The end of term is here and parents up and down the country will be awaiting the arrival of their child’s end-of-term report. But I hope they won’t be expecting too many pearls of wisdom from the impersonal emails that will ping into their inboxes shortly.
Ten or a dozen years ago (the exact date varied, school by school), in an act of educational vandalism, handwritten school reports were abolished. Edicts were issued by school ‘senior management teams’ and grudgingly, reluctantly, teachers put their fountain pens and little bottles of Quink back into their desks, never to be taken out again.
The personal touch in the reporting process disappeared with them. With a flourish of bold, often lurid ink, fountain pens turned even the most banal comments into words of wisdom and parents and pupils alike cherished their individuality. Every show-off in the staff room would pull out the Montblanc, in the mood for some creative comment on a pupil’s progress – or lack of it.
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