questions to ask at first parent's evening?

[helsy]

Well, it's not so much an evening as a fifteen minute slot with the class teacher. There are 28 children in the class (a state school, clearly). Rightly or wrongly, I want to know how dd1 is doing against benchmarks - be they other children or government basic standards - as well as how she gets on with others and if she seems happy. Clearly I have my own ideas for questions but any others would be welcomed. Oh - did I mention parents evening is in an hour and a half?
Thanks!

The teacher should have some basic information about how your dd is doing against certain criteria, or at least where they are with respect to what is expected. She should also tell you about how your dd has settled in. In 15 mins that is about enough TBH. I have just had my 2nd parents evening and it was really useful in that she was able to give ne dd's 'reading age' and a general report for maths. She showed me her writing and explained what they will be working on next too

i think your questions sound very reasonable and sensible - after all, those two areas (social and academic) are the main areas that any parents and teacher should be concerned with. Don't be too worried about national benchmarks and academic achievements at this stage (I'm assuming she's only been there a month or so). This will be more of a settling in parents' evening. More important at this stage (academically speaking) is the comparison between your dd and the others in her class. Good luck!

Don't get too hung up on dd's position in the class. Not to say that isn't important but she has only been at school half a term, and a lot of that time will have been spent socialising and adjusting to school routines. If she is young for her year (ie born April to August) she may take a year or more to establish her true position within the class. Your questions about how she gets on with the others and how settled she seems are possibly the more important questions.

Thanks everyone for the advice - meeting lasted nearly an hour(teacher, not us!) and covered both dd's educational and social development.