How to Discuss Report Cards

Jun 30, 2022 • Report Cards

It’s that time of the year again—report card time. 

Does your family have an annual report card discussion? Do you take time to review end-of-year grades and celebrate all of the successes? 

Well, when it comes time to discuss final grades, students and parents alike can feel stressed and worried—especially if poor grades are a concern.

However, by sitting down together, celebrating the positives, and making a plan to improve poor grades over the summer, you can reduce report-card-related stress and have a chat that everyone can feel good about.

Having an open conversation as a family about reports is important for any student’s success. We’ve rounded up five helpful tips for having a productive conversation about the student’s report.

5 Helpful Tips for Discussing Report Cards

1. Schedule It: Don’t casually discuss grades on a short car ride to the store or when you’re getting ready to head to work. Sit down together and make sure you have a decent amount of time to discuss the year and each subject/grade fully.
2. Highlight the Positive: There will be something positive no matter what grades show up on the end-of-year report card. A compliment in the teacher comments, a higher grade than last year’s, or a pass in a difficult subject. Try not to focus on the negatives.
3. Listen: Parents and kids are in this together. Listen to each other and recognize that you both want the same thing: school success! Recognize the struggle while listening to their thoughts, comments, worries, and complaints. Be empathetic.
4. End with a Plan: Before your report card discussion ends, develop a plan together on how you will make next year better than this year. Summer learning should be part of your plan, and Oxford Learning can help! Catch up, keep up, or get ahead during the holiday, and next year, your report card chat will be a breeze.
5. Mark the Milestone: another school year has passed, and a LOT has been accomplished. Report card aside, your child has learned a lot this school year, and that alone is a reason to celebrate! It doesn’t have to be a graduation year to commemorate all your child has accomplished. Whether it’s monetary rewards for high grades or some ice cream, marking the milestone of another grade is a great way to recognize achievement at every stage.

To help with your report card chat and plans for improvement, download our report card worksheet.

Summer Learning Goals 

Make next year’s report card shine with summer learning!

Creating summer learning goals can help students from losing or forgetting about what they learned in the previous year. By creating a summer learning program or finding one at your local Oxford Learning Location, you ensure that your student is ahead when they start school again in the fall. 

Here are some of our favourite summer learning tips:

1. Active Learning Activities. Look for exhibits, events, or concerts happening in your town over the summer. Bring them to museums, parks, or anywhere where they can learn about the world around them. 
2. Encourage Writing. Get your student a summer notebook and encourage them to write in it whenever they have something on their minds, or even dedicate a solid 15 to 20 minutes where they can write a story or their feelings. Here are 7 ways to encourage writing.
3. Build Reading into Activities. Reading is an important skill, so try to incorporate reading time every day. If you can’t fit in some reading time, make sure that you incorporate it into activities you are doing during the day, even if they are ready at the back of a box at the grocery store.
4. Active Bodies, Active Minds. Not only do active students have active minds, but keeping active also helps with self-confidence and self-esteem. Have them play games outside, or bring them to a park where they can run around and play sports. 
5. Garden Together. Gardening is learning about the world around us and healthy eating habits. Gardening together can help both reading, writing, and math skills. You can quiz them on different plants, how tall plants are, and where they should be planted.

You can encourage any of these habits all summer long while doing everyday tasks. For example, if children are riding their bike to a friend’s house, ask them how long it will take, ask them to draw you a map and write down the street names. Not only is this fun for the student, but it’s helping them with summer learning, and they don’t even know it!

Oxford Learning Can Help with Summer Learning

Contact your local centre today to learn more about how Oxford Learning can help your child summer learning and get the most out of their education this fall. 

Contact Us