* All schools, primary and secondary, must issue a written report for each child at least once a year with brief particulars of achievement in every activity or subject
* At the end of each key stage, national curriculum andor exam results must be reported too, for the individual child and for his or her year group
* During the workload agreement negotiations, teacher unions said reports should never be more than 400 words per pupil, per year
* Their demand was rebuffed; instead the DfES says reports should be “crisp, concise and easy to understand”
* A secondary school in Essex gave parents a choice between reading reports online or requesting a hard copy. Only 1 in 20 chose the traditional paper report
Main text: Michael DuffyIllustration: www.gillbutton.comAdditional research: Emily Whitchurch Next week: Emotional intelligence
