Must try harder

tHe controversy over genderneutral school reports puts me in mind of how report writing changed during my 32 years of teaching in secondary schools.

Initially, reports consisted of two grades, one for effort, the other for attainment, which was all parents wished to know.

Then came chequebook- style reports with handwritten comments. these had to be revised several times because younger teachers were unable to spell or write grammatically correct english.

Then we had computer-generated comment banks, which never quite conveyed what you wanted to say or what parents wanted to know — especially as they had to be positive. You were not even allowed to state that a pupil was poorly behaved.

It was only after I retired that I could say what I really thought: school reports are meaningless rubbish.

K. MILLS, Hampton, Middlesex.