To red pen this and send it back?

[nevermindthecrocodiles]

DD came home today with the half term newsletter - which informed me that she's been learning about "the country Africa" and that "homework will now be handed in on Thursday's"

I know this topic has been done to death but this kind of thing drives me mental!

[WorraLiberty]

YABU as that would probably come across as rude and stroppy

I'd take a copy in and show it to the Head

Personal touch is probably best.

[SrirachaGhoul]

Do it. However you should prepare yourself for the fact that all future interactions with your child's teacher may be distinctly frosty .

[Cahoots]

My DC's Grade One (Canadien) teacher asked him what the Capital City of Africa was. She did not believe my DS when he pointed out that Africa didn't actually have a Capital City. Silly moo!

[AitchDee]

No.

You will look like a twat.

[MsVestibule]

I would raise this. Well, I'd want to, but not sure if I had the guts.

If a child is being taught that Africa is a country and very basic punctuation rules aren't followed, it doesn't reflect very well on the teaching standards in the school. If I was the head, I'd want to know.

[Elderflowergranita]

I would definitely raise it with the school, but would do it in person, as Worra said.

Would drive me mental too!

[Nanny0gg]

You have got to mention it. The apostrophe is bad, but to teach that Africa is a country is pretty poor.
What year group?

[Elderflowergranita]

Aitch: so avoiding 'looking like a twat' is more important than your child learning fundamental geography and grammar?

[kige]

Why don't you red pen it, put it in an envelope addressed to the head and post it to the school anonymously ?

It'll cost you a stamp but you will get your point across without pissing the teacher off yourself.

[picnicbasketcase]

A display in reception class showing the children doing role play about shops says they waited in a que. I really wanted to get a pen and add the missing letters.

[Hulababy]

Head would have proof read in our school.
Typing would have been done by school admin/secretary.

You have no idea who the error was by.

Is it a one off or all the time?

Why not just speak to the teacher face to face rather than the passive aggressive red pen and in an envelope approach?

[nevermindthecrocodiles]

I don't think i'm brave enough! Although we have some holiday homework to do on Africa, so at least DD will know it's a continent...maybe I should put it down to an honest end-of-term exhaustion mistake! SrirachaGhoul what happened with you? Please tell me i'm not the only one who always ends discussions with the teacher feeling like a chastised child!

[Startailoforangeandgold]

I think red pen is justified.

I always spell que like that, fortunately autocorrect red lines it

[Hulababy]

I have never felt like the child when speaking with a teacher.
If I have an issue I speak to them direct and face to face.

I have been a teacher. I still work in schools. I would hope I was never unapproachable.

[apostropheuse]

I don't think I would mark it with a red pen.

Perhaps a highlighter though?

Seriously, though, it's quite shocking that a teacher would not know how to use an apostrophe. Africa being a country ... speechless there.

You could maybe discreetly point the mistakes out to the head teacher.

[Startailoforangeandgold]

Trouble is teachers do get huffy when wrong.

[RunningInFlipflops]

We occasionally get typos in our newsletter. Not sure you could class Africa as a country as a typo? Red pen it!

[80sMum]

Don't do it anonymously. Write a letter to the Head, enclosing the newsletter and explaining your concerns. Request a meeting with the Head to discuss it. It is appalling that the school allowed the letter to go out to parents without it having first been checked and proofread.

[nevermindthecrocodiles]

I think i'll be a total wuss and see if any of the other parents speak up first! Just shown it to DD and asked her what was wrong on the page, and she identified the parts that were wrong, so i'm guessing that either it wasn't written by her teacher, or it was an unintentional mistake. First time this has happened though TBF!

[Elderflowergranita]

Why not show it to the Head and ask that your name not be mentioned?

Ds1 had a teacher a few years ago who was deemed to be below par by many parents.

I was really unaware of that at the time as Ds was, and is a bit of a self starter.

I recently came across a project he had done in her class, which she had complimented him on with the phrase "You obviously did alot of work on this".

Had I seen this now, I would definitely be bringing it to the Head's attention.

[whathasthecatdonenow]

Why can't people just speak to their DC's teachers? We are humans, you know. Would you like your errors at work posted to your boss anonymously?

Where I work the newsletter is most certainly not put together by the teacher, so perhaps finding out who actually wrote it first and then pointing it out to that person would be a more humane approach?

[Hulababy]

Why on earth would you go to the head over something like this? Speak to the teacher! Any half decent head would only direct you to the class teacher int he first instance anyway!

[Hulababy]

Startailoforangeandgold - not in my experience. They get huffy if given circles red penned sheets or people go straight to the head; not so if parents actually just speak to them face to face like grown ups!

[WorraLiberty]

You don't need to be 'brave'...the Head will want to know these things.

Feedback from parents is always appreciated whether it's good or bad.

When my DS was in year 2 he came out with a homework sheet that had five questions about their favourite toy.

One of the questions was, "How old was you when you got this toy?"

I turned around and took it straight to the Head who was standing in the playground and she was furious! She looked at it and said, "Oh heads will roll over this believe me...thank you!"

Her anger was reassuring

[Fakebook]

Cahoots, if she didn't believe him, then what did she think the capital of Africa was? Maybe she was talking about South Africa and your DS misunderstood?