Conference Reports: A Complete Guide for Teachers
Build, fill in, review and send end-of-term progress reports to parents, from choosing a template to the moment a parent opens the report.
Where to find it: Learning & Progress → Conference Reports
How it all fits together
A conference report is one child's report for one reporting period. It is built from a template and sent to that child's parents. Three building blocks are involved, and each lives on its own tab under Learning & Progress → Conference Reports.
Building block | Tab | Made by | How many |
Template: the layout (sections, auto-filled blocks, photo areas) | Templates | Admin, once per age group | One per age group |
Term: a reporting period that pairs a template with rooms and dates | Terms | Admin or lead teacher, once per period | One per period (or one annual term with several periods) |
Report: a child's draft, filled in and sent | Dashboard | Each teacher | One per child per term |
The whole flow: Add a term → Generate drafts → fill in each child's draft → (review) → Send to parents. Steps 1 to 3 are done once. Step 4 is repeated for every child.
Step 1: Templates (admin, once per age group)
A template is the blank layout that every child's report is poured into. Pick one before creating a term. You rarely need to touch it afterwards.
The Templates tab. "Your templates" is empty until you save one; the "Montessori starters" below are ready to use.
Open the Templates tab. Under Montessori starters you'll find ready-made layouts by age band: Infant / Nido (0–18 months), Toddler (1.5–3), Primary (3–6) and Elementary (6–12). There are also Mid-Term Snapshot, Portfolio & Moments and Lesson List layouts.
To use a starter as-is, do nothing here. You choose it when you add the term (Step 2).
To adapt one, open it, add or remove sections (Observations, Skills, Moments, A Note for the Family…), and set which blocks auto-fill from records. Then press Save as template. It now appears under Your templates. + New template starts from a blank page.
Multi-term starters. The Term Report Card starters are marked MULTI-TERM. One card fills across every period of an annual term, so you don't need a separate template for each period.
What belongs in a template vs. a child's report
In the template (shared by every child) | In the child's report (one child only) |
Section headings and their order | The photos picked from that child's gallery |
Which blocks auto-fill (observations, skills, attendance) and how far back they look | Captions, the note to the family, teacher comments |
Signature line, date line, school branding | The signature itself |
Careful: a photo or note added while editing a template shows up in every child's report. Put child-specific content in the child's own draft (Step 4).
Step 2: Terms (once per reporting period)
A term says which template, for which rooms, covering which dates. Drafts can only be generated against a term.
The Terms tab lists each term with its rooms, template, date range and who created it. Add term and Add annual term sit at the top right.
Open Terms and press Add term.
Name the reporting period (for example "Fall 2026"). Pick the template for the age group, choose the rooms, and set the date range. Auto-filled blocks pull in observations and progress recorded inside these dates.
For a year with several reporting periods, use Add annual term instead. It creates one annual term with its periods, paired with a multi-term report card template. The same card then fills period by period.
Terms can be edited or deleted from the icons in the row's Actions column.
Require a review before sending
The switch at the top of the Terms tab turns the review step on or off. It is a school-wide setting, so it applies to every teacher and every term.
Switch | What happens to a finished draft |
Off | The teacher can send it to parents directly. |
On | The teacher sends it for review. Someone with publish rights approves it (or sends it back) before it can go to parents. See Step 5. |
Step 3: Generate drafts (Dashboard)
Generating creates one draft per child from the term's template, with the auto-filled blocks already populated from each child's records.
The Dashboard: term and classroom selectors, six status tiles, the child list, and the Generate button.
Open Dashboard. Choose the Reporting term at the top, and a Classroom if you only want one room.
Press Generate N drafts. The number on the button is how many children don't have a draft yet.
Every child in the term's rooms now appears in the list with a status. The six tiles above the list (Not started · Draft · Needs changes · In review · Approved · Sent) show how far the room has got.
Re-generating
Children who already have a draft are skipped, so it is safe to press Generate again after new children join. Tick Replace existing drafts for this term only when you want to throw those drafts away and start again from the template.
