The parent report templates are designed to save teachers time by automatically populating with key information from Sonar Tracker, including pupil names, attainment data and targets for the subjects you select. Your report template can be downloaded for one child, a group, or the whole class.
There are two steps;
1. An Admin user / Tracker Owner chooses the template and chooses the parameters; Assessment labels, Attitude to Learning options and subjects.
2. Teachers can then add comments for each pupil in an individual Word document, highlighting their pupils’ strengths and next steps.
Admin set up
1. Select Report Templates > Create new template
2. Enter a name for this template - we advise this is really clear, identifying Phase / Yr Group / Academic Year. Choose whether you want an EYFS or Primary template.
You can use one template for multiple year groups within EYFS / Primary. If you want to use a different Attitude to Learning type or include different subjects for particular year groups, you should create a separate template for each group of children.
For example;
KS1 Annual Report 2024 - may include Effort grades and not include French
KS2 Annual Report 2024 - may include Learning Behaviour grades and include French
3. Complete the table with the labels and descriptions you would like used for each assessment code used in your Sonar account.
You can use one label for more than one code, so for example, 'Expected' can be shown for any children assessed as 'Just At' and 'Securely At'.
You cannot have more labels than codes in the software.
Children working in a band below or above their own year group; Significantly below and Significantly above will show as Below / Above.
4. Select an option from the Attitude to Learning Grade choices:
You can currently choose one of effort, progress, behaviour or your own category.
Add a description for each grade which will appear for reference on each child's report.
5. Select which subjects you wish to include
You can change how the subject name appears as appropriate.
Choose whether you want the subject to appear as;
Primary templates
Full - Will show summative and attitude to learning grades, a box for comments and targets*
Lite - Will show summative and attitude to learning grades and a box for comments
Grid - Will show summative and attitude to learnings grade only
Exclude this subject - This subject will not be included in the template.
*If you assess formatively by highlighting objectives in Sonar, a maximum of 3 objectives will be chosen to show as targets. The software will only choose from the band of the Year group the child is in, choosing those highlighted yellow first, then red and, where possible from different strands. Once exported to Word these can be edited / removed / added to.
EYFS Templates
Due to some schools assessing Areas of Learning while others assess Aspects, in EYFS templates you have the choice of
Full - Will show summative and attitude to learning grades, a box for comments and targets*
Grid - Will show summative and Attitude to Learning grades only.
Save your template
6. Once created, Admin users can edit, preview and delete templates from School > Report Templates > Report Templates.
Teacher creating report templates
1. Select Pupils
2. Use the 'Active Filters' button to filter class.
Or if you just want to run the template for an individual or group of children, select them.
NB: If you don't see the options at the bottom of the page, click on the grey bar beside any pupil.
3. Select 'Create Parent Report' and choose the relevant template.
4. Prepare your reports
Preview (the layout may not be the same as once exported to Word) or Download your Reports.
A separate report will be downloaded for each child to secure cloud storage, where you will have 24 hours to retrieve them and save them locally. If you miss the availability window, just repeat this process.
The download may take a few minutes. You will see that the download is ready via a notification in your inbox
You will then have the opportunity to download your reports
5. Save your templates locally and add comments etc as necessary.
FAQs
- I have changed the assessments for some children since creating my reports, what should I do? Just choose the pupil(s) concerned and create their templates again, ensuring previous versions are deleted and copying and pasting any added comments, or edit assessments in Word version to match Sonar.
- Can I add our School Logo? We were not able to include this feature for this year.
- Can I include attendance? Not in this version as once included, any exports would have to be done after the attendance end date, but can be considered for the future.
- My preview doesn't look how I expect, should I still download the reports? When you first open a report template from the download, it displays in a browser. We suggest any editing and layout previewing is done by viewing 'in the desktop app'.
- Can we remove the Head Teacher comment? This section is part of the template so can be removed from individual Word reports once these have been created.
This is our first attempt at creating a template for parent report in Sonar. As this is an area we are keen to develop further in the future we would really like to gain an understanding of what you would like from a parent report Please add any requests for future consideration to the Parent Report category in our Juniper Education Ideas Portal .