Y1 DD told not to use abbreviations in writing. Why?

[Bluewednesday]

My DD is in Y1. She is quite capable writer, has good spelling, uses her capital letters and full stops correctly. She recently started using abbreviations in her writing when at home (wasn't, didn't). When I pointed out to her that she used them correctly she noted that her teached told her not to use them, as 'they are only for adults'. These are her words, and I realise that she might have misunderstood the teacher. It makes me wonder though. We have parents evening coming soon, and I want to ask the teacher what she meant, but don't want to look stupid in case it's something really obvious. Why would she not want my DD to use them in her writing?Does anyone have any ideas?

Because unless she is using them in direct speech as part of a story, she is probably being encouraged to get into the habit of using a formal register in her writing for school.

I suspect that it is easier to teach children to write formally and then relax the 'rules' for specific writing tasks, than to allow them to write colloquially and suddenly have to up their game.

"She recently started using abbreviations in her writing when at home (wasn't, didn't)."

The examples you have given aren't abbreviations ... so did the teacher say don't use those words or don't use abbreviations?

She told her not to use those words. Sorry English is not my first language, I got mixed up.
Should I just encourage her to use ' do not', 'was not' instead?

They're called contractions and, yes, your dd will be being encouraged to use formal writing where it's appropriate and to save contractions for informal writing (like on an internet forum!) and reported speech. They would also include things like 'let's' for 'let us' etc so don't think of just the ''t' words.

Sounds like she's writing really well, though, so her teacher is just building further on her attainment so far.

I'm at a loss to see why contractions are considered "informal". Unless children are preparing legal documents, where typically contractions are frowned upon, then using contractions is a perfectly normal way to express yourself.

They're a kind of shorthand. Does the child necessarily know which letters have been replaced by the apostrophe?

don't - do not
won't - where does the o come from?

learnandsay won't - would not.

When I was at school in the fifties, we were taught to write formally: "shall not" rather than "shan't", "you are" rather than "you're"; unless we were quoting speech.

No potential employer will mark you down for writing formally on a job application. Some may mark you down for writing informally. Getting into the habit early will help her in the future.

More or less, yes. I think won't is a contraction of will not rather than would not. The OED gives it thus: a. Colloq. contraction of woll not = will not (see will v.1 Forms 6b).

woll being a now defunct verb (to will)

We've just had parents evening for Y1 dd and her teacher was explaining that they discourage use of contractions in Y1 as it's covered later on. She did say, however that dd is using apostrophes correctly for possession and contraction, plus accurately using speechmarks, commas, semicolons etc so instead of discouraging it, they're actively teaching them to her and encouraging it. They do as a rule, however, prefer to leave them until later while they focus on other stuff. It might be worth you establishing exactly why they're discouraging it.

lady in pink won't is a contraction of will not not would not. The o comes from older english forms of will. There has been use of willn't in old literature though its unused now. Would not contracts to wouldn't.

Cross post!

But that pretty much gives a reason for teachers to discourage them in daily writing because in several cases the children won't know what they're actually writing.

You would be expected to write out in full in (for example) GCSE/A Level essays. You would not put 'The structure of the poem isn't typical of Tennyson', but write '....is not typical...'

...Ditto for any formal letter or correspondence (including email) or job application form or formal journalism. Certainly not just legal contracts.

...It's fine to use contractions on an internet forum, though, as this is the written down equivalent of speech/conversation!

So basically, what everyone's saying is that it's good practice to establish a formal writing style at first, which can then be relaxed later. That seems pretty sound.