AIBU to expect my child's Year 1 teacher to spell correctly?

I have co just read about a secondary school where a third of the children who start are illiterate.

You are right to complain.

YANBU - that's appalling, but I'm not that surprised. My dc used to correct their primary school teachers' spelling!

This isn't new. My Mother was "that" parent way back in the early nineties when I was at school as my secondary school English teacher couldn't spell for toffee.

In his defence it was pre-desk top publishing of worksheets with spell checkers became routine. In retrospect I wonder if he was dyslexic. He was actually a really good classroom teacher and made English engaging to a very mixed bag of pupils.

In the end it became a running joke between him and my Mum and he enlisted her to proof read the school magazine for him.

My mother had very few academic qualifications but she was a ninja proofreader - she read every academic essay my siblings and I wrote for school and University. She also used to read workstuff for my Dad (engineer). She was a very good barometer to test if you had explained your concept well and my brother (barrister) was only bemoaning her loss a few weeks ago when he was toiling over a written opinion.

There's a private primary in my area which, at one time, was paying half the state school salary. I knew 2 or 3 teachers who worked there because it was easier, they came in just before school started and went home just after the pupils.

My DDs are adults now but I was one of those parents who did correct letters in red pen and send them back. It did not endear me to the admin person, but the Head did thank me.

To the poster who claimed that private school teachers earned more than their state school counterparts, please check because this is most definitely not always the case. I work in a (lovely) state secondary school. My new Head of Department came from a private school where he had been for the last 4 years as HoD. He actually received a pay rise when he joined us.

Primary teacher here. That's absolutely awful! I am not impressed at all. Or should I say, impresed. 😂

Why would Arctic and mercury appear in a 5 year old's spelling test?

I am begging you to please pull them up on this. Don’t let that monstrosity slide. We be? That's outrageous

@InscrutableFox sorry, I didn't mean for it to cone across that TAs didn't have the intelligence to spell properly! I've worked as a TA and most I've met are incredible... it was more a point to say I wouldn't be scrutinising a TAs spelling in the same way I would a teacher, who is paid much more than a TA.

mixture and nature are perfectly normal words for y1 and I assume they are learning the 'ture' sound.

I've taught Year 1 and every colleague I've worked with in my state school can spell those words and would be mortified at making basic spelling mistakes on a document that went to parents.

I'd be looking for a better school.

That's terrible. Human error is the odd typo on a worksheet or newsletter. All words on a spelling list, designed specifically for the purpose of teaching correct spelling, should be correct.

In defence of TAs:

I am one. I also hold the highest English qualifications in the school. We're not stupid people - just badly paid!

I work in a tough state primary, in a deprived area.

The vast majority of our parents do not read in English. A very large minority speak no English. There is almost no chance of parental complaint in this circumstance.

My head would rip strips off us if we sent home incorrect spellings to learn at home. I'd not be paying for that quality of teaching... You can get much better than that included in taxes.

My nieces teacher tried to insist the word don't was spelled do'nt.

I thought she was taking the piss at first but she was deadly serious. I put my head in my hands.

I wouldn’t be happy about that, and it is human error but it doesn’t take much to use a spelling checker. Just like how I’m crap at maths I’ll use a calculator and double and triple check I’ve got the right answer. Especially in an educational setting!

@Thatcannotberight I don't see the problem so much for TAs who get paid minimum wage and are expected to do so much. But from a teacher is shocking, just gives a 'can't be arsed' attitude!

This is so depressing. I am a career changer looking to start a PGCE next year and am having a confidence crisis before I've even begun. But if teachers can't even be bothered to check their spelling, the bar must be really low. If it keeps happening I'd mention it to someone more senior.

Well, I can tell you what happened at my DDs school (and for all of the gleeful anti independent school posts, it was a state school).

DD spelt the word Repeatedly, correctly.
The teacher marked it wrong and made her write it as Repeatidly, three times. (Rather ironic, given the word). I saw the evidence, in her work book, at an open evening.

The same school that insisted my DD was not dyslexic and didn’t have any issues that needed investigation (she did, her secondary school, thank goodness, tested her and declared her very much dyslexic in Year 9 when she suddenly couldn’t compensate for it any longer, poor girl), she didn’t stand a chance. At least the HT had the decency to be horrified.

I applied to do teacher training but was turned down as I didn't have any practical experience of working in a classroom. I was working full time in another job at the time and would have loved a change in career.

This used to drive me mad when letters came home from school full of spelling mistakes.
I was often tempted to mark them in red pen and send them back with comments. Never did though!

The teacher sounds thick. So thick that she can’t spell the most basic of words, and thicker still that she thinks ‘human error’ can be used as the justification for her stupidity. I wouldn’t be paying for this. In fact, I’d be asking for a refund on the grounds that she is clearly incapable of doing her job to the required standard.

That's appalling. I'd be circling the teacher's spelling mistakes with a red pen, and I'd tell the head teacher how poor I think it is.

Wth? Maybe get that chip on your shoulder looked at?

My DC had this with their spellings years ago, also the head teacher used to write a monthly newsletter full to the brim with spelling mistakes. I told my kids I was going to mark it one day in red pen and send it back to him - I never did but was so tempted. The fact you are paying for this OP is even worse.

I taught English for 30+ years, took retirement to study and did some supply work. I’m ‘old-school’, grammar school.
I was horrified at the poor level
of SPAG of some teachers and office staff.
One example: I was given a set of worksheets containing the word ‘theirselfs’.
I refused to use it. I accessed it on the system, corrected it and printed off 30 copies.
What worries me about wrongly spelled word lists is that some parents might not recognise all the mistakes and help their children to learn the wrong spellings.
I also think, if the teacher is making such bad mistakes, what else is she doing wrong?

It's a spelling test but she shrugs off her own misspelled examples....the mind boggles.