School Levels

In line with everything else Aussie, school standards are not so well defined and levels of knowledge required of students are not shared with the students and their parents. You guessed already that I had the parent-teacher conference today! I will explain now what I mean by these obscure levels of knowledge. There are normally two years in one level, for example, Fifth and Sixth Grades, which are called Year Five and Year Six here, are part of Level Four. In general, students learn new things in the first year and deepen their knowledge in the second year of the level. But how much Math and what level of vocabulary and reading are set for this level, who knows? I always ask what is required for a kid to know at the end of Year 5 or at the end of the first semester of Year 5, but I, as a parent, cannot be told. Another important issue I discovered today is that the average is a C, is what you are expected. Above that are B and then A, but when I asked what my daughter should know to get an A next semester, I could only be told that she has to be at least one year ahead in her knowledge, as if time is what measures it. So my daughter's A in reading (she is in the middle of Year 5) means that she reads at the level expected of a Year 6 student at the end of the first semester. My question is really about how can a parent motivate a kid (yes, I am that kind of parent) to achieve "more" when the kid doesn't and cannot know WHAT to achieve to get there... It's not explained anywhere and the school does not disclose any of that information. (Sigh) In the picture, what I imagine a Year 5 butcher bird looks like, but I may be wrong. Anyway, this little bird liked our tree and like other birds, just posed for me for a long time...