S1, EP 23: Report Writing & Parent Interviews

How do we effectively report student progress to parents and carers?

Reporting is the process of providing feedback to students, parents/carers and other teachers about student progress. As teachers, we report on student progress in ​both formal and informal ways.  Parent interviews is just one method teachers use to communicate student growth and areas for further development to a child's parent or carer. 

In episode 23, the Teacher Takeaway team discuss the ins and outs of report writing and parent teacher interviews, including:

• purpose of reports (1:20)
• report tips and tricks (2:20)
• golden rules (33.08)
• parent interviews (35:05)

Purpose of Reports

To communicate progress to parents, carers and ultimately the student. It is about providing a snapshot of what a student can do and what they are working towards. across a range of Key Learning Areas.

Reports are an opportunity for teachers to formally identify student strengths and areas for improvement in a written way. It is essential that teachers always keep in mind who the report is for, especially when thinking about the way sentences and phrases are worded and conveyed. 

Report Tips and Tricks

Here are some useful tips and tricks that the podcast team utilise during the report writing process:

• Timeline:
  • create a timeline that backward maps from the timeframe set by the school around when reports are due to supervisors for checking and when they go home.
  • chunk your time so that components are manageable, e.g. English comments done by Week 6
  • make sure you leave time to check comments match grading you have assigned
• Evidence:
  • ​What pieces of evidence have I already gathered?
  • Are there any gaps in our evidence sets?
  • What might we still need to gather to accurately triangulate data or clarify where students are at?
• Consistent judgements:
  • ​Sit with grade partners/ stage teams to moderate evidence sets so that there is consistency across the cohort
    • What do we collectively identify as a 'sound' and why? 
    • Generate a short statement that can be used when writing reports
• Syllabus:
  • ​What outcomes and indicators have we addressed this semester?
  • Create a shared document to translate indicators into parent friendly, everyday language as a comment bank
• Language: 
  • Use clear, everyday language
  • NO 'teacher' jargon 
  • Know the audience and communicate accordingly
  • Should be written in a positive manner
• Report Writing Guidelines:
  • Utilise the style guide your school has to keep consistency across school 
  • Contextualised to suit school
  • There should be no surprises to parents in the written report
    • Any issues and concerns should be communicated in a parent meeting prior to the written report going home
  • Copy comments into report writing system without formatting 
  • Ensure you are under the character limit for each comment, usually 800 characters.
  • Structure Literacy and Numeracy comments according to components, e.g.
    • Literacy: Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening
    • Numeracy: Number & Algebra and another strand 
  • Comments to show a student is developing a skill, strategy or concept:
    • [x] is learning to consolidate ...
    • [x] is working towards ...
    • [x] learning goal is/ was..... and he/she continues to work towards achieving this goal. 
    • A new learning goal for [x] this semester is/was ...
• Student Goal Setting:
  • Conferencing with students to identify goals and including these in the student report personalises the report and give student voice to the reporting process.
• Common Mistakes:
  • Not utilising the report writing guidelines (if applicable to your school)
  • 3D Objects not 3D Shapes
  • Comments not matching the grading or character traits you have given 
  • Missing punctuation
  • Incorrect student name or misspelt student name
  • Making sure you are not repeating comments across each area
  • Behaviours belong in General comment not in the KLA areas, e.g. [x] needs to listen attentively to the contributions of others.
  • Not differentiating comments for students 
  • Negativity in comments
  • Not checking with your supervisor if you are stuck on a student or are unsure about a comment.  
  • Not proofreading and editing before sending to the supervisor

GOLDEN RULES

1. Plain english
2. No jargon
3. Always go back and look at work at the beginning of the reporting period so that you can truly see growth.
4. Start early 

Parent Interviews

Parent interviews are a great opportunity to formally discuss their child's learning growth and achievement over the semester, along with identified areas for improvement. This is also an opportunity to touch base about concerns you have, however; if you have major concerns these need to be addressed early with the parents and should not be left until just before or after the written report is sent home. 
 
Tips:

• Have books stacked up ready to go so parents can look at what their child has been doing
• Choose the biggest point you'd like to inform parents of - postives and one negative if required
• If behavour is impacting learning then this conversation needs to be had in a friendly manner with some supportive suggestions of how you can work together to support the child
• Have a parent takeaway 
• Utilise learning conferences with students as a self-reflection and goal setting opportunity and use this to lead the discussion with parents. This really centres the conversation around the child. 
• Opening it up to the parent - Is there anything that you would like to discuss?

Further Reading

Want to read further about learning conferences? Check out Alice's blog post on Thinking Pathways.

Click to access the blog post on Thinking Pathways