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

Disgruntled · Post by **Disgruntled** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:21 pm

After a long and hitherto satisfactory and rewarding relationship with my children's primary school (eldest now 14 and moved on, youngest about to start in September) I was advised by my Yr 4's teacher last week that the head (not the same as when we initially chose the school for our eldest) does not want teachers to tell parents their children's test scores. Our poor child was tested to within an inch of her life just before half term - I think the parents who support them through this are entitled at least to know what marks they get! The reason given was that "parents go away and make comparisons"....makes you wonder who exactly the head regards as the "children" in this relationship. More to the point, the school is always banging on about education being a "partnership" between children, teachers and parents. How is this partnership supposed to function if one side is deliberately withholding information? Incidentally, the teacher who volunteered the information is about to leave, as is one of the other long-standing teachers in the infant section. Our nice, friendly, open, high-achieving primary school, which pushes the three Rs and values attainment, is turning trendy and PC. It had to happen...

Sorry for long rant,

just wondered if anyone else has come across this kind of thing.

Catherine · Post by **Catherine** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 12:30 pm

Yes, and I feel the same.
They will have to give you the results if you ask in writing.

Bewildered · Post by **Bewildered** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:14 pm

Totally agree. Have been through near enough the exact same thought processes.
Who are they treating as the child, and partnerships where they call the shots.

Catherine is spot on, Put request in writing and they have to respond. Would also add, be specific. My school have the tendency to give me a result, eg 'he got 39' but not the 'out of' number. Fat lot of good!!

After asking why once, I was told they were helping prevent playground gossip.

katel · Post by **katel** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:36 pm

I presume you're told whether your child is doing well or not? That's the iportant thing, isn't it?

I like getting test scores too,but I don't think that giving them to me serves any useful purpose. Apart from exercising my brain working out how to find out what other children get so that I can compare, of course.....! I think I would rather not get them, actually , because I can't resist comparing and I'd much rather not.

chad · Post by **chad** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 1:47 pm

After being told that my son was 'doing fine' in year 5... I then found out (after having access to his records) he was coasting in Maths ( drawing cartoons during class) and his English book hadn't been marked for 4 months, therefore his struggle with extended writing was never picked up and we are still trying to redress the balance in Y7.
Yes my son was 'doing fine' in comparison with some other students (that would be the teacher making the comparison then) but was not reaching his potential in either subject. If a school subjects the pupils to testing then the least they can do is share the information in a meaningful way.

KN · Post by KN » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:27 pm

If they don't give out the scores, why take the tests?

Disgruntled · Post by **Disgruntled** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:35 pm

KN wrote:If they don't give out the scores, why take the tests?

Good question. Presumably for their own benefit, so they are able to predict SATs scores and for working out how to set up ability groups within the classroom. Most definitely NOT to enable parents to see how their children are performing against national curriculum standards, or whether they are achieving their potential.

sidcup · Post by **sidcup** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 4:49 pm

If I knew that I would not be able to find out the results of my childrens tests I would refuse to let them take unessassary tests as a form of protest. I believe the child definately has the right to know exactly how they have done, why bother otherwise?

Disgruntled · Post by **Disgruntled** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 5:47 pm

sidcup wrote:If I knew that I would not be able to find out the results of my childrens tests I would refuse to let them take unessassary tests as a form of protest. I believe the child definately has the right to know exactly how they have done, why bother otherwise?

The children themselves are told the test results (individually by the teacher), but nothing is ever written down and teachers are discouraged from telling the parents. My Y4 child had about 9 or 10 different test scores reeled off to me when I went to see the teacher to seek clarification about her report.

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...

SJ · Post by SJ » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:10 pm

I so sympathise and understand. In year 4 we were told that we wouldn't be given our child's SAT's results because they were being re-examined because the scores were too good! We eventually put our request in writing and they couldn't ignore this. The same thing happened in year 5 and again we were told that we wouldn't be given them, so various parents went through the same procedure and wrote asking for the scores. We used the same argument that they were always saying that the child's education was a partnership with their carers, but we were not being told where their strengths and weaknesses were so we did not know which areas to assist and encourage and which areas the child was finding easier and therefore needed a different sort of motivation to progress them further.

As it turns out my son also hand a problem with extended writing and it is only through talking to my son that I have found this out and therefore been able to assist him. I was always told that everything was fine, basically they knew he was going to get "above average" and so why push him and put effort into him when there were other pupils that needed real assistance. I realise, accept and understand that this is the norm, but it does not help my child.

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. What annoys me also is that they never put any real concerns in the reports, they are all "positive" and do not hi lite areas that need addressing and are so generalised that they are not worth the paper they are typed on.