To worry about receiving a badly written letter from the head teacher of our local primary school?

[KKMc]

The letter about an open day at the nursery class in the primary school where my DD has a place in August contained a misplaced apostrophe, two mystery acronyms, a typo ('reply skip' not 'slip') and some stray formatting. It was signed on behalf of the head teacher. It's not a good sign, is it?

[Scholes34]

Whoever signs off the letter should take responsiblity for the content. A good secretary would correct mistakes/improve the English in any draft they are given. Anyone pp-ing a letter on behalf of someone takes on this responsibility. The school should lead by example and not send out correspondence with mistakes in it. The mis-use of it's and its always winds me up.

[montymum]

Thanks Maddy68 I know we shouldn't be doing them but they honestly would not get done if we didn't. I think our school need to employ more admin staff as the 2 we have have so much to do already, I know they would type letters for me if I asked but they don't stop as it is.

[Ineedacleaneriamalazyslattern]

PSA are teaching assistants here. Stands for pupil support assistant

[BarbarianMum]

A school should not be too busy to communicate clearly and professionally with the parents (inc. prospective) of its pupils. YANBU OP, it is worrying.

[maddy68]

I'm a secondary teacher for my sins, but my sister is a primary and I know they dont do any admin either - but she is the union rep :)

[bluebobbin]

My DS's teacher makes shocking errors in his message book. However, she's teaching basic phonics etc to 4/5 year olds and she's very good at it. I can overlook the errors in the message book as she is doing a very good job with DS.

[montymum]

Just out of interest Maddy are you a primary or secondary teacher?

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

Not a good sign at all, OP. All communication emanating from the school should be of correct spelling and punctuation, including any as part of teaching. I'd feel the same way as you do about it.

[maddy68]

Lessons! Bloomin I pad :)

[maddy68]

I'm a teacher and I don't write letters and neither do any of my collegues. All admin tasks are done by admin staff. If your school isn't doing that then it is a union issue. Your time should be spent planning and delivering letters

[montymum]

'Teachers aren't allowed to do admin tasks' true it is in the work force agreement, but that is not worth the paper it is written on. All teachers I know write their own letters and do every other task listed on that agreement because if they don't who will?
However it is bad that this letter has gone out with so many mistakes. Yes it is easy for mistakes to be made if you are quickly typing a letter (during your lunch break with 30 children having 'wet play' all around you) but all our letters have to be checked by senior leadership team before they go out to parents, to pick up on these little mistakes.

[nickelbabe]

Essex - because anyone who knows the mistakes should correct them when they type up the latters, regardless of who made the errors.
if necessary, have a debate with that person, but don't condescend to send out a letter you know is incorrect.

[maddy68]

Teachers are not allowed to do admin tasks any longer it was part of the work force agreement so you can bet your bottom dollar that it WAS admin staff

[SuchProspects]

EssexGurl - "My mum used to work as a secretary in a school. She used to wince at the letters she had to send out from teachers as they were always full of spelling /grammatical errors. "

I was always under the impression that a good secretary should correct such errors and then the letter should be proofed by someone else (ideally the person whose name its in or at least someone who understands the message that is being communicated). That's what has happened in offices I've worked in that had secretaries or PAs. Communications skills are at the core of a secretary's skill set.

I wonder if some of the lower standards (if they are lower and I'm not just looking back with rose tinted glasses) is to do with techniques not keeping up with changes in technology. Perhaps there are tricks to typing that I didn't learn which would stop me jumbling letters and mixing up their/there/they're - mistakes I commonly make on screen, but never on paper. Don't know if that's common or just me though. Also, I can't proof read on screen to save my life. I have to kill trees to do a decent job of that.

[smileANDwave2000]

oh if only that were all we had to worry about

[EssexGurl]

Why the assumption that it has to be the administrators error. Isn't that just slightly patronising? I would love to work in the office at DS's school as it is probably my only way currently of getting back into work. My mum used to work as a secretary in a school. She used to wince at the letters she had to send out from teachers as they were always full of spelling /grammatical errors.

DS's school seem to have stopped letters for most things and just use text messaging now. First term however every letter from the teachers had mistakes. We all used to stand at the gate and compare errors!

[HarrietJones]

PSA- parent support advisor here!

[SuchProspects]

I can happily accept that teachers writing things down in a book may make errors from time to time (though they shouldn't be common). But a typed letter that is being sent to many parents should have been proofed. It is worrying that children who are being taught good English in class may see poor English examples from their school. I'd be particularly concerned because I grew up in that period when they decided not to teach grammar in school, so I'm really relying on the schools to pass it on to my kids, I'm going to be at a bit of a loss.

I would find it annoying and I would be concerned that if they were unable to pay attention to detail in this situation there may be more important things that slip through the cracks. I don't think it makes any difference that the Head won't have typed it, good communication skills and attention to detail are required in the school office admin staff too.

[BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack]

It's not actually typed by the head though is it....it's just shoddy admin!!

They are a school not a business (as our headmistress firmly pointed out to someone who moaned about a spelling mistake in a newsletter) - as long as the teaching is good, the kids are safe etc etc, I really wouldnt give it any more time!

[YankNCock]

Whatever you do, please don't:

1. Circle all mistakes in red pen
   
2. Grade the letter
   
3. Send it back with your child
   
   My father did this with a letter from my teacher when I was 10, and that man was an absolute bastard to me for the rest of the year.

[limitedperiodonly]

Another thing about jargon.

Ages ago I was speaking at a meeting of technology manufacturers' press officers about getting mainstream media coverage for their products.

One asked me if my readers were 'early adopters'. Since I'd been introduced as a women's lifestyle journalist I thought we'd strayed into a discussion about child adoption, though the bloke didn't look as if he'd be interested in babies.

Luckily someone else on the panel who wrote for a technology magazine translated for me so I said: 'Oh, you mean those men who queue up all night to buy the latest thing as soon as the Apple store opens? No, my readers tend to wait until lots of other people have said it's really good or Coleen Rooney's got one.'

I got a pitying look. Afterwards the PR who'd invited me said: 'See what I'm up against? That's why they'll only ever get in Stuff and while that's cool, it's not that brilliant for sales.'

Anyway, I got a free LG Chocolate for my trouble. I said it was ages ago

[limitedperiodonly]

hogsback I was being a bit flippant .

We agree. It makes sense to use acronyms and jargon with with other professionals. I do it with people in my profession.

But it drives me mad when people use them to talk to a lay audience. Some of them probably forget but others are definitely being cliquey.

IME NHS communications officers are the worst offenders. They even shorten it to 'comms'. FFS, how much of your life do you lose by saying the whole word? Anyway, it was press officer in my day.

If I ask whether they understand what the word 'communications' means they behave as if I'm being a big meanie pedant.

Anyway, no-one gets to do it on my watch .

[nickelbabe]

gateacre - i would have had to take my pen out and correct the errors

[gateacre1]

I visited a primary school recently the schools rules were displayed next to the main office, the display was full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes. ( display was made by staff not children) it put me off the school.

My grammar is not best I admit, but at the school were I work each letter home has to pass 2/3 other members of staff before it is sent home to parents ( due to parents sending letters back to school with corrections!)

Once I tried to do some sort of mail merge email and the he/she 's sons/daughters all got mixed up. I recieved about 20 emails from parents informing that they had a son not a daughter at my school etc... very embarrassing for me and I have not attempted bulk emails again!!

[hogsback]

limitedperiodonly - not sure about that. I think very often they are used by people who are so immersed in a particular specialism (in this example, education) that they forget not everyone they communicate with has the domain knowledge to immediately understand what they are on about.

When I communicate to my techies, our emails and conversations will typically be a blizzard of acronyms, abbreviations and obscure technical jargon. If I had to write out 'Stream Control Transmission Protocol' every time it would get tedious to write and read, so I just write 'SCTP'.

When I communicate with my clients, particularly non-technical clients in purchasing, say, I ensure that any acronyms or abