Hi all,

I am thinking of writing reports to give to my pupils' parents at the end of each half term. I think it would be a really good way of letting the parents know exactly how their child is progressing with their instrument, and would help bridge the parent-teacher gap, which in some cases is very big indeed! (I have never even met some of my pupils' parents and only occasionally speak to them on the phone.)

Does anyone already issue regular reports? What sort of format do you use?

Thanks in advance

Mrs M

Im thinking about doing that this term as well. I have brief chats with most pupils parents but dont always see them. I thinks its a good idea to have something in writing as well and it is also more professional.
I dont have a particular format in mind but I shall put on it things like work achieved, future targets, practise time/requirements etc.

Whether I have the time to implement this is another matter!

Half termly seems to be making a lot of work for yourself - depending on how many pupils you have.
If I was doing a half termly report I would consider linking it to half termly aims/objectives that have been discussed with the pupil(maybe parents). In this way you could relate the pupils achievements for each half term to the aspirations that you had at the beginning of that half term. As long as your goals are realistic this could work well. You could even get into the stickers/stars/rewards for each objective achieved.
Best to think it all out in advance and maybe do some forms on your computer?
I am only required to do annual reports but some type of planning/report could work really well in keeping pupils focussed. Good luck.

Yes, I think it's a good idea, but it depends on what sort of extra workload you can cope with. I would find every half-term too frequent. I do mine only twice a year - that gives chance for some real progress in between and it's often quite an eye-opener for me to look back over 6 months and see what's been achieved - or not as the case may be!

As to format - I start with a brief paragraph outlining what we have tried to do and the main new points we have covered, what headway has been made and any achievements. Factual, objective.
Then a list of pieces completed if feasible; usually identifies pieces attempted and not finished as well as those well done.
Finally a longer, more subjective paragraph listing and commenting on what I see as the main strengths and weaknesses; a couple of main aims for improvement and usually an "I'm looking forward to ..." comment at the end.

Hope this is useful.

I wouldn't have the time to do a report every half term! I just do a comprehensive one at the end of the school year.

Format:
Achievements per term (three separate headings). This includes attendance, theory, pieces, technical exercises and all other work covered.
Technique - describe the techniques being worked on and progress made
Attitude - this is usually the biggest paragraph, describing attention, enthusiasm and co-operation in the lesson, effort and willingness to work hard, success with practising and for the older ones evidence of indendent thinking etc
Targets - finishes with a list of four or five things to be working on in particular over the coming year.

Hope this helps.

Previously I've done informal reports, but I'm definitely considering setting out firm aims and objectives at the beginning of term, and following up with an end of term report or perhaps a six month report for those wise enough to continue with their lessons outside of the usual academic year.

It never ceases to amaze me how even parents say "little Freddy won't be having lessons over the six weeks holiday in the summer. He needs a nice rest and he won't be practicing during that time anyway". So I get him back in the autumn term having lost the 12 months previous skills, and we have to start a lot of what we'd done all over again.

People seem to treat learning a musical instrument as something you can just pick up and put down at will, and still come back to it again without having lost any of the skill you'd gained. It's much the same as sport - if you stop training, even for a fortnight, it is bound to have had some effect on your body and ability when you go back to it.

No, I don't agree here. As a mum and a teacher, in my experience everyone needs a good break over the summer. If they want to carry on for love of the instrument then great, these are usually the best pupils, but I don't expect them to. If they don't touch their instrument for the whole of the summer break, then it does take a few weeks to get back to where we were before, but only a few weeks and a good rest is worth this small set back. And you compared this with training for sports - surely they have breaks too? I thought all sports had an off season where they had a good break and rest before picking up the training again.

I very much doubt serious sportsmen and women would take 6 weeks off with no training... I agree that kids probably need a break, I don't think that should necessarily mean "don't play at all for 6 weeks". It also depends what level you are at and what you want to get out of it. I notice that I lose some technique and control if I don't practice every day. I read a little motto that is apparently a "ballet saying" - something along the lines of, "if you don't practice for a day, you will notice. if you don't practice for two days, the critics will notice. if you don't practice for 3 days your audience will notice."

I think whether to take breaks and how long they should be and whether it's a complete break or just not practising as hard depends on circumstance/level/age/commitment, but no one should be fooled into thinking that not practising will not affect your playing.

By having a rest I mean not having lessons. I would hope they would want to carry on playing at home to some extent - playing for fun, but without the pressure of working towards the next lesson. Some don't touch their instruments over the holidays at all, which is of course disappointing (don't they like playing at all?) but I still find that they get back to where they were in only a few weeks. I agree that not practising affects their playing, but you have to balance that with the need for a bit of a break from the demands of weekly lessons and being outside and enjoying the summer.

Sorry Mrs M, this is off topic!

