School reports- what were yours like?

I love reading these! One of the reasons I moved to England 20 years ago, besides grandparents from here - the irony laced with sarcasm. In 1950's California we only got grades A -F for subjects and tick marks (good to poor) for behaviour. Maybe a summary comment but always totally bland!

"Jacqueline finds it difficult to express herself." Still do!

One term in needlework I got 'Good, but painfully slow.'
Did you keep pricking your fingers Pigglywiggly?

We had to take ours home so we got to see them before our parents did. How did you not get to see them?

I don't think I ever got to read mine. Or did I? Whatever. I was a good student and knew that both my parents and teachers had confidence in me as a person regardless of school results.

One term in needlework I got 'Good, but painfully slow.'

Loved my needlework (needlework! How Victorian! ) teacher's comment" " if Deborah's needle worked as fast as her tongue she would be my star pupil" Priceless!

Satisfactory or could do better were my usual comments. I was middle of the top class and always struggling to satisfy my father's expectations. He was a primary school teacher and knew my IQ results which apparently were very high. Could do better has always defined my thinking about myself until I retired. If only teachers had explained how!

I saw this played out again in my DS, who still is very bright but struggles with self esteem despite being much loved and encouraged by us. And now I see it again in DGS1.

Teachers have such an important influence on the futures of children. They are much improved since my generation's day but some still need to be more aware of this.

Could do better, every time - at least I was consistent!

art teacher: "......just cannot keep paint between lines" - said more about her than me, I reckon!

Apart from having thrown away all our papers, my parents never let me see my reports unless they were bad, for fear of giving me a swollen head. I assume, they weren't too bad!

Even when I did well in exams I got, "Could do better" on my reports, so in the end I gave up trying. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't taken those remarks to heart as I did. I really regret not going on to university.

One of my said - Clare works well but what a chatterbox she is.

I had " Christine must stop trying to attract attention to herself""......I became a teacher!!!!

I definitely tried to get out of games by similar means Morgana.

My reports are in a booklet like that JackieB. Ive got them all and all of DH's. The children used to love to read them! My very first report aged 4-5 simply says poor or very poor for everything but I did quite well later - except in Maths. After I passed O level maths (resit) my maths teacher, instead of congratulating me told me it must have been a fluke!!!! Cant imagine saying hat to a child, ever!

Always got could do better for anything sporty
Hated sports and used to hide in toilet or have constant period! Found my sons school reports recently and was very upset to see how little they understood him. He is hyperactive. In the sixth form they told me he had 'over performed' as if it was his fault!

My reports were always very favourable, I just kept myself to myself and didn't step out of line, but my saving grace was that I was really good at exams, so the marks were really high. Actually I wasn't particularly brilliant in class, I just remembered everything when it came to exams (I never could work out what you were supposed to do when revision time came around.) That sounds rather arrogant, I suppose, but it was useful at the time!

My mother still has her school report from ca 1938. It was also very good (she was even great at sports, which I never was!). She chuckles when she quotes the note from her headmistress which says "Iris will make a very good shorthand-typist". This was the most a girl could aspire to in those days. (I don't know if the headmistress was still alive to see one of my mother's female contemporaries become Prime Minister.)

Our Grammar school reports were huge pale blue, bound books (not loose-leaf) with the county's coat of arms and the name of the school embossed on the front in gold.

Our physics master always started the lesson with "...Right you load of scum".

Well, Lindajoy, I have a piece of paper somewhere saying that I had the most English French accent my tutor had ever heard

I really only did languages because of the funded European study visits on offer (those were the days!).

"Falconbird is definitely prefect material but shows absolutely no inclination to assume that role."

I'm definitely not a leader.

For French: Linda has a good flow of language! Well, I did go on to be a translator!

For French: Linda has a good flow of language! Well, I did go on to be a translator!

For French: Linda has a good flow of language! Well, I did go on to be a translator!

For French: Linda has a good flow of language! Well, I did go on to be a translator!