Reports

[Guest]

Can anyone help? I am not using the profiles for reporting to parents this year, & have fairly free rein in how I set out my reports. Do I need to have 2 sections for PSED and General Progress/comments, or should I combine them into one section. I'm a bit worried that I may repeat myself with 2 sections but may miss something out with only 1 (though it would be bigger, & I can't think what exactly would be missing!)

 

Any advice from members' own experience?

 

Dianne xxx

[mundia]

If you are writing your own, i would definitaly go for two- the general commenst dont ahve to repeat what has already been said unless you really want to make a point. In the past we have used it for areas to develop, or comment on attendance for example., as well as saying wonderffull things about their over all accomplishments during the year.

 

we are havng to use report assist this year, and Ive not even seen it yet, so Im not really looking froward to it.

[JacquieL]

There is statutory guidance now for report writing for the end of the Foundation Stage.

I have just been on a course on FSP at Early Excellence in Huddersfield. Report Assist is a no no for FS , which I am glad about as we tried to use it one year and it was dreadful for early years. Parents want to know about how we perceive their children, what we have observed and whether they are happy, sociialised and ready to learn. Have a look at the Ofsted report into the Foundationn Stage and the Pupil Profile.

[mundia]

thanks for that Jackie. Where did the info about reprot asssist being a 'no no' comefrom as I would be more than happy to show it to my Head. so that we can do what we did before

[JacquieL]

Well unofficially! When I went on training today the trainor said that reports should be pertinent to the children when we report in the 6 areas, understandable by parents and based on our observations of the children. Those of us who had tried Report Assist cheered!

Look on the QCA site as they have examples of what is required for FS. Everyone should have received a letter from QCA about reports a few weeks ago.

[Susan]

HI Jackie, thats really intersting. I won't have the headache of reports this year as i'm off sick but nee to keep up to speed regardless.

 

I don't know report assist.

What is the statuatory guidance?

 

Diane even if you are not using the profiles you could use your info gained from them as the basis of your repot. That way it won't be a double burden.

Should scale totals be repoted to parents? we used to report Baseline scores.

What are people doing about that?

[Guest]

I noticed something strange in report assist for FS today. They have added a comment section for RE - I don't think there was one last year (or maybe it's a senior moment!) There are no statements for the section as all of them have been included in the K&U section!

 

Angela

[Helen]

As I understand it, the RE section was added so that C of E and Catholic schools could emphasize that part of the offered curriculum. I think you're suppposed to be able to take that section out, if not required.

[Guest]

We've been using the E-Profile all year. Up until a month ago we were expecting to have to print it out to look like the 13 page Profile booklet but our county has very kindly tinkered with the software so that it'll be saved into Word where we can add photos. The end result will be about 4 pages of descriptors lifted from the Profile, but personalised, plus the added comments we've made - and lots of lovely photos to fill up the spaces. I think it will look great. Hope that makes sense!

Jess

[Susan]

It certainly does make sense and sounds great too.

[Guest]

hi all

Im so miffed I was under the impression that we could use the FSP as our end of year report, but now I have to do reports aswell!! And we are using report assist, we have had no letter regarding writing reports??? I much prefer to write them by hand as its more personal to the children, Im whinging again Sorry!

[Susan]

Hi Gertie, the profile booklets are designed to be able to be used as a report to parents, if your school decides! The use of the bookltes is optional.

The statuatory requirements are to provide the scores but not to use the booklet. It can of course aid internal records but it is a huge piece of work so if you have used the booklet and have still to write reports I would suggest that you use the work you have already put into the profiles as a basis for your report writing.

Good luck.

[Guest]

Currently slogging away at reports - with separate PSED and General sections, as I decided it is best after all!

 

But my god, it's so boring!!! That's obviously why I'm posting here - work avoidance!!!

 

Dianne xxx

[Susan]

I empathise Dianne, its a horrendous job. Can you not make yourself a master, listing constants such as topics etc and then personalise sections with attainment etc?

[Guest]

Susan,

 

I've just emerged from my report cocoon, and am now allowed to read the FSF again!! In the end I put the children into 6 groups for each subject then cut & pasted a lot of stuff, tweaking it when required to fit the children!! Hope the reports seem individual enough! We were not allowed to list topics/areas covered, but had to stick to their attainment. All in all it wasn't too bad really, it's just a job I hate!

 

Anyway, that's it for another year, except for the inevitable corrections because I'm such a bad proof reader!

 

Dianne xxx

[Guest]

glad youv'e completed yours dianne

I find that I end up repeating a few phrases for many of the chidlren and bec in nursery we have so much contact with paretns it feels a bit lame to write down thing. Most parents want to know if theie child is happy and if they have friends. Some ofcourse will want to know. There was one parent last year who wanted to know where exactly I would place her child in the class in the top, bottom and how far away from the midlle? This was for a 3 year old.

[mundia]

I agree leo about it being a bit lame sometimes. Most of our parenst dont read or write English, so we have to get our translating staff to explain them anyway. We are doing formal reports for the first time and Ive barely started, its such a graft.

[Susan]

Well done Dianne, glad you've survived!

Now keep tucked away somewhere safe so that you can modify as required for next year!!

 

I've escaped the report nightmare this year as I'm not in work at the moment and I feel for you all.

I know I'm usually stuck to the grindstone at this time and its really nice not to be but I shall be writing application forms, I hope, so nearly as bad!

[Guest]

Do any of you get release time, or reduction in staff meetings to help get through the report writing. This year we have had none at all, last year with a different Head we had staff meetings allocated to report writing. A comment to a colleague who complained about current workload was that teaching is a day job with a night shift. I think all of us would expect to do some work outside school, but there is also work life balance to consider and the legislation on tasks due to come in soon. Any thoughts anyone. Yawn yawn......3 left to write

 

Angela

[Guest]

There is statutory guidance now for report writing for the end of the Foundation Stage.

Hi,

I don't mean to sound stupid but what is the statutory guidence? I didn't realise there was any (unless you just mean the soring of the profiles which I know has to be done at the end of summer term), I thought it was up to the individual school.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

[Susan]

Hi KTC & welcome

I'd like to know about the statuatory guidance too!

QCA have some sample reports for FS & of course the profile scoring as you say is statuatory. There is I believe a 'recommendation' to report to parents once a year, & I wonder whether this is what is referred to?

 

AOB, I wonder how many other jobs do there report writing out side their working day and many others have reports of a kind to make don't they?

We do allocate unit meetings to report writing if at all possible.

 

Worklife balance is actually very important as you say and I must say I think your head is insensitive to respond in that way! My experiences recently have begun to make me quite bolshie, though!

[mundia]

spent the day doing mine...yawn..am I the only person who would actually prefer to hand write them?

I dont think there is statutory guidance, but there there are some sample reports on the QCA site.

We dont get any non contact time to do reports, and since I job share, this is one of the tasks that is even harder. We also have more to do in nursery than anyone else, and when we go part time....... .

oh well, moan over for the day.

[Jackie A.]

Mundia,

 

Just out of interest, how do you split your job share? I also job share in Nursery - I have the morning class and my colleague has the afternoon class. This does mean that I am still ultimately responsible for a class of 33 children (I have 2 Nursery Nurses working with me). I have a very high proportion of EAL children and special needs and so seem to spend my whole afternoon/evening/weekend at home planning and preparing. Hardly part-time! I also have to return to school twice a week for after-school staff meetings.

In many ways the set-up does suit me as I am free to collect my own children from school and be with them in the evenings, but I do sometimes feel that there is no such thing as "part time" teaching. I have job-shared before doing half a week, which did seem to give me more free time (but wouldn't work so well in Nursery).

 

Of course, I love my work and that's why I do it, and I know I probably do put in a lot more work than I need to, but I do feel that the school get a lot from me for my 0.5 salary.

 

Jackie

[mundia]

Know the feeling Jackie, I only work 2 days, and yet everyone always refers to me as 'half'. We have full time children at the moment, so the issue of morning afternoon isnt one for us. I would never work mornings or afternoons only beacuse they take up so much of the day. I dont drive and school is an hour anway- no way would I do that 5 days a week. I dont envy you having 33 reports to write if you are doing them yourself- one thing Im not looking forward to when we go more part time next year. Like you we are almost 100% EAL, so I know how you feel. As we are also foundation coordinator, and SMT, we have extra responsibilities too, most of which my partner leaves to me!! (basically because I will try to fight the FS corner so i think my Head has taken to ducking when she sees me at the end of the week).

And you may or may not know this but you are not obliged to go back to schol for staff meetings. If you want to, fine, but you dont have to. I dont, staff meetings, and SMT meetings are on my days off, so I made it very clear that if I was expected to go in, I needed to be paid for it!! This was quite easy as I used to work in 2 different schools on different days so my committment was always to the school I was in on any day. If I need to attend a meeting, I swap days with my clleagues so we attend SMT alternately.

 

So have you had to write 33 reports each then? Today is one of my days off, but I have spent most of the day writing.

[Magenta]

Guidance from qca available website

http://www.qca.org.uk/ages3-14/foundation/163_6385.html

 

Just says that report has to be written against the 13 scales and focus on chn.s achievements and their next steps in learning.

[Lorna]

We had a leaflet outlining that reports had to be written for the children in foundation stage as well as filling in and reporting back on the fsp... we already do this so wasn't a nasty suprise.

 

The guidance leaflet was sent about 2 weeks ago or so.... will hunt it out if poss.

 

L

[Guest]

Hi again,

 

Thanks for the advice given on here - it is great to hear from others in the same position (a small school unfortunately means I am the only one working in foundation stage). I have read the information from the link given and was a bit worried about these comments:

 

'Practitioners must complete a written summary report (against the 13 scales) for each child reaching the end of the foundation stage.' and

 

'All foundation stage schools and settings must provide parents with a written summary of a child’s progress against the early learning goals and the assessment scales.'

 

I am currently doing reports for the parents but these are in the same format as the rest of the school so I am having to choose statements (we use a program where you have a list of statements to choose from for each subject) for each of the NC subjects e.g. History, Geogrpahy, DT, etc. as opposed to KUW, CD, etc. Surely this contradicts with what is written above as I am not reporting their progress against the Early Learning Goals.

I am so confused! Can anyone shed any light on this? I would be really grateful for any advice.

Thanks

[mundia]

Hi there KTC, bit of a nigtmare isnt it? I doont think Heads are really taking this on board at all fro reception teachers. We are using reportassist for the first time, which deos at least link to the areas of learning and contain ELGs and stepping stones.

For school using the eprofile the summary report is easy, and in our school we combine this with the end of year reposrt. Its not what we wnated to do, and I hopew we get the opportunity to chnage it next year. Is your head aware of teh guidance, he/she has to take that on board although its probably too late for this year now. Some Heads just dont understand so they need enlightening.

[Susan]

It was always the case that Baseline was reported to parents. In my school we devised an A4 sheet listing the categories and the 4 points for each. Then we listed how many, but not which ones, had been scored for each category.

 

Is it possible to make something like this to report profile scores?

That is of course the advantage of sending the profile documents haome as end of year reports.

 

I was also envisaging a statement within the report, something like in CLL 'x' attained ---.in profile assessments.

[Magenta]

I will hopefully have the opportunity next year to choose the format for Reports - when this year's are all over I would love feedback from practitioners so that I can choose the simplest teacher and parent friendly model!!!