What are you paying for the independent school reports?

[vanityfair]

I do agree with you all on this - the reports are so much duplication and really do not justify the fee charged. I am going to pass on your comments to some of the affected parents. However I do know that some are reluctant to make a fuss so as not to negatively impact their applications.

[Daogroupie]

Ateacher could complete one of these forms in five minutes if he/she knows the students well enough. My dd applied to seven indy schools and the teacher did each form in a few minutes. To say a supply teacher will have to be hired so that a teacher can answer a few standard question is just rubbish. DG

[zorro]

That's awful! We didn't pay for DS's report to an indy and our primary school was a state Cof E too.
Mind you,it was a few years ago.

[Sallyltb]

My daughter's then Headteacher disapproved of independent schooling, but still wanted to do the best she could for her pupil. She asked me to sit with her whilst she completed the form for Habs and said she would use that to compete others. It meant that between us we remembed all the extra curricular stuff. She also checked that I was happy with all the wording she used to describe my daughter.

Even though she wrote the whole thing freehand, including the discussion it took about 15 minutes. No charge. That was for admission in 2007, but I haven't heard of any change.

[mystery]

Do you get to read all the reports you have paid £50 for? Will you get a refund for the form they do not have to fill in for transfer to secondary?

I would be peeved if my yearv6 child had a supply teacher to enable the class teacher to form fill. Can't the head do it for this fee?

[sleeplessinhalstead]

We are at CofE school too and have not been asked to pay anything. we've applied to 4 schools, 1 report was requested early, the teacher told me he'd had the request, showed me the form and said it looked straightforward. We already have an offer for this school. I don't know if the others have been requested yet but I would think it would be easy to copy from the 1st one, assume they kept a copy.

My eldest child applied to one Indie and both the then head and teacher told me they'd worked on it together so I think a good effort was made (resulted in an offer and a scholarship).

It seems wrong to ask for payment, I think I would offer to help them write it myself if they asked for a fee.

[SHertsDad]

We had no charge at a state school (but were also not shown anything as apparently the form was headed "confidential") and are not paying anything additional at the prep school.

Some of the questions asked require a bit of thought but I agree all it takes is a few minutes.

IMHO, if the schools ask the parents to help fill it in, that is clearly not independent. Anyway, most indies seem to know that, so they do not treat them as they treat confidential references from schools they know!

[IHOP]

Our head passes such reports over to the child's class teacher to fill in. They don't take very long although the general support comment needs thought to help the child shine through. I am astounded a school is charging any fee at all, let alone £50. Go and make a hullabaloo.

[dearcoty]

My dd's CofE primary school charges £25 for a report (one is written which is sent to any number of schools that request it) and has always charged for senior school reports. The explanation given is that it takes the child's class teacher time to write and this impacts the time that they have for teaching so what they do is get a supply teacher to cover while the class teacher is writing the reports and the fee covers this. With 50 - 70% of children wanting reports, the impact is quite high. It is also seen as fairer to those children who are not in need of reports because they are applying to state schools.


I don't have a problem with the charge - as senior schools charge on average £100 for the registration/exam and the fees are £4 - 5k per term then why shouldn't state schools charge?

DC

[Daogroupie]

Goodness! 70% of your dc's class applying for private school so all those reports to write. My dd was the only one in her class! I can see how that could be a real time problem to get all those written. But surely one supply teacher for one day would cover it. You could use the same phrases for most of them. DG