To expect good grammar from a year three teacher?

[MrsFC]

I live in zone four of East London, and while I am originally not from that area and have a different accent, DC, DP, CM, exDH and all DC's friends do, and have a fairly pronounced East London accent.

Now: I have NOTHING against an accent from anywhere in the country, I really don't. But I DO have issues with the bad grammar that can sometimes come with it, for example:

'we done this at school today Mummy'
'Where is the book we was reading Mummy'
'I didn't eat nuffink for lunch today'

I have spent the past five years patiently correcting DC and explaining basic correct grammar to him. I also explain that while lots of the grown ups he knows speak incorrectly, he must not correct them, but must listen to how his teacher and I speak. I am lucky in that he is a competent and avid reader and so I have been encouraging him to read Harry Potter books to try and instill it in him further (top tip - if you want your son to read Harry Potter, buy the Lego DS Game - it worked for me!)

Anyway - I digress. I went to pick up DS from school yesterday and they came out of a different gate.When we found them his new teacher said to me:

'I'm sorry you wasn't told'

I was taken aback and mentioned it to another Mum friend of mine with a child in the same year(I could only mention it to this one friend as the other Mums probably wouldn't have noticed TBH). She smiled and said I was being a bit snobby.

What do you think? And what would you do, if anything?

I'm not sure to be pleased or horrified that I'm not alone! I've told DS that he can correct the teacher in this instance but only when he's in a one on one, not in front of the whole class.

And I think I'll mention it to his year 2 teacher who I had a good relationship with. (Or should that be 'with whom I had a good relationship'??). Maybe she can advise me the best way to go.

I've also asked DS to look out for incorrect speech and tell me - which at least is helping him look out for inaccuracies. If he comes home with too many more I think I might have to write to the Head...

And I've never quite grasped the 'did' done' reasoning. [embarrassed]. But I DO know when it's wrong! I'm off to buy Eats Shoots and Leaves for the under 12's.....

Phew. Glad it's not just me. I was feeling a little thick

when ds1 was in year 3, he was sent home with a spelling list which included the word 'frought'. i sent a note to his teacher saying that this isn't a word and perhaps she meant 'fraught' - she thought this was hilarious and didn't even apologise. i was pretty horrified.

I'm a maths teacher btw but would always spell check and proof read anything that I sent out to parents (and any sheets which I prepared for a class). It is the lack of professionalism about many primary school teachers which really gets me (and I suspect many secondary ones).

"Done" is a past participle, not a whole verb by itself. So saying "I done it" is like saying "I eaten it."

I'm an English teacher and some of my colleagues make basic grammatical errors in speech- it is cringe-worthy. Worse still is when I go into the head of department's room and she has words spelled incorrectly ON THE BOARD.

I went to a medical school open day last week and one of the doctors who was doing a presentation made quite a few basic grammatical errors during her talk. It wasn't as bad as the fifth year med student who had written in his power point presentation 'it gets much more cooler'. WTF?

Like wot LeQueen says. It's all very well her being a wonderful, gifted teacher but if she's teaching the wrong words it can't be good .

quids - thanks! I finally GEDDIT!!!!!!

And LeQ, I agree. It is basically incorrect.

Oh don't get me started - my DC's school used to be awful for that, right up to the sign at reception wishing them a "Succesfull" term (yes I had words, repeatedly, it did eventually get changed).

Haven't noticed any howlers in the last year, maybe because Ofsted attacked them for it in an otherwise good report, and partly because DC's teachers last year were Brazilian and Hungarian, and teachers with English as a first language seem noticeably worse as far as I could tell. Back to English teachers again this year, so I'm bracing myself.

LeQueen,

Think you've hit the nail on the head.

The pupils will pick up on these basic mistakes but think they are correct 'because that's what the teacher said'

Interestingly Dilys we had a Maltese member of the department and his grammar was FAULTLESS. He was also able to explain the grammatical rules clearly, even though English is his second language.

I wouldn't care if it was my child's teacher. I am a basic skills teacher, IMO the spoken word is not as important as written mistakes with grammar. I would prefer my child be taught by a teacher that actually cares about his/her class and their progress than minding his/her P&Qs at the school gate. There are no exams or assessments in verbal grammar for teachers. YABU, IMO it is inevitable.

Mrs FC - you have told your son he can correct the teacher? BIG mistake! Even though you're completely right to cringe at her poor use of grammar, if you want to correct her then you should go through the proper (adult) channels. You're doing your son no favours.

It might just have been a slip whilst out of the classroom.

Surely though if you are going to be teaching grammar at primary level then you have to say it properly as well as write it properly?

Room: Or maybe because English is his second language? My first language is German and we were taught so much English grammar that I can explain quite a bit of it. NOt saying my English is perfect but I had to work for it and know some rules native speakers don't. Just because they weren't told but just picked it up as a child. HOpe that makes sense.

Things like 'I am sorry you wasn't told' would annoy the hell out of me somehow. It's just wrong and a teacher should be able to speak properly. Children pick things up so quickly!

This is exactly what scares me fio. That she was educated to degree level and it has never been picked up on.

ScaredOne, yes I think it is because English is his second language. He has been taught grammar in a much more structured way.

When I was teaching it was frowned upon (by a Depute Headteacher who is an English specialist!) to do discreet grammar lessons as the children found it 'too boring'. The school couldn't understand why senior pupils then had such difficulty with Close Reading. Many of them had no idea how a sentence worked.

"(or indeed avoid the split infinitive - see what I did there?!)" Pfft. Nowt wrong with the split infinitive.

DD's teacher replied very nicely today "oh of course, if that's what they've learnt her already" ", when I pointed out they had spelt her name wrong on her books and coat peg (all said by me very nicely as in "I'm sorry this is going to cause some work but would you mind....?" fashion.

She seems otherwise kind and enthusiastic and it is Y1, so I am just going to bite my tongue and hope that the teachers further up the school have more grip on some of the basics. I am a pedantic old fusspot when it comes to grammar and accurate but I think I am in a minority