Anything typed into replaced drafts is lost. Leave the box unticked unless you truly want a fresh start.
A child who should not get a report
If a child left mid-term or joined last week, open the row's menu (⋮) and mark the report not required. This keeps the tiles and the send list accurate.
Step 4: Fill in a child's draft (teacher, per child)
Open the child's row on the Dashboard by clicking the icon in the Next step column. This is the only place a child's own content goes.
Auto-filled blocks. Observations, skills and progress for the term's dates are already there. Review them. If something is wrong, fix it in the child's records, not by retyping it here.
Moments. Choose Choose from gallery to open that child's photos and pick the ones for the report. Click a photo to write its caption.
A Note for the Family / teacher's comments. Type this child's comments. The AI assistant can rephrase or expand from what you've written.
Sign. Sign as records your name and the date on the report. Each draft is signed on its own.
Preview and print. Preview shows the parent's view. Print / Save PDF gives a file for the conference itself.
The draft saves in place. You can close it and come back any time while it is still a Draft. What you do next depends on the review setting:
Review offGo to Send to parents (Step 6).
Review onGo to Send for review (Step 5).
Heads up: opening a report that is already In review or Approved for editing sends it back to Draft first. It then has to be submitted (and approved) again.
Step 5: Review (only when "Require a review before sending" is on)
Review puts a second pair of eyes between the teacher and the parent. The reviewer is anyone with publish rights for reports, typically the head of school or lead guide.
Teacher
When the draft is finished, press Send for review. Status becomes In review and the draft locks.
If it returns as Needs changes, open it, read the reviewer's note, fix the draft and send for review again.
Reviewer
On the Dashboard, filter the tiles to In review.
Open the report and read it as a parent would (Preview).
Approve → status Approved, ready to send.
Or Request changes → a note is required ("What should change?") → Send back with note → status Needs changes.
Batch reviewing. Several reports can be reviewed in one sitting. Decisions are collected per child, and the approved ones can be sent together at the end.
Step 6: Send to parents
Sending is done from the Dashboard, for one report or many at once. It is queued: you choose now or a date and time, and the queue delivers each report and flips its status to Sent. Once a parent opens it, the status becomes Viewed.
On the Dashboard, select the reports to send: Approved ones when review is on, Draft ones when it is off. Then press Send to parents.
Confirm at Send this report?. To send later (the evening before conferences, say), pick a schedule time. Pending sends are listed above the table until they run, and can be cancelled there.
The result shows what was scheduled and what was skipped, with a reason. A report is skipped if it was edited after it was approved, or isn't in a sendable status. Fix it, re-approve if needed, and send again.
After sending. A sent report is the parent's copy. Editing it again means going back through Draft → (review) → Send. Print / Save PDF on any report gives the paper copy for the conference itself.
Statuses at a glance
A report reaches parents only as Sent, with or without a review. Seven states, review optional.
With review off, a draft goes straight to Sent. With it on, it passes through In review and Approved, or comes back as Needs changes until it is fixed.
Who moves the status | Status they control |
Teacher | Draft |
Reviewer | In review (to Approved or Needs changes) |
Send queue | Sent |
Parent | Viewed |
Common mistakes
What people do | What happens | Do this instead |
Add a child's photos or notes on the Templates tab | They appear in every child's report (or get saved into the template) | Open the child's row on the Dashboard and add them there |
Press Generate drafts again with Replace existing drafts ticked | Every draft for the term is rebuilt from the template; typed content is gone | Leave the box unticked. Children with a draft are skipped |
Edit a report that is In review or Approved | It drops back to Draft and must be re-submitted and re-approved | Finish edits before sending for review |
Send without choosing the right Reporting term | Drafts for the wrong term are generated or sent | Check the term selector at the top of the Dashboard first |
Wonder why an auto-filled block is empty | The term's date range has no records for that child | Record the observation or skill in the child's records; the block fills itself |
Send a report and then fix a typo | The parent already has the first version | Use Preview before sending; print the PDF for the conference itself |