School report

Parents evening.

In theory it's great to hear how your child is doing and in secondary school it's a rare opportunity to meet the teachers, but it's such a brief moment in which to get a handle on what really goes on after your child leaves the house each day.

You attempt to interpret the coded language used to describe your little darling while the teachers try to impart some sometimes painful truths amid the reassuring praise. And as you use your alloted few minutes with each teacher and try to get the measure of each of them, they in turn try to get the measure of you. It's a merry dance.

All the way round you clutch a piece of paper printed with a set of very confusing grades that seem totally different to last time and are a jumble of numbers (that go up the better they are) and letters (that go down the better they are), combined with expected targets and progress summaries that you know from past experience are subjective and based on different measures by different teachers on different days when they're in different moods.

You lurch from favourite subject to worst and funniest teacher to dullest, while trying to remember that school isn't everything, but on the other hand reminding your child that education matters more than anything else in this increasingly competitive world.

Unless your child is super-clever and devoted to their school work the whole evening is a tightrope walk between bolstering your child, praising when you can but also making sure she heeds the messages given to her by each of her teachers.

I did quite well at school - not that I was especially clever, but I liked working and the competition wasn't very fierce; so I find it difficult to read "satisfactory" on a school report, never mind "serious cause for concern".

Shit.

After a worried hasty walk straight to the Geography teacher's table we discovered that the issue was poor attendance due to her being taken out for too many extra-curricular activities. Teachers borrow her for school tours, special trips and even to help interview prospective teachers, because they regard her as an ambassador for the school. All great experiences and a credit to her but not when they take her away from lessons too often. So we sought out her form tutor and year head and between us sorted a sensible (we hope) course of action. In short she now has two PAs.

Eventually, after we roller-coastered ourselves around the school corridors and ticked all the teachers off our list; we were spat out, relieved and largely pleased, into the chilly night.

Phew. Until next time.

Incidentally this is not her school. This is.

Have added this to Sarum Stroller's Derelict Thursday challenge for which - thanks.