Teachers told not to be critical behaviour on ‘academic’ reports

NSW Department of Education guidelines state that academic report cards must begin with positive comments and teachers must refrain from detailing bad behaviour unless related to academic progress.

Teachers have been told not to be “critical” of misbehaving students when writing reports -- and when it comes to academic results they must begin every report with a “positive comment” regardless of their performance.

The recommendations are contained in new guidelines released by the Department of Education earlier this year.

It comes as other government organisations have encouraged new teachers to ask their colleagues for pro-forma sentences so they can tweak those statements to fit individual students when writing reports.

In advice for teachers updated earlier this year, Department of Education said reports should focus on evidence of a student’s “academic progress”.

“As such, reports should refrain from discussing student behaviour unless it is relevant to identifying areas of strength and development, or the student’s commitment to learning,” it said.

“The comment should not contain critical information which has not been previously communicated to parents.”

Teachers must not detail poor behaviour unless it related to academic progress. Photo: Halfpoint/iStock

Reports must also always “start with a positive comment”, the rules for teachers state.

In one example uploaded to the Department of Education’s website, a hypothetical student, who has nearly failed the majority of the components of the Kindergarten to Year 2 mathematics syllabus after scoring Ds, is praised for their ability in the comments.

“James applied himself consistently in mathematics this semester and has made steady progress. James reads, orders and writes three-digit numbers. He competently adds and subtracts numbers to 20. He is developing his mental reasoning and is beginning to use mathematical vocabulary to explain his ideas,” the opening of the report reads.

All reports must start with a positive comment, regardless of how they’ve performed.

Meanwhile, the Australian Institute of Teaching and Learning (AITSL) tells teachers on its My Induction App aimed for fresh teaching graduates that teachers should develop their own bank of comments to reuse in reports.

“Develop your own bank of key sentences that you can use in reports and adapt for each individual learner.

“Ask your colleagues if they can have a report sentence bank that you can utilise.”

AITSL chief executive Mark Grant defended the policy because “the use of relevant and adapted comment banks can help reports to target on the learning focus of the subject”.

Australian Institute of Teaching and Learning tells new teachers not to talk too much about areas in which a student is not performing.

Asked about advice given to teachers which discouraged reports comments which talked too much about areas in which a student “not performing”, he said reports should focus for what learning is needed next.

“They should focus on both achievement and areas identified for future growth,” he said.

One Sydney principal said they gave out scores in terms of a simple percentage alongside the cohorts average and parents were “hugely appreciative” because they knew how their child was going objectively — a practice which had fallen out of favour in the education world.

“When you start talking about percentages and marks you get crucified in today’s world,” he said.

In a grade scale provided to NSW Public school, students can also be graded on their “effort” not just their object marks — a spokeswoman for the Department of Education said this was not mandatory.

“There is no mandated requirement to report student effort and no mandated scale on which this is measured,” she said.

“All school reports detail students’ academic progress and development.”

She also said all reports were personalised even if “comment banks” were used.

“Comment banks are only used by schools as prompts when preparing reports,” she said.