As an actual science teacher, molding the tender minds of this great nation's acne ridden youth, I can assure you all that retrograde planetary motion is neither here nor there. Most school masters are far more concerned with getting them to understand that it is in fact the Sun that is at the centre of the solar system and not them nor their cousin nor indeed their absent mother.

Retrograde or otherwise it is not something that they are assessed on in their recent NATs, I hope this puts all your minds at rest. As long as your "friend's" no doubt delightful daughter scrawled her name and a sentence involving the words axis and orbit she will surely have achieved the much coveted NAT level of 5.