The envelope is on the counter. Math dropped. The comment on writing is two sentences you keep rereading. The other parent will hear about this from the child, or from you, or from a photo of the paper in a thread. A photo is a file you cannot take back. A verdict in the first line is a fight.
Send the marks. Separate your read. Ask for one thing, or ask for nothing.
Grades are stated. Your story is not.
Write the card as a table in prose:
- each class, the mark, the effort line if there is one
- the teacher comments you are treating as quoted — say if you are shortening
- the school's next date (conference, retest, the support meeting)
Then your column, labeled. State assumptions:
- Your read — that math needs a tutor, that the writing comment is about homework not talent, that Friday nights are the problem.
- Inferred by the assistant — any causal leap the model made from your venting. Your AI has opinions that are not yours. "This pattern usually means…" is not the card.
A briefing already keeps those labels honest. The note you approve is your sentence about what you want to do, in your words.
Do not attach the PDF. Do not send a photo of the card. List the marks. If they want the school's file, they get it from the portal or they ask you. A report card in a thread is a report card in a thread.
Decide whether you need a reply
If you are informing them, say so: no reply needed. That is an FYI, and it is allowed.
If you need a decision — tutor yes or no, conference Tuesday yes or no — close the list and put the ask at the top. "Thoughts on the card?" is how you get a speech about the teacher and silence on Tuesday.
A sufficient decision reply is "tutor, I'll split it" or "I'll take the conference." One line.
Leave last term's argument in last term. The briefing is this card.
They may only read email, and you still cut the verdict
You approve the send. The draft that opens "as I expected" gets rewritten until it opens with math and writing. Your private name for them stays off the page.
They need no account. Email and a link. If they already have a RelayLink account, you need an accepted contact. A reply is how you know they have it. A fetched link is not a read. You will not see whether they have already praised the child for science, which is on the card and easy to skip if you only sent your worry.
When the next envelope is sitting in a session, connect your assistant and send the marks and a labeled read, instead of a photo and a verdict.