My job share teacher has poor spelling

My eldest’s teacher (primary KS2) is an absolute shocker for apostrophe usage and capitals in the middle of sentences. Every week she sets homework on Google Classroom and there are at least 5 mistakes in the two short paragraphs explaining what it is. She writes maths as math’s and Good afternoon as Good Afternoon for example, every time!

She’s completely lost all credibility.

This.

A friend of mine has been mentoring student teachers for years. For the past 5 or 6 years she has bemoaned the quality of trainees coming through for all manner of reasons - poor subject knowledge; no work ethic; lack of resilience. She says that there are teachers gaining QTS now who never would have done previously.

That's not to say they're all bad! I work with some incredible ECTs. Just that there are some getting through now who never would have done so previously.

This:

@Piglet89

My English degree, 2 X English MA degrees, and 15 years of teaching English are my sources.

We don't use 'me and them' in that context in English without a double preposition or just saying 'us'. It's a convention rather than a specific rule. It's like saying 'the black fat hairy cat' - in English we have a convention that places adjectives in a certain order, so you'd never say that phrase in that order, you'd say 'the fat hairy black cat'. It's an unwritten rule.

How would you speak with them? Tell them they're illiterate?!

@Frustratedteacher1 ok fair enough you're asking for advice, but seriously they are your teaching partner and if you can't speak with them, then that's a sorry state of affairs - teaching is all about team work. Going to a 'manager' might make things worse. As you've just said the head has form for making you feel like rubbish why would you want to potentially inflict that on someone else?

@Frustratedteacher1 I totally understand where you're coming from, both with the concern and with the worry about how it would go down. Personally, I don't think going in with a list of things that are wrong is going to endear you. By all means compile it and have it in reserve. But I would start softly softly.

As English Lead (and SLT), I would probably already have picked up on this after book looks, and spoken to the teacher concerned directly. It seems that this may not have been the case in your school though?

As a 'partner teacher' myself, I would absolutely HATE this! I would speak to SLT if I were you, and suggest that they offer support to the teacher concerned (how this support manifests is up to SLT, but in your shoes, I would have to insist that my marking is not judged alongside hers/his as a 'year group problem' and was judged solely as a 'partner teacher problem').

I feel for you as I've been in a similar situation, whereby I was 'lumped' with the other teacher and labelled as 'part of the problem', when in fact I had zero to do with it!! Wasn't even in on those days, and despite working in the same class, didn't really even know the other teacher, as we only ever met on training days 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Currently, the job isn't attractive, and people don't want to do it. So you don't get many good quality applicants. But the roles need to be filled, because all children in the uk are entitled to an education (rightly so). In order to fill the roles, you have to accept people who are maybe not getting roles in more attractive areas of work, or who want to teach but dont really have the necessary skill set i.e. people who you wouldn't even interview normally. It's straightforward economics really.

@EnidSpyton source?

“Were you speaking to Joe and I?”

””Do you think you think you could take Joe and I along?”

It’s like a foghorn to me.

If you take out the other person in the sentence, you can test if it's right to use me or I.

'Joe and me went to the shops.' Take away Joe, and you've got 'me went to the shops.' Obviously incorrect.

They gave the sweets to Joe and me' - take away Joe, and you've got 'they gave the sweets to me' - correct.

A lot of people have been taught to say 'and I' in all circumstances, just as a lot of people seem to have been taught to say 'myself' when not using reflexive verbs. 'Contact myself if you have any questions' - it's like someone sticking pins into my eyes!

The trick I was taught as a child is to remove the other person and see if the sentence still makes sense... "I" is usually the subject (at the start of the sentence) and "me" the object (towards the end of the sentence)

Subject and object have different rules. Many people get it wrong.

No it doesn't.

Indeed. 'To me and them' is grammatically incorrect and more oral, colloquial phrasing than something you'd actually use in written English. If you are using 'me and them', you need a double preposition as the only reason you'd be using me and them in this context is to emphasise the parity of the two groups of people involved.

If you weren't emphasising this difference, you'd just simplify it entirely by saying 'to both of us.'

In fairness, I'm guessing the removal wasn't for the teachers' sake? The teaching industry here needs anyone and everyone.

I'm from an Asian country where teachers are revered and earn more than most white-collar workers, and while I don't personally subscribe to teacher worship, it's quite surprising how teaching is seen as a bottom of the barrel profession here. Shit pay, poor working conditions (potentially also because of the state vs public school dichotomy), etc.

Surely 'Joe and I' would be correct in most instances? I was always corrected as a child if I ever said "...and me"

@EnglishBluebell nope: the single “to” does the job for both.

Surely that would be ....to me and to them?

Disagree - going to line manager first is not good for the team. I would feel quite put out if my colleagues ran off telling my line manager first, without giving me the opportunity to do something about it. Who knows why the work isn't up to standard etc. In teaching like this, they are suppose to be sharing the preparation so it isn't a big deal to raise the issue. In fact your line manager might even wonder why you felt you couldn't.

You compile a file that shows these errors.
you won’t actually need to say much. The spellings speak for themselves surely.