Preparing school reports for parents is a Commonwealth Government requirement. Given the significant time invested in preparing reports, this paper seeks to contribute to public policy discussions on school reports by presenting the views of parents. 

This paper contributes to the evidence base on school reports by giving insights from focus groups with parents and teachers from a variety of contexts and with students across all school years. 

The focus group findings support some existing evidence for reporting practices, while providing clearer insights into how reporting could improve. They confirm that parents value school reports and want to keep them as part of the broader spectrum of parent-teacher engagement. They also support existing evidence that parent-teacher meetings complement school reports, that parents would like more frequent and better-timed reports, that commentary can lack constructive critique of students, and that parents often want to see their child’s academic performance set against a benchmark. 

This paper can serve as a means to support best practices in reporting on student progress and achievement, as well as to help Catholic schools support parents in their role as ‘primary and principal’ educators of their children.