School reports leave parents without a clue

CAN our kid read; can they write; can they do maths; are they well behaved in the classroom.

That’s all school reports really need to tell parents.

Instead they morphed over the years from a onepage document that sets out where they sit on key subjects into a five-plus page document that reads more like a psychological profile.

These are just some of the useless titbits parents are now kept informed on: “Your child can identify vocabulary language features and images.”

That’s nice but what are they?

“Your child can identify the intended audience of an imaginative or informative text.” But can they read it by themselves?

“Your child can ask questions to collect data and draw simple data displays.” Great, but do they know their times tables? And none of this includes the ludicrous system where C means they are working at expected standard for their year level and its accompanied by a graph system that plots your child’s learning but requires a degree in advanced mathematics to understand.

Perhaps I’m too trusting or naive, but I’m happy to assume that schools are teaching kids what they meant to.

What we want to know is the stuff we can’t gauge from the couch at home. Do they get on with the other kids? Do they bring a positive attitude? Do they tackle new tasks well and seek help when they are struggling?

A report in the past week said teachers were so swamped by report writing season they were using software tools to generate generic responses.

A survey had 62 per cent of respondents agreeing the reporting system needed overhauling.

Hopefully the system does change, but let’s try and make sure if it does a panel of teachers and parents are left to decide what stays and what goes.