Yes, but six weeks? We are talking about huge bundles of energy here. They can become completely exhausted and still only need a week to recover


Nice idea, but difficult to see it happening. Most kids do not do enough practise when thay have a lesson coming up. No lesson will equal no practise in the majority of cases.

Mrs M, you idea of regular reports sounds good. I would advise against every half-term; sounds like too much work, to me. I would imagine twice a year, at most.

Not that I need to do even this. Nearly all the parents who bring kids here sit in on lessons; I have regular contact with the rest. I have no need to write reports on top of that, but I am in a fortunate position in having interested\positive\encouraging\pleasant pupils' parents.

Nice.

Steve

I do reports twice a year - at the end of the autumn term and then at the end of the summer term. I find that works well - although as I'm the one landed with writing all the family Christmas cards too, I find I can hardly write at all by the end of that term . Perhaps I should start doing them on the computer!

Jo, that's partly the reason I started doing reports in February and July / August. Midway through the school year and again at the end.
Takes the pressure off the autumn / Christmas period a bit.

I can't do reports in the spring term, Maggie - that's our Festival term, and I'm always really busy with group rehearsals and all the pupils' preparations. If it wasn't for that, then yes, I'd do them then too!

oooooh yes I see.

I have to write reports for school but otherwise there's no contact with the parents. Privately I often see the parents regularly so I don't give out reports. After doing the CT course several years ago (makes me sound old!!) I came back with lots of new ideas - one of them being to give out twice-yearly reports - I did it once!!!!! I should really try again but I'm afraid I quite often suffer from ICBB syndrome when I try to think about it!

What a disgraceful attitude.

Only joking - just couldn't resist it.

Steve

Thanks everyone for your advice and comments - really helpful. I think I shall do a twice-yearly report. I'm actually looking forward to doing them and seeing what the parents / pupils think!

Thanks again

Mrs M

Could I ask you what is ICBB syndrome????

Indeed, when I did gymnastics at one club the school holidays weren't seen as an opportunity for one to have a rest; simply an opportunity for longer training sessions during the day as well (seven hours and bring lunch at its peak...)! Although at a different, less serious, club there were two weeks off out of the six for a holiday. Many clubs doing it recreationally (those doing an hour a week) will simply take the school holidays off. It does therefore depend on how seriously one is taking things, although with the apparent lack of recreational music (i.e. very few teachers feeling that one hour a week of playing (including lessons) is sufficient) I wouldn't expect people therefore to be taking the school holidays off. That's without mentioning the poor music teachers who aren't being paid over the holidays.


Very true.

About the topic of reports (again I'm not a teacher) but speaking just from the experience of receiving school reports it would probably be a good boost to the people who work hard all year to get some written praise from the teacher (accompanied, no doubt, by some verbal praise from their parents); and for those who haven't been working as hard as they should to be given a little extra push. Of course it does all depend on whether you want all that extra work or not!

Trio: I can't be bothered?

I Can't Be Bothered, at a wild guess!

I do written reports twice a year too - end of autumn and summer terms. I comment on various aspects of a pupil's work and give them gradings (A, B etc) overall for effort in lessons, effort at home and overall achievement.

Each report is sent in duplicate and the student and parent sign and return one copy, to say they've seen and discussed it and they also have the opportunity in a space provided to add their own written comments if they wish. If there is something I want to say purely to the parent(s), then I either write separately or phone them. A similar type of report (or record of achievement) is still quite common in schools around here.

In the spring term I supply one or two sentences about progress which go out with the invoice for lessons.

I find parents quite like this system and only today I got back a form from one of my more "challenging" 10 year old pupils on which he'd written "I was so happy to get a B this term rather than a C. It's made me realise all my hard work is worth it."

What more could you want?

I do give my students a summer break (for health reasons I need one, never mind them) but I also set specific work I want them to have achieved during their time away. It's up to them whether they do so spaced out across the 5 week break or by doing a lot of hard work in the 2 weeks leading up to resuming lessons in September. So far this system has worked quite well for most of them.

Regarding the summer break, I find the opposite. Pupils have more time to practice and usually want extra lessons. They get extra opportunities and more time for doing other things like composing and recordings which with normal lessons we struggle to be able to fit in. Obviously most have some time off as they are on holiday, but to take 6 weeks off completely seems crazy.

David

Yes - ICBB is I Can't Be Bothered.

I don't mean to imply I'm lazy and don't care about my pupils but I have to write reports for all my school pupils which I really struggle with so lose the momentum to do them for my private pupils aswell. I think part of my problem is that I find it hard to know what to write - I hate having to write anything negative (unless there is really nothing positive to say about the pupil apart from "Your hair looks nice!!!") - I'm probably too soft. I find it difficult - but then the report forms for school aren't ideal which makes the job worse. I have designed my own forms but still find it hard to do. I hope I'm not alone in this!!!!!!!