What to write in a home education report: worked examples by subject

Knowing a report needs a section on maths is easy. Writing that section, when your maths this term was cooking, card games and a fortnight on negative numbers, is where people stall. Here are worked examples of the translation.

Maths

Weak version: 'We do maths most days and he is doing well.'

Stronger version: 'Number work has focused on securing multiplication facts to 12 and on introducing negative numbers, using a number line and practical contexts including temperature and money. He can now recall most multiplication facts without prompting and can order and compare negative values. Applied work has included calculating quantities and costs when cooking, and scoring in games. Next term we will move to formal written methods for division.'

The difference is specificity: what was covered, what changed, what comes next. Same term, described properly.

English

Cover reading and writing separately, because they often differ sharply.

'Reading: independently reading longer fiction, currently working through the Skulduggery Pleasant series, with a shared reading of The Hobbit aloud. Comprehension is strong, particularly inference about character motivation, which we discuss rather than test. Writing: writing remains the weaker area. We are working on paragraph structure using scribing to separate composition from handwriting, and he has produced three pieces of extended writing this term, including a review and an instructional guide.'

Science

'Science this term has been largely biology, driven by his interest in marine life. We covered classification, food chains and adaptation, including a visit to the aquarium in October and a project on shark species, comparing habitat depth ranges and feeding. Practical work included dissection of owl pellets and growing bacteria cultures. Physical sciences have had less coverage this term and we plan to focus on forces and simple circuits next term.'

Topic and interest-led work

'Between September and November she pursued a self-directed project on Ancient Egypt, arising from a museum visit. This covered historical chronology, comparison of primary and secondary sources, hieroglyphic writing systems, and the geography of the Nile including flood cycles and their agricultural effect. She produced a scale drawing of a pyramid, a written account of mummification, and taught the material to her younger brother, which we used as the assessment.'

Personal, social and physical

Do not skip this section, particularly if socialisation has been raised. 'He attends a home education group weekly, swims twice a week, and volunteers at a local animal rescue on Saturdays, where he has responsibility for feeding and cleaning routines and works alongside adults and other young people.'

How Different Drums helps here

Report generation pulls the subject detail from the learning log, so the specifics you need, dates, topics, what was covered, are already gathered rather than remembered. You add the judgement and the personal detail, which is the part that should be yours.