Start with the most recent work, not the first
Pick one student and one subject. Lay out what you have saved since September: notes, work samples, a conference record, a quiz. Then find the most recent piece that shows the student working on the expectations you taught. That piece, read beside the rest, tells you where the grade sits and what the comment should say.
Starting from September instead pulls you toward an average. Ontario's policy asks for something different, and it changes how you write the comment as well as the grade.
What the term 1 report card asks for
Ontario elementary schools send home the first provincial report card between January 20 and February 20. Your board sets the exact date, and your own deadline to the office often comes a week or two earlier. That puts most of the writing in December and the first weeks of January.
The report covers curriculum expectations introduced and developed from September to January or February, plus the learning skills and work habits for the same period. It has three parts you write for:
- Learning skills and work habits. The same six skills as the fall progress report (Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative and Self-Regulation), each rated E, G, S or N, with one box for strengths and next steps.
- Subject grades. Grades 1 to 6 get letter grades from A+ down to D-, aligned to the four achievement levels. Grades 7 and 8 get percentage marks, with Level 3 at 70 to 79 and Level 4 at 80 to 100. The Grades 7 and 8 report also shows the median mark for students in the grade.
- Strengths and next steps for improvement. A comment box beside each subject.
Two codes matter in January. "R" means the student has not yet shown the required knowledge and skills, and Growing Success asks you to describe the specific support planned and the help families can give. "I" means there is not enough evidence to assign a grade, for example when a student enrolled very recently or missed a long stretch through illness.
The provincial guidance is in Growing Success and the ministry's report card page. The current templates are on the report card templates page.
Most consistent, with weight on recent evidence
Growing Success says a report card grade should reflect the student's most consistent level of achievement, with special consideration given to more recent evidence. The ministry's family page puts it plainly: teachers do not simply calculate averages.
In practice, that gives you a reading order for each student:
- Look at the work from the last few weeks first. What level does it show, and is it a single good day or a pattern?
- Look back at the fall. Does the earlier work show the same level, or growth toward it?
- Weigh richer tasks more heavily. A performance task where a student explains a strategy tells you more than a ten-question check.
The comment follows the same order. A Grade 4 student who struggled with multiplication in October and now explains two strategies reliably has a strength you can name, and the grade should show where they are now.
Build the comment from three sentences
Growing Success asks for comments that describe what the student has learned, name significant strengths, identify next steps, and help families support learning at home. It also asks you to avoid repeating curriculum wording. A three-sentence pattern covers all of that:
- A strength, tied to a task. What the student can do, and where you saw it.
- A next step, as an action. What the student will do next, not a quality they should have.
- A way to help at home. Something a family could try this month.
A fictional Grade 3 language comment:
"[Name] retells the main events of a story in order and uses details from the text to explain a character's choice, as shown in their reading response on a class novel. Next, [Name] will add their own opinion to a written response and support it with one example from the book. At home, ask [Name] which character they agree with and why."
A fictional Grade 7 science comment:
"[Name] designs a fair test, controls variables and records clear observations, as shown in the heat transfer investigation. Next, [Name] will explain in the conclusion how their results support or challenge their prediction. At home, ask [Name] to describe an experiment from class and what they would change next time."
Neither comment mentions the letter grade or the percentage. The mark is on the form already; the comment explains it.
Learning skills: choose the clearest evidence
You do not need to write about all six skills. Pick one or two where your notes from the last two months are strongest, and let the ratings carry the rest. For each one, describe what the student did and in what setting, then name a next step with a strategy.
If you named a learning skills next step on the fall progress report, check whether the student tried it. "[Name] now records each homework task in their planner without a reminder" is a stronger term 1 strength than anything you could write from memory, and it shows the family that the fall feedback went somewhere.
Grades 7 and 8: when the percentage needs a sentence
Families of Grade 7 and 8 students see a number and a median, and they read the two together. A mark that moved since the fall, or one well below the median, will draw questions. You do not need to explain the arithmetic, but the comment should make the mark make sense. Name the expectation where the student is strongest, the one holding the mark down, and the specific next step for the second.
Plan your writing weeks
A simple order keeps December and January from collapsing into one weekend:
- Early December: sort students by how much evidence you have in each subject. Plan short observations or a focused task for anyone with little recent work.
- Before the winter break: draft learning skills comments while fall routines are fresh.
- First week back: finish grades, starting with the most recent work.
- Next: write subject comments one subject at a time across the class, so your wording stays consistent and repeats stand out.
- Before the office deadline: read every comment against your board's character limit and style guide.
Where a note system fits
Term 1 grades lean on recent evidence, so a note system pays off most when you can see each student's notes in date order. In Dodl Notes, each quick note is saved to the right class and student, and Notes Explorer lets you search and sort what you saved, so the most recent evidence is a click away instead of a binder away.
Teachers with Dodl Notes Pro can also open the Reports page. In Ontario it offers the term 1 provincial report card as a starting point, uses the date range of notes you choose, suggests ratings from your notes for you to confirm, and drafts comments you edit. Every change is a tracked change you accept or reject, and you decide what goes on the report card.
Before you submit
For each comment, check:
- Does it rest on recent evidence you could point to?
- Is the strength tied to a real task?
- Is the next step something the student can do next month?
- Would a family know one way to help?