Are you meant to know what your child is talking about when they tell you about their school?

[ShinyAndNew]

Because I am a bad, bad mother and I don't a clue. I have been to the parents evenings. i speak to her teacher, I liaise with her inclusion officer (she has had some troubles with going to school). I still don't have a clue.

This morning she says "Oh I forgot to tell you I am on 2a now. My first Little Red Riding Hood was only small, but my Jesus one was really big so then I did Red Riding Hood again and copied off my story and it was really good and long, so now I am on 2a"

Hmm, that's very nice, but wtf is she talking about? What is 2a? She says it means she is 'climbing the ladder of success' again wtf is she talking about?

Not bad mother just normal one. If I even try to ask I get "Mummyeeeee, I told you this before" "no you didn't" "yes I did" end of conversation there I was thinking I had a 6 year old not a 16 year old.
However, mostly if you ask about school she says " I forgot". I think it's a default answer to get mummy off your back.
So now I treasure any little morsels I get regardless of how difficult they are to interpret.
I would guess climbing the ladder of success is improving yourself in you DDs case and I would just be delighted with the fact that she is pleased with herself.

Oh I did tell her well done. She is allowed to pick desert as a treat tonight for doing well. I just have a clue what she is talking about . It does sound promising though.

I guess 2a relates to her reading level (and they have a "ladder of success" to record it.

and the Little Red Riding hood and Jesus were stories she'd written.

I think you get used to hearing half a story and filling in the gaps!

If she's talking about story-writing, I guess 2a could be a national curriculum level for writing. But I'd be a bit if the teacher is telling her what level she's on. It's meant to be rather more discreet than that!

2a is a notch above average for the end of Year 2. How old is she? Would that make sense?

It makes me when DD1 comes home talking about her "learning objectives" for the day. She's only 7 for goodness sake! I'd be happy if her learning objectives were "keeping up while still having fun".

She is 6 and in yr 1, but the teacher did come running after me a few weeks ago to tell me how good she was at reading and writing, so it's possible that it is related to reading/writing. But if she was that good, surely they would want to discuss this with me??

I don't know how well they are meant to be able to read at this point, but dd1 can just read iyswim? She is reading Coraline atm. I feel all braggy now , but I have no idea if this is average or not? She is imaginative, but I wouldn't say she is gifted at writing. She still struggles with spelling and getting 'd' and 'b' the right way round.

Reading Coraline is definitely above average in reading for that age.

It's perfectly normal not to know what they are on about. Occasionally I probe gently but generally just look interested and nod intelligently.

OFSTED require the "learning objectives" for any exercise to be clearly stated up front, and you get marked down heavily if they aren't, so it's sadly something school have to do these days.