TEACHERS have been told to stop using educational jargon when they communicate with parents.

The call comes in new guidance which aims to free up classroom teachers from bureaucracy and unnecessary paperwork.

The statement from Education Scotland follows concern that school reports and classroom discussions at parents' evenings are conducted in professional language unfamiliar to families.

For example, school reports sometimes track pupils' progress with terms such as "developing", "consolidating" or "secure" which the guidance says should no longer be used.

It states: "Do not spend time writing long reports for parents which describe lots of classwork or use professional jargon.

"Reporting to parents should highlight latest progress, identify next steps in learning and... highlight ways in which parents can support their child's progress."

The guidance goes on to provide practical advice for teachers on how to reduce their workload to free up more time for teaching. It calls on staff not to spend too long on repetitive assessment activities and to stop writing overly-long plans or evaluations.

And it says all staff should keep their focus on improvements in literacy and numeracy as well as the health and wellbeing of pupils.

The guidance was deemed necessary after teaching unions complained the roll-out of the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) reforms had led to a "deluge" of advice and guidance which left classroom teachers confused over priorities.

John Swinney, the Education Secretary - who asked Education Scotland to produce the new guidance - said some teachers had felt it necessary to produce "whole files" of assessment material for each pupil, which was unnecessary.

He said: "In the short period in which I have been in post I have been taking measures to simplify and clarify the experience of teachers and reduce the burden of bureaucracy. The guidance is designed to do that across the whole of Scottish education."

Mr Swinney stressed the focus on reducing workload for secondary teachers which has increased with the introduction of new exams would be continuing.

Bill Maxwell, chief executive of Education Scotland, said the introduction of CfE had led to an "unintentional increase" in workload as a variety of different guidance had built up.

He said: "This is a step towards addressing those issues by stripping this right back to provide a single source of very clear guidance that, if followed by teachers, will help reduce clutter."

The move was welcomed by Joanna Murphy, chair of the National Parent Forum of Scotland, who said reporting to parents should be clear and concise.

She said: "Teachers have to remember parents are not education specialists and they want a realistic view of their children's progress in layman's terms and practical examples how they can help.

"When professional terms are being used as a legitimate part of a discussion then teachers need to make sure parents understand them before the discussion takes place."

Eileen Prior, executive director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, added: "We have always said communication with parents needs to be clear and written in non-technical language.

"The curriculum is full of jargon that most people don’t understand. What parents want to know is how their child is doing, what is going well, whether there are any concerns and what can they do to help."

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, welcomed the guidance, but struck a note of caution.

He said: "Turning rhetoric into reality remains the challenge. We need to see concrete change in our schools with clear results sooner rather than later and the issue of excessive assessment in secondary remains to tackled."

And the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association said it would press ahead with a ballot for industrial action on reducing teacher workload.

Seamus Searson, the union's general secretary, said workload was unlikely to be significantly reduced in the current school session - especially in the area of new qualifications.

There was also criticism from opposition politicians who said the guidance was "obvious" and would do nothing to improve standards.

Liz Smith, the Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman, said parents were seeing "lots of warm words", but "no sign of improving educational standards across the board".

Iain Gray, Scottish Labour’s education spokesman, added: "We welcome an attempt to reduce teacher workload. Unfortunately, patronising platitudes are unlikely to cut teacher workload."