Finished my first semester reports last week and it was a mammoth task. It’s also the first time that all schools have been required to use the federal government’s brand new “plain language” A to E report format across all learning domains. There has been parental confusion in previous trial semesters because a ‘C’ in this system means that a student is performing as expected by the Standards, while a ‘C’ traditionally meant anything from “poor” to “barely acceptable”. To increase understanding of the new grading system, posters have been sent to schools displaying a sample report card. And can you imagine my delight when I noticed that the sample in the poster was GrodsCorp contributor John Surname’s very own grade four report card:

Broad congratulations to John for achieving a number of ‘A’s and ‘B’s, but pull yer bloody finger out in maths, mate! 18 months behind!

The Public Transport Users Association has released a report card that grades Parties’ public transport promises ahead of Saturday’s election.

Democrats A-
Family First F
The Greens A
ALP D
Liberals C+
Nationals C
People Power C

However, if these A-E gradings are based on current Victorian school report criteria (also known as The Nelson Method) then the Libs and the Nats are doing just fine, the Dems and the Greens are ahead of the pack, and the ALP needs to try harder. There’s no ‘F’ grade possible in Victoria but joke Parties deserve joke grades.

If, as is more likely, the grades are based upon the traditional A-E system and you care about public transport then you know what to do on Saturday.