The Edmondson Blog

Teacher comments on old school reports, as reported in The Daily Telegraph Letters to the Editor:

• In one of my early prep school reports, my headmaster summarised my performance: "Live wire, low voltage."
• The comment from my Latin master in 1944 reads: "About as energetic as an absentee miner."
• "He has given me a new definition of the word stoicism: he grins and I bear it."
• "Jane is a problem that we have not yet succeeded in solving."
• A master at my school was convinced a boy was cheating but could not prove it. He got it off his chest by reporting: "Peter is steadily forging his way ahead."
• When I taught at a school where all reports were on a single sheet, I came across a boy's swimming report which stated: "Lacks confidence when submerged." Above it, the maths teacher had later written: "For maths see swimming report."
• Perhaps every bride should have access to her partner's school reports. My husband's housemaster wrote that he "should curb his animal instincts."