Maintaining the human touch of report writing with AI

How AI can support teachers this report writing season.

The final half term of the school year means end of year reports will soon be shared with students and parents.

Many already over-stretched teachers may be wondering how they are going to find time to produce personalised, meaningful reports to capture the progress of every pupil in their class.?

The question of what a good report should include and how to ensure it's meaningful to parents, whilst maintaining a work/life balance is often asked.

Increasing numbers of teachers are turning to AI for support, though the controversy around the loss of ‘human’ voice has been a concern for some.?

Speaking exclusively to KS2 Digest, former primary school teacher, Connor Hardwick, shares personal experience of writing reports and how AI can be used to ‘support teachers, but can never replace them’.

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A report that is ‘tailored to the pupil’

From his eight-year career as a primary school teacher, Connor understands the work that goes into producing a school report.?

Now replicate this for a class of around 30 and teachers quickly find themselves devoting hours to produce the perfect reflection of their pupils.?

On his move to working as the Report Writer Product Owner, Connor said: ‘I know how important they are to parents – that's why when we made the report writer, it’s all about teacher information.’

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An ‘easier, faster and more efficient’ tool?

‘Pupil reports NEED to be personal – this is an opportunity for teachers to share each child’s progress and targets.’?

Connor explains that ‘what makes it personal is what you say, not the fact that you’ve typed or even written it all out by hand’.?

It is possible to maintain the personal touch by ‘giving the AI detailed, specific information about a student’.?

Addressing the challenges of AI generated reports

The use of AI for report writing is becoming more popular, with Connor reporting around 50,000 people using it last year to produce over one million report comments.

In a recent KS2 Digest poll, 100% of teachers said they had used or considered using AI to support the report writing process.?

However, concerns about the validity of an AI-generated report have been raised by parents.?

Connor understands that using AI for reports may make parents question how accurate and personal to their child it is and explains how using the report writing tool alleviates this concern.

One limitation of AI, Connor explains, ‘is tone of voice’.?

‘Despite its accuracy, AI can sometimes use formal language’ which Connor explains can ‘lack empathy and a personable tone’.?

He recognises teachers may still want to tweak it to make it sound more like them but by using ‘AI as a tool to do the admin of report writing’, teachers can ‘choose what goes in’ and AI will produce a paragraph from this.?

The idea is to speed up the process of report writing without taking away the personal element.?

Connor goes on to explore the ‘the risk that pupil reports might feel a little impersonal or generic, especially if the user has not mentioned any specific details about the student.?

‘A way around this is to inform the AI of any events or achievements throughout the school year.’

The last limitation Connor highlights is potential mistakes, recognising ‘AI isn’t perfect and it will still make errors from time to time’.?

As much as mistakes are rare, Connor encourages teachers to ‘proofread every report comment’.

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What’s next?

The Department for Education (DfE) states that schools must provide annual reports for parents before the end of the summer term.?

These need to include achievements, general progress and attendance as well as results from any tests such as multiplication tables check (MTC) or SATs.?

Parents will want to know how their child is performing academically but also socially and their attitude towards school so ensure your comments are personal to the child.?

Including these key points, even when using AI to generate the overall report, will make sure the comments are unique and specific, showing a real knowledge of the child.

Connor concludes by saying: ‘I’m excited for the future of AI in education!’?

He believes this will grow to create wider scale reports, ‘play an active role in formative assessment and continue to support teachers with help with admin tasks’.

‘Bringing [AI] into classrooms could transform education completely.’