'Andrew has attempted to learn French through osmosis. The experiment has failed'

We've all had school reports saying we could try harder but imagine a teacher telling your parents they hope not to see you back in class next term.

Or that they can only "hope and pray" for your future.

Today is the last day of term and most schools have issued children's mid-year reports knowing teachers' general comments will get as much attention as the grades children have achieved.

Principals told RNZ remarks about excessive talking or misbehaviour were likely to be remembered and passed on through the decades.

Maree, a sixth-former at Nelson Girls College in the early 1960s was on the receiving end of one of those memorable comments.

She found history a bit of a drag and her teacher responded as follows.

"It said 'Maree should marry a farmer'," she recalled.

That teacher was my grandfather, John Gerritsen, and Maree didn't marry a farmer - she married his nephew becoming Maree Gerritsen.

She also became a teacher herself and said in her reports she always tried to say something good about her pupils.

"I wrote nice things actually to encourage the children, take the best points of them," she said.

It seems my grandfather wasn't the only teacher making dodgy comments in reports - these beauties date from the 1980s and 1990s:

"Andrew has attempted to learn French through osmosis. The experiment has failed."

"Natalie produces excellent work in her own time. Tends to be distracted easily by the butterflies."

"Denise cries when faced with a challenge."

"He is too easily led by any other child who wishes to create a disturbance in class time," wrote another teacher. "Time to knuckle down," added the principal.

Education Minister Erica Stanford couldn't recall the contents of her reports, but Associate Education Minister David Seymour recalls one teacher observing that his hand-eye ball coordination needed work.

Green Party education spokesperson Lawrence Xu-Nan said reports described him as diligent and hard-working, though a teacher in China said he was easily distracted.

Albany Primary School principal Maree Bathurst said she warned her staff that the general comments they wrote might be remembered for a long time.

She shares a report of her own as an example.

"My standard three teacher said, 'if Maree talked less and listened more, she'd achieve greater results'. Mum and Dad said 'Yes, we knew you were a chatterbox'," Bathurst said.

She said she advised her teachers to write parent-friendly reports and to focus on children's achievements, not their shortcomings.

"Just think about someone in your family who's not in education. Are you telling them what's important, what can a child do? What are their next steps and always that general comment always look to the positive. Because we've all got someone in our family who had "Joe Bloggs will never achieve"," she said.

Burnside High School principal Scott Haines said teachers are probably a lot more careful about what they write in reports than they used to be.

For all the laughs about scathing put-downs and colourful comments, Haines said teachers' observations could have a lasting effect.

"Many students years later, even decades later, can be scarred by comments that teachers have either made to them or placed in reports in about them, essentially forming judgements about their future," he said.

"As professionals we need to be really attuned to that and follow the principle of firstly do no harm and secondly add value where you can."