Trefdraeth,
This is quite interesting actually, I have always wondered if schools teach in slightly different orders to others. I can't remember whether I did flapless approaches before first solo but I defeintely did NOT cover short field landings before first solo. Maybe this was because the training field I fly from has a reasonable size runway?. I can't see a need to have covered these exercises (except if flying Cessnas where the flaps are electrical and could fail) before flying the first solo circuit. Afterwards yes but not before.
Regards,
Simon