Reporting to parents
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General information about the report writing process
- Your school will have a system in place for reporting to parents. Make sure you ask about the format, word limit, how to show meeting/not meeting/exceeding expectations, when they are due to the principal or other leaders, when they go out to parents, in what form (paper, email, parent portal online) etc.
- Ask your mentor teacher if you can see one of their old reports as an example. Be mindful however that parents want to see that you really know their child. Make your reports genuine by only using the example for ideas, not full sentences.
- Modern reports are written with a positive outlook. Instead of saying a student can’t do something you need to phrase it ‘is learning to’ or ‘is developing’ etc.
- If you are writing about something sensitive like bad behaviour or learning difficulties, make sure you have spoken to the parents about it first. A formal report shouldn’t be the first time they find out.
- Decide on a place to record comment ideas as they pop into your head e.g. a notebook. If you start saving things you notice about the students right from the the beginning of the year you'll make your job much easier later on.
- Don’t put them off until the last minute! You’ll find some students are easy to write about, and others take more thought. Get yourself into ‘report mode’ by starting with the comments you think of straight away for those easier students.
- It’s likely the school will have some kind of buddy checking system e.g. you’ll give your reports to a colleague, or syndicate leader before they are printed. This helps pick up small mistakes that can be easily missed when you read your own work over and over. Your school leader might also make suggestions for improvements like word choice.
- In some schools you will put the information directly into a template document. In this case you can type your comments straight in, and easily edit them over time. Alternatively some schools use software where you type the comments into a box and the report is generated for you. In this case I recommend you type a rough draft in Word first, then copy and paste into the boxes when they are completely finished.
- You can highlight a section of text in Word with the mouse and look at the bottom left of the screen to see the word count. This is useful if you have a word restriction.
- Don’t leave reports unattended on your desk. They could be accidentally seen by students or parents.
Useful Links
TKI Reporting
General information about the report writing process
- Your school will have a system in place for reporting to parents. Make sure you ask about the format, word limit, how to show meeting/not meeting/exceeding expectations, when they are due to the principal or other leaders, when they go out to parents, in what form (paper, email, parent portal online) etc.
- Ask your mentor teacher if you can see one of their old reports as an example. Be mindful however that parents want to see that you really know their child. Make your reports genuine by only using the example for ideas, not full sentences.
- Modern reports are written with a positive outlook. Instead of saying a student can’t do something you need to phrase it ‘is learning to’ or ‘is developing’ etc.
- If you are writing about something sensitive like bad behaviour or learning difficulties, make sure you have spoken to the parents about it first. A formal report shouldn’t be the first time they find out.
- Decide on a place to record comment ideas as they pop into your head e.g. a notebook. If you start saving things you notice about the students right from the the beginning of the year you'll make your job much easier later on.
- Don’t put them off until the last minute! You’ll find some students are easy to write about, and others take more thought. Get yourself into ‘report mode’ by starting with the comments you think of straight away for those easier students.
- It’s likely the school will have some kind of buddy checking system e.g. you’ll give your reports to a colleague, or syndicate leader before they are printed. This helps pick up small mistakes that can be easily missed when you read your own work over and over. Your school leader might also make suggestions for improvements like word choice.
- In some schools you will put the information directly into a template document. In this case you can type your comments straight in, and easily edit them over time. Alternatively some schools use software where you type the comments into a box and the report is generated for you. In this case I recommend you type a rough draft in Word first, then copy and paste into the boxes when they are completely finished.
- You can highlight a section of text in Word with the mouse and look at the bottom left of the screen to see the word count. This is useful if you have a word restriction.
- Don’t leave reports unattended on your desk. They could be accidentally seen by students or parents.
Useful Links
TKI Reporting