Dear All
Stuart’s school reports set me thinking (never a good thing).
One of my many school responsibilities has been the introduction of an electronic academic reporting system for parents. A somewhat protracted labour of love made infinitely more frustrating due to the demands and sensitivities of parents and the current climate of extreme political correctness.
Aim for 400 characters of cogent and constructive comment.
Always allude to at least one area for improvement.
Always use a student’s (note NOT pupil’s) full name i.e. Nick is always Nicholas no matter what the child or parents’ preference is.
Never refer to the student or his work in pejorative terms of any kind, (sloppy, slipshod, idle, indolent, waste of space, ignorant, rude, loud, cocky, obnoxious, etc. etc are out of bounds)
Don’t be a smart a**e and use words that parents are unlikely to understand – it only builds barriers within the wider school community.
I could go on but you get the general drift!
Whilst I think we would all agree that the little darlings today deserve the best that we can do for them, the two and three worded reports churned out for Stuart and the rest of us oiks had a pithy quality that said it all and satisfied all but a very few parents. I am convinced that the more one says about a student – damn it a PUPIL, in a report, the less it’s likely to be read – the average “parent satisfaction quotient” over reports can in many cases be summed up thus – “Never mind the quality, count the words”.
Incidentally my memory of school custard was that it had two contrasting physical forms
(a) so runny that it would swamp my Manchester Tart to a point where an RNLI inshore rescue team would be required to rescue the jammy pud
(b) so glutinous that it required a severe shaking before anything unstuck itself from the bottom of those aluminium jugs they used to serve it in.
Is it any wonder that I’ve hated custard ever since.
Yours grumpily,
Mike
- 11/5/2009 5:43:25 PM