Released On 20 July 2021
Ruth's blog: Last week of term
I am writing this on Monday evening, this being the last week that my daughter will spend in Reception. We have been amazed that she has managed a whole school year and bar a few days of self isolation caused by family illness, has been lucky enough to actually attend the whole time. School had a sports day before half term (she won a race!!) and this week has lots of fun activities – Disney Disco being the big draw today.
As she is our eldest child it is the first time we have gone through the school year since we were at school. We have just about planned the summer holiday childcare / parent time / family time rota so fingers are crossed that all of the fun stuff gets to happen.
And I had completely forgotten about school reports. How I don’t know, seeing as I was always so very interested in my own and what marks and comments I received. The Reception Report arrived last week and I was fascinated to see what exactly was covered and how it was reported. What would they pick up on? What did they have “wrong” about our daughter?
It was a lovely read. Although we would have liked more information on some of the skills ticked as “attained”, they had her personality pretty spot on and it was fabulous to get a little more of a glimpse into her own school world. She is learning lots and wants to tell everyone about it! And is turning out to be a stickler for the school rules – interesting…
For my company, summer is year end and appraisal time. And it struck me about the differences and similarities between school reports and work appraisals. The worry around…have I met my development points and any targets set? Will management agree with my self review? How are my prospects looking within the company? How much should I write in these ever expanding boxes and will it even reflect everything I currently think?
Such different ways of reflecting on the last year. What could we take from the two processes? I wonder if appraisals need to be broader – I am certainly not suggesting mine has a section where I get marked on my “Expressive Arts and Design”! However I am also an appraiser for some graduates. So some more questions perhaps….like asking which areas of our work we most enjoy? What else have we contributed to the team that may or may not be an explicit part of our stated role? How resilient do we feel? What activity would we like to choose next? Are we proud of our work, and do we receive appropriate feedback on it?
“Look Miss W – I drew you and wrote your name under it!”
“Wow that’s great! I knew it was me because of my enormous eye lashes. Your writing is so neat. Well done! Let’s put it on the display for everyone to see.”
Ruth works 4 days per week in a central London accounting & tax firm. She lives in South West London with her husband, two children aged 5 and 2 and a tank of tropical fish.
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