I would like to say it gets easier, but actually it doesn't; you just get better/quicker at it. After a couple of years of one curriculum model powers that be will decide on a new one so back to the drawing board again.
I can remember the stress of reports - as a house co before I became a subject co as well as writing my own subject reports part of my job was to read the full reports for every student in the house (that's about 200 reports each up to 9 separate subject pages) and sticky note any grammar/typo/mismatch of outcomes and achievement level etc. Considering they should have been checked before they got to me there were an astounding number of errors IMO. I couldn't believe what some staff wrote! :shock: After they had been corrected (often after a bit of a fight which I tended to win) and I had checked (again) the next step was for one of the APs to read them all again!
A principal once told me that when it is not fun anymore it's time to leave and things changed so much it became ridiculous. Don't miss it at all.
I'm sure that the curriculum model will change; I wouldn't be surprised if after the first year of the new curriculum, there will be some changes and suggestions. Since the curriculum authority has basically reworked the rules of curricula so that the moderation process essentially has gone from a collaborative (we work with you) to a directed approach (do what we tell you), for most part we'll (schools) just have to roll with it. If that causes people to get out of the profession, so be it. Let every school parent know that education is not a timeless, static profession.
On paper (pun intended), our school's reports actually provide a heap of information about each student for every subject, which looks brilliant and likely impresses some parents (i.e. those used to rather extensive or meticulous reporting documents and/or processes in their own jobs). In practice, the effort required to complete reporting is... extensive. Setting up the strings, comment banks and subject-specific reporting elements takes considerable upfront effort, more so when one is not familiar with the reporting framework or the subject ins and outs. And then having to complete all of those reporting elements for each student is pretty tough - making sure you select appropriate comments, etc..
Something I call the "potato chips principle" comes to mind: basically, think about how long it takes to eat a potato chip compared to the time required to prepare a potato into an edible chip. I think that easily applies to reports.
Of course, as we tend to speed up on these things in order not to take up an inordinate amount of time completing them, the risk of glossing over detail, being indiscriminate in deciding marks or the level of superficiality increases considerably.
3 weeks of intense test writing, test administration, marking and reporting... and I'm just starting to sort out the rest of my life again...
