Interpreting School Reports to Support Students’ Learning

Parents naturally want to know that their children are happy at school, developing their interpersonal skills, making good friendships, and making progress in their subjects. Parents also want to know how they can support their children’s learning and personal development at home. The report you receive at the end of the term should encapsulate each component.

The report should be informed about how your child is progressing, not only academically but as an individual person in their own right and how you may be able to support your child at home.

In addition, the report is an opportunity to discuss your child's learning in the round, to praise, demonstrate interest and listen to them speak about their learning experience. The messages you transmit will be important in shaping your child's understanding of what is valued. Praising effort, recognising progress and helping to identify the next steps in learning are commendable actions. The reports provided will direct this.

We aim to instil core values, nurture compassion, curiosity, collaboration, and communication and value courage & citizenship. These are the qualities that will enable our students to become adaptable citizens and leaders of the future.

With this in mind, it is important that your children understand the habits of learning that they need to develop to be successful learners and flourish as individuals, ready for their journey through life. Therefore, their “engagement with learning” is fundamental to this process and should be viewed in this light.

Key Stage 3

In Years 7-9, students will be awarded a level for attainment, engagement and progress. The combination of these, along with the teacher’s comment, helps to give an insight into each child’s learning that can support meaningful conversations at home. Like many schools, we have developed our own levels of attainment with descriptors for Key Stage 3. 

On their own, any attainment level or grade cannot tell the whole story. Securing may represent excellent performance for one student but under-performance for another - each student has unique aptitudes and abilities. These attainment levels are best viewed in context with engagement and progress as shown in the following examples:

Student A - in some ways, this student is doing well academically. The Securing level requires a good level of knowledge and understanding in a subject - this is where we expect many students to be at the end of the year. However, when viewed in the context of the progress and engagement scores, it is clear that the teacher believes the student could be reaching a higher level of attainment. This could be related to a number of things, for example, a need to improve attitude in class, ask more questions to extend learning or improve standards by taking more pride in work. 

Student B - this student is in the second level of attainment, which demonstrates that their knowledge and understanding of a subject is at a lower level than where we would expect many students to be by the end of the year. When viewed in the context of expected progress and a good level of engagement, this student deserves to be praised for being committed to their learning in the subject. It is clear that the teacher believes they are on the right track, making good progress and achieving at a level that is right for them.

We are committed to working together with parents to support our young people in their learning. If you would like to discuss the interpretation of reports further, please sign up for our workshop on Monday, 9th January, at 8:30 am. Click here to express interest in attending this workshop.

Secondary Leadership Team