Grade 1 does not get a number. Under DepEd Order No. 15, s. 2026, the youngest learners are reported descriptively — through the PACE Form and the Learner’s Progress Report — and a Grade 1 teacher who tries to fill out a numerical report card is working with the wrong form entirely.
This guide covers what the two documents are, what descriptive reporting asks you to observe and record, and how to write comments that parents can actually use.
The 10-second answer: Grade 1 uses descriptive reporting, not numerical grades: the PACE Form records the learner’s progress against expectations, and the Learner’s Progress Report is the card that goes home. There are no academic awards at Grade 1. Your evidence is classroom observation collected through the term, not a stack of scored tests.
Why Grade 1 is treated differently
A percentage implies a precision that does not exist for a six-year-old learning to read. Early primary learning moves in bursts, is heavily context-dependent, and is badly represented by a single number that parents will inevitably compare with the child next door. Descriptive reporting says what the learner can do and what comes next — which is the information a parent can act on.
It also changes what you collect during the term. Instead of accumulating scores, you accumulate observations: what the learner did, when, and with how much support.
The two documents
| Document | What it is | Who reads it |
|---|---|---|
| PACE Form | The record of the learner’s progress against expectations across the areas being observed | Teacher and school, with the report card |
| Learner’s Progress Report | The report card that goes home each term, in descriptive form | Parents and guardians |
Both are prescribed forms with their own annexes in DO 15. Use your school’s current copies; a form from an earlier year will not match this year’s structure.
Collecting evidence you can actually report
The hardest part of descriptive reporting is not the writing. It is arriving at grading week with something specific to write about thirty-five children. Three habits make the difference:
- Observe on a rotation. Five or six learners per day, deliberately, rather than trying to notice everyone at once. Over three weeks everyone is covered twice.
- Write down the behaviour, not the judgement. “Read CVC words aloud without prompting, 8 of 10” is usable three weeks later. “Doing well” is not. Fixing your descriptors in advance is the same discipline as building a rubric for a performance task, and it makes the writing at grading week far quicker.
- Note the support level. Independently, with a prompt, or with sustained help — this is often the clearest signal of progress from one term to the next, and it is exactly what parents want to know.
Keep it short. A line per learner per observation is enough, and the point is that the line exists.
Writing comments parents can use
A good descriptive comment does three things in three sentences: names a specific strength, names one next step, and suggests one thing that helps at home. Avoid comparative language entirely — no “one of the better readers”, no class rankings, no percentiles.
Weak: “Good performance this term. Keep it up.”
Better: “Reads simple CVC words on her own and is beginning to blend longer words with a prompt. Next, she is working on reading short sentences without stopping at each word. Ten minutes of reading aloud at home, with time to finish each sentence, will help.”
The second version takes barely longer to write once the observation notes exist — which is the argument for the notes.
Three phrases worth retiring
- “Needs improvement” without saying in what — it worries parents without directing them.
- “Average” — a comparison in a report that is not supposed to compare.
- “Lazy”, “slow”, “naughty” — character verdicts, not observations, and they follow a child through a file.
What Grade 1 does not have
- No numerical grades on the progress report.
- No academic awards. Academic Excellence starts later — optional at Grades 2–3 and full from Grade 4. Recognition at Grade 1 is about character, effort, and participation. See awards and recognition under DO 15.
- No transmutation table to apply, because there is no initial grade to transmute.
Attendance still appears on the report, and the same thresholds apply — see attendance rules on the report card.
The grading-week sequence for Grade 1
- Gather the term’s observation notes per learner and group them by area.
- Complete the PACE Form from those notes, area by area.
- Write the descriptive comments for the progress report: strength, next step, home support.
- Add attendance from your daily record.
- Read three cards at random aloud before printing. Anything that sounds like a verdict rather than a description gets rewritten.
- Print, check names against your class list, and release through your school’s process.
For how this fits the wider term calendar, see the three-term school year and the assessment calendar — the assessment timing matters less at Grade 1, but the submission dates are the same for everyone.
Frequently asked questions
Do I keep a class record at all for Grade 1?
You keep a record of evidence — observations, work samples, and the outcomes you use to complete the PACE Form. It is not a weighted numerical record, and it should not become one by accident.
What do I tell a parent who asks for a number?
That Grade 1 reports describe what the child can do rather than scoring it, and then answer the real question behind theirs — where the child is strong and what comes next. Parents asking for a number usually want reassurance, not arithmetic.
Does Grade 1 have a general average?
No. There are no numerical final grades to average, which is also why there are no academic awards at this level.
What about Grades 2 and 3?
They are graded numerically, and Academic Excellence may be given at the school’s choice. The descriptive approach in this guide is specific to Grade 1.
Where Skoolari fits
Skoolari’s DepEd mode has a Grade 1 page of its own rather than a numerical record with the numbers hidden. It keeps your descriptive records per learner, builds the PACE Form and the Learner’s Progress Report for each child, carries attendance onto the report, and prints both as editable, ready-to-print files under your own school header — with classroom recognition for character and participation handled separately from the academic awards Grade 1 does not have. Teachers with more than one section can print the whole set in a single file. See the plans.
Use your school’s current copies of the PACE Form and the Learner’s Progress Report, and check the areas and descriptors against this year’s issuance before completing them.