of year reports so I will have to catch the teacher and see if she will give them to me. I won't push it if she says no though as I don't really want to fall out with the school.
What a contrast when I went to a parents evening after my son's first term at grammar. The teachers were queuing up to tell me where he stood in the class! And I didn't even ask. Wonderful!
For a final gripe, I couldn't get over the fact that the primary school gave little support (other than his wonderful year 5 teacher) to kids going for the 11 plus but they quite enjoyed recieving the results and knowing who got in 3 months before the parents!
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