Should a primary teacher be able to spell?

[Cortina]

Last year our primary teacher couldn't spell, I assumed that it was a one off. It's happened again this year with a different teacher. The teacher commonly changes the correct spelling for an incorrect one it seems, separate to seperate, a lot to alot and so on.

Does it matter for Y2 or Y3? I haven't complained as I see no upside. Perhaps it really isn't important, no one values it so much any more, that much is clear.

I like her and it feels churlish somehow, especially as she does a very good job otherwise. I think the elephant in the room is that few people know how to spell well these days or write and punctuate etc. I see spelling mistakes daily and they are made by bright, well educated people.

Ummm Lollypolly - are you my twin?

OP - Thank you for the FRIENDS tip!

PST should be able to spell to a reasonable level; but not necessary to
win Mastermind on spelling.

Yes OliPolly, separated at birth but reunited through the magic of mumsnet

I am a primary teacher and think this is dreadful. I would definitely flag it up. Speak to the teacher first and see what she says. If she isn't apologetic and promising to use a dictionary in the future, then I would speak to the Head.

What do you think is an acceptable limit for spelling mistakes by a teacher? What if a word is incorrectly spelt but incorrectly corrected - if you see what I mean? Another bugbear of mine is maths written as math's. Is math's ever correct? A contraction?

It is absolutely imperative that a primary teacher spells things correctly! It is not imperative that she be an innately good speller - may people are not - but she should definitely realise it's a weakness and make every attempt to check and double check her spellings. If she doesn't do this - because she doesn't actually realise she can't spell - then that is seriously worrying.

Standards are most definitely slipping. I'm a teacher, and so have quite a few teacher friends on Facebook. It does always surprise me how many errors they make when writing something. Most frequently the wrong your/you're is used. I think that teachers should most definitely know when and how to use each one (definitely is another word that is frequently wrong on Facebook posts). Also there/their/they're is often misused, and apostrophes are used for plurals etc. When I was a child I don't remember any teacher ever making a spelling error (though I'm sure they must have happened occasionally). My mum was a teacher too and she says correct spelling and grammar was absolutely drilled into them on her course. Consequently I do think teachers of her generation were much better spellers/writers/speakers than they seem to be these days.

I also think it's important to speak correctly. Not without accents, but with correct usage of grammar rules. I once taught a class of nursery children with a teaching assistant with some difficulties in this area. I did approach a senior member of staff about who should speak to her about this and was told that we would all have to turn a blind eye as we might upset her if we mentioned it. Therefore I just had to try to model correct rules etc as much as possible. Every day at home time we would give out paintings etc and if one did not have a name on we would have to ask the children who it belonged to. The TA would always call out "Who done this?" and I would try to subtly add, "Oh yes, no name. Who DID this picture?" I felt that as the children were only 3 and 4 and so just learning how to speak correctly we owed it to them to speak correctly in front of them.

I'm not saying I'm perfect, as I'm most definitely not, and everyone makes mistakes but I don't think it should be allowed for poor spelling and grammar to become the norm for teachers/TAs/educators, etc.

Bue, if you saw even a single mistake would you point it out to the teacher then? Would you overlook an odd mistake? I fear this is very common. Most of us don't get to see the books very often or you'd hear more about it I think.

I suppose my view is that there are far worse flaws and as I say it's up to the parents to ensure that spelling basics are grasped & reinforced not the school.

I have words that fox me. Used to get Necessary wrong. I do a lot of writing and usually use words I can spell.

Cortina, no I think it would have to be a recurring thing. I mean, anyone can make a mistake. I made one in my first post! But if it kept happening - either with the same word over and over or with different ones - I do think it should be pointed out. This person is teaching young people about language, after all, so I think a higher standard has to apply than here on Mumsnet or whatever.

Oh dear how parents love to lard it up when they find mistakes made by teachers - you know what they are human and do make them they are not perfect beings, people need to let go of there inferiority complexes wherebyt hey cant wait to go on and on about someonese mistake.

Imade some terrible mistakes when writing on the board but I always got good results FGS.

Yes, they should.

I haven't seen any mistakes yet - the odd one is allowed, I think. Sometimes by the time I've marked the 20th book I forget what the correct spelling ought to be (I'm a secondary teacher).

I did get my pen out at parents' evening, my son's reception teacher left me alone with his books. Our surname was spelt incorrectly on the front!

There is a standing joke at our primary school about one of the poor teachers. She can't spell for toffee. She used to teach reception but after two DC she's in a job share in Y4. Everyone thinks she must have a PE degree!

She wrote the script for the Nativity with, "I bought you gold."

She always signs letters, "Yours Sincerely."

Spells "lose" as "loose." It makes me think she's got diarrhoea!

Fairly common mistakes, but surely not acceptable for a teacher?

I'm a Y4 TA (I have 9 C+ GCSE's, 4 A-Levels and a degree in Maths and Education btw)...anyway, sometimes I just forget how to spell stuff when under pressure (i.e I have 20 or so beady eyed spell checkers waiting to catch me out)

The other week I wrote the LO up on the white board and I put down 'differant' instead of 'different'...why oh why?? And I had to own up to it to the class and everything when I realised!!! 'Different' just looked wrong at that point in time!!!

If you think how many words school staff write 'in public' every day it is quite a lot, and if you think how many words there are in the english language too, then its not surprising that sometimes mistakes are made.

If teechers wre wrtin evrfink in txt spk thn tht wudb a prblm fr th yngs pple. kk.

An occasional typo/mistake is human. And it's good for kids (I think) to see us self correcting and referring to the old dicker.

The literacy leader at DS1's school makes spelling and grammatical errors in her letters home to parents. There are few things in my everyday life that irk me more.

Several parents (including me) have complained to the head and they just keep on coming! Gah!

Well MissBetsyTrotwood, maybe you should adopt some young nephew in order to fill your time - them you might not get so irked

Ellen yours sincerely is correct, surely?

"Yours sincerely (small S)" is only used when you address the letter by name, otherwise, it's "Yours faithfully" in formal English.

Spell-checking on a computer won't help you differentiate between, for example, practice and practise though.
And it'd be no point any of our parents complaining to our HT about spelling/grammatical errors as she's the worst offender of the lot! Spliced commas everywhere!

I know! Boo hoo!

Yours sincerely, or Yours faithfully, not Yours Sincerely! If you know the person by name the first is correct, if Dear Sir, the second.

I'm off to pedants' corner!

Cortina can you be a little more clear? Where are you seeing these spelling errors? Letters home? Notices on the board? Notes in a reading record?

'I suppose my view is that there are far worse flaws and as I say it's up to the parents to ensure that spelling basics are grasped & reinforced not the school.'

Cortina I have to say I disagree. Many children will not have parents who can do this - that's the whole point of school, surely? It's dreadfully unfair on kids whose parents can't or won't reinforce the basics if their teachers are barely literate too! Although I suppose you could say that if one can achieve Qualified Teacher Status these days without being able to spell 'separate' then correct spelling isn't the 'must have' it once was for access to the professions. World's gone mad.

Don't get me started ! The newsletters and permission forms from ds' Early Years unit are shocking. It seems that they're written by the older and more experienced teacher which makes it all the more annoying. I'm a teacher too which, in some ways, makes it harder to complain.