4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Janty]

I haven't really been on the forum for ages due to school work and now we are knee deep in reports. I have completed all four sets of year 6 and two sets of year 8 art. I have set myself the target of a set a day and then I can have an hour on the forum as a reward.

 

Only another twelve sets to do....and they say teachers have good holidays!

Edited June 1, 2008 by Guest

[theherd123]

Janty reports are such a pain in the bum to write arent they?!

Wonderfully useful but a pain all the same.

 

That is something i dont miss now i teach in Special Ed. Instead we report on every student on a 6 weekly basis. Many more reports over the year but much easier to write.

 

Good luck with the rest!

[Janty]

Thanks.

[Couperwife]

I have just finished the Year 10 reports - only had 50 to write (only )

 

we use Excel macros to put in codes, that get converted to statements, then mail merge into a word document.

sounds confusing, but we have refined it (taken about 4 years) and now have it down to record time

 

then have to read each one and personalise it - not easy if you dont really know the child.

 

good luck with the reporting, have you nearly finished yet?

 

cathy

x

[Janty]

I have completed six sets. Just twelve sets to go.

[Guest]

then have to read each one and personalise it - not easy if you dont really know the child.cathy

x

 

Tell me about it - I got moaned at because I hadn't put in any personal comments on a whole year 8 class. We have a STUPID 2 week timetable and this gives split classes - I teach them once a fortnight. Which because it is MONDAY just lately has been once a month (and we have a training day on the next Monday I'm due to teach them). I havn't got a clue who most of them are but the other teacher had loads of reports to do so I did it. Apparently wrong!

[Tiggy]

there seem to be a lot of teachers on here, is it compulsary for you all to keep chickens

[theherd123]

Yes of course!

[Janty]

And spread the word to the parents. There are four sets of parents in my year group who have visited our girls then taken the chicken keeping plunge themselves.

[Janty]

Completed a total of ten sets now....hence forum time. YIPPEE!

 

Keep going all you fellow teacher Omleteers...they will soon be over...

 

...until next year.

[Lesley]

there seem to be a lot of teachers on here,

 

......that's because they have so much more time than everyone else

 

(Emma would be most disappointed in me if I didn't post that )

[Tina C]

I have just finished the Year 10 reports - only had 50 to write (only )

 

we use Excel macros to put in codes, that get converted to statements, then mail merge into a word document.

sounds confusing, but we have refined it (taken about 4 years) and now have it down to record time

 

then have to read each one and personalise it - not easy if you dont really know the child.

 

good luck with the reporting, have you nearly finished yet?

 

cathy

x

 

I find this a bit sad - for teachers, parents and children - that the report writing is 'standardised' and that teachers don't 'know' the children they teach.

 

From Layla's very first report I could see that that it was written by computer just as Cathy describes and I think know the reasons for it (and I don't mean teachers can't be bothered if anyone is wondering but that they have to meet various targets and criteria and jump through the right hoops etc etc)

 

I know report writing must be another tedious bit of paperwork for teachers but please don't forget that for us parents they are vital - our children don't tell us what goes on at school so its lovely to receive any information - good or bad (although from what I have seen so far teachers probably aren't allowed to communicate the bad bits but have to dress it up to sound better and the point goes over the parent's head anyway?)

 

To all the teachers out there I am sure all of your personal comments are very much appreciated by many parents and not just me, so although it must be very hard to think of something original to say please remember that us parents read only our own 'baby's' report and set more store by your words than what comes out of the 'sausage machine' bit of the report. Gosh hope I am making sense.

 

Anyway thanks to all you teachers for everything you do - I couldn't do your job and am grateful for every minute you stand in front of a class of 30 and attempt to get something across to each and every one of them, as well as the hours you have to spend on paperwork.

 

Hope you are all done wih your reports now Janty - and remember its nearly the summer holidays

[Guest]

Tina - as a teacher I've often made the exact point you have - that as a parent I wouldn't want to see all this computer statement bank stuff as my childs report.

 

As a teacher I can also tell you that it doesn't make it any easier. Yes I can put the same comments for lots of kids (handy when I teach them once a fortnight and barely recognise them) but the system we use makes it hard to even pick the statements from the list, and you can't copy and paste them!

 

Oh and to add to the misery of this whole thing the system here is frankly a type of fish. I did all my year 8 reports which for one class, using statement banks only took me over an hour - at least this time they saved, usually they don't so you save after EVERY report. I arrived at school this morning to the joyous news that the system has messed up "some" of the reports by jumbling up the text! When they say "some" they are probably trying to soften the blow as everyone I've spoken to says theres are affected.

 

Guess what we have to do again this week? Not too bad for me with my one class that I don't really know but some of the guys have lots of classes and see them lots of times a week so had written good comments.

 

I would have been gutted if it had been my year 10 or 11 reports which took hours.

 

And why am I on the forum in the middle of the day, well I teach mostly year 10 and 11, 11 have gone......10 are on work experience.

 

Not a single class today!

[theherd123]

there seem to be a lot of teachers on here,

 

......that's because they have so much more time than everyone else

 

(Emma would be most disappointed in me if I didn't post that )

 

Very true Lesley!

 

Now, let me work out just how many weeks off i have a year and the fact teachers only work part time - 9 til 3

 

[AnnieP]

Hey folks

Just spent my half term HOLIDAY (yes, Lesley, look, block capitals, I'm shouting ) writing the reports for my class.

I timed how long it took me to do them this year: 35 hours. So much for my week off.

I am SO glad it was raining all week!

[Chicken Licken]

Mine were due this morning at 9am. Fortunately I see very few year 7s and only had 15 to write. (Special Needs teacher) so quite specific and I definitely know the kids. We have a statement about what we do and then 100 words free writing which is about right for me. GCSE marking (my choice I know) begins shortly with about 10000 questions to mark - maybe that rain will not be so bad after all!!

[gooner.girl]

Not even started mine yet. Too busy with geography field trips, organizing a HUGE rounders tournament, working out how to get a chicken to behave in assembly, sorting an athletics meeting out and deciding how to manage taking a load of years 7 and 8's to the local agricultural show this friday. And thats just this week!

 

Still have whole school sports day to organise, sex ed video to invite parents to watch before its shown in PSHE, house swimming, rounders and cricket, outward bound day and a whole ton more stuff to sort this term. Throw in reports - oh and a bit of teaching - and you'll see why i can't wait til the summer holidays!

[Janty]

Every single report that I write is personal. We don't use report banks. Working in a middle school, we know all the children as we only have 448 children in the whole school and they do DT on a carousel. Each term I expect the teacher who has taught them for DT to give me a written report on that child. At the end of the year, I collate all the statements from the teachers and turn them into an epic piece about their performance and progress in food, textiles and resistant materials (wood, metals & plastics).

 

I do get teased about the length of my reports as they often spill onto a second page but who cares. Better than one maths teacher that we had on temp contract last year who wrote one sentence for each child.