Headmaster blasts school reports as pointless

SCHOOL reports are pointless because teachers are scared of upsetting parents and children, a headmaster has said.

Teachers fear being taken to task for being honest, according to Dr Julian Murphy.

He claimed they resort to waffle instead of telling parents their child is misbehaving.

Dr Murphy, head at £12,000-a-year Loughborough Amherst School, said: “When I went to school you would get reports that say ‘so and so is extremely lazy or arrogant’.

“But now no one says that — it would upset parents. Parents are more likely to say to teachers, ‘You have upset my child, you have damaged their confidence.

“The problem isn’t my child, it’s you’.”

He added the problem was worse at private schools since “we don’t want to lose customers”.

Dr Murphy spoke in response to plans to shake-up reports. Ministers want to cut unnecessary paperwork for teachers while ensuring parents receive only useful data.

Dr Murphy has replaced reports with targets based on workplace appraisals. He said: “I don’t think traditional reports are worth doing.”