Reportedly speaking ...

After reading the fabulous shoe-wearing Maria's J4 school report last week, I went in search of mine ... bless, Maria's parent's must have been over the moon with her results ... I wish I could say the same for mine *twinkles and smiles sadly* Sorry Mum, Dad!

I thought I'd share a snippet or two with you ... set your cringe-o-meter!

J1a ~ First half (17/12/1976)

English ~ Quite Good, can be careless with spelling and punctuation.
Maths ~ Quite Good, on the whole but she can be lazy!
General remarks ~ Towards the end of this term Joanne has begun to work & is now making satisfactory progress. I look forward to continued effort next term.

J1a ~ Second half (7/1977)

English ~ A-, very good. Joanne has plenty of ability but does not always exert herself more than she has to!
Maths ~ A-, Joanne has made good progress. She has plenty of ability and could do even better. She works hard when she feels like it.
General Remarks ~ Joanne has worked quite hard. She makes good progress without really trying. I hope that next year she will work at full stretch (underlined twice!) as she plenty of ability.

Can you see a pattern starting to form?
It goes on in much the same vein ... very able, blah, blah, needs to work harder, blah, blah, if she gave 100% blah, blah until I arrive in J4 aged 10.

And there the report changes completely ... in what should have been my best year in junior school my parent's must have "died" ... whilst missing out on the "and gone to heaven bit!"

English :: Reading attainment ~ (A crossed out) B+, interested and able.
Oral ~ reading aloud and speech ~ A-, fluent, expressive but rather hurried.
Grammatical skills ~ B+, aware of the skills but seldom uses them.
Spelling ~ B+, careless.
Formal comprehension and factual writing ~ B+, capable but seldom completes.
Original story telling ~ B+, capable but seldom completes.

What was wrong with this woman? Could she not make on purely positive comment? If I was interested and able in reading why did I only get a B+? Was I rather hurried when I spoke aloud because I was scared shitless of her?

And then there was the wonderful, funny and most importantly kind Mr Thomas who taught me maths ~

Maths :: Mental arithmetic and concepts ~ B+, improving all the time.
Mathematical problem solving ~ B+, has produced very good work.

The final teacher's comments continued the "hatchet job" ~ Joanne is an able child but she cannot bear criticism or correction; tending to dramatise all situations ... Fundamentally she lacks the self confidence and cooperation necessary for developing her attitudes towards her contemporaries and adults. With more self reliance, persistance, concentration, conscientiousness and enthusiasm about her written work she could reach her potential.

It took me a long time to get over Miss Case and my final year of primary school, I went to a local comprehensive school in September and loved it; I joined the top stream of classes and "flew" eventhough, to begin with I was still haunted by the "when we were in J4" that came from the children who had gone to the same school as me! Ah well, what's 10 months out of my life seeing as I now love education soooooooo much? Huh? Not much in the grand scheme of things really ~ is it?

So, how about you guys, how were your reports? Pleasing or could you too have "done more and reached your full potential"?