Indigestion, reflux, or heart attack…
It’s mid-year reporting time: here that means pupil, parent and teacher sitting down to discuss progress to date (the pupil’s); and what needs to happen next to ensure further progress (also the pupil’s). Added to the interview this year has been the requirement to provide a written, plain-English report too. So far so good.
Each written report takes one to two hours to write; it varies slightly from teacher to teacher and child to child. One of the challenges has been minimising the jargon and converting everything into to “plain English”. While some technical terms can easily written in straightforward language or explained by way of giving an example; others can provide a real challenge.
Sometimes, a simple explanation effectively over-simplifies a situation; sometimes only technical terms accurately describe an issue. For example, if you go to the doctor complaining of a burning sensation in the centre of your chest, you want a better explanation than, “You’ve probably got hot stuff that’s upsetting the place where your tummy joins on to your throat.” You need to know that your doctor knows whether or not it’s indigestion, reflux, or a heart attack!
More importantly, you need to know that your doctor has some ideas about what to do next to help remedy the situation. The whole point of going to the doctor in the first place is to have a two-way conversation about what the problem is; and what the next step in the treatment is likely to be. You and your doctor expect to use and understand some of the more common medical terms as part of that conversation. The explanation may turn out to be that you’ve got some inflammation in your duodenum and that to help manage that, you will need to take prescribed medication at the earliest onset of pain.
Certainly, if it’s your child who is the patient; as the parent, you very much expect to be a large part of the conversation with your doctor; resulting in your child, you, and the doctor each leaving the appointment knowing what the problem is and what needs to be done next to improve the current situation.
Mid-year school interviews are no different. The diagnosis is about your child’s educational health; the treatment prescribing what the child, teacher, and you will need to do next, to support continued and improved educational health (progress).
Just as you need to discuss with your doctor the results of any lab tests your doctor may sent your child for: to get real benefit and understanding from your child’s mid-year report results, you need to have a conversation with your child’s teacher. Thank you to all parents who made the time and effort to come to the mid-year check up – your child, your child’s teacher, and you should all now have a clearer understanding of what’s going on than had been the case if you simply relied on the reports – in plain English or not.
Thank you Waverley Park parents: more than 82% of Waverley Park kids get to benefit because you booked interview times and had conversations about their education; an excellent prognosis.
