Another apostrophe question for my essay.

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

2 schools. 1 policy each. Which is the correct sentence (I am thinking the first)

The schools' approach to bullying, which has been previously discussed also has an impact on the achievement of this outcome.

The school's approach to bullying, which has been previously discussed also has an impact on the achievement of this outcome.

[Yourefired]

First.

[SweetestThing]

First. You also need another comma after 'discussed'.

[BIWI]

Yep - the first is correct, because you are talking about the schools (the subject), and the approach that belongs to those schools. If you went with the second one, you would mean that you were talking about the approach of one school.

The apostrophe is used to show the possessive of a plural noun. In this instance, because the noun ends in an s, you don't use another s, which you would normally - e.g. child/children:

The child's approach to ...
The children's approach to ...

Your plural noun following this would actually be:

The schools's approach to ...

But because it sounds so clumsy, convention is that you drop the last s.

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

TY, comma added. Essay printing. Phew.

[BIWI]

Sorry, that was a bit long-winded, but hope it was helpful!

[ChopstheDuck]

shouldn't it be the schools' approaches to bullying though if they have a policy each?

Sounds like two schools one policy, rather than two schools with a policy each.

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

hit...yes you are probably right

Should be

The schools' approaches to bullying, which have been previously discussed also have an impact on the achievement of this outcome.

[SweetestThing]

...don't forget your comma!!!!

[ChopstheDuck]

Yeah that sounds better to me!

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

Done and printed. I'm not changing it now (but have put in changes suggested) so please don't come back and tell me i have made any glaring errors!

[WMittens]

Surely if they each have their own (different) approach, it should be:

"The schools' approaches to bullying, which have been previously discussed, also have an impact on the achievement of this outcome."


And, should it be, "...previously discussed..." or "...discussed previously..."?

[HauntedLittleLunatic]

It's handed in now so please don't spot any more mistakes.

I have done as per your first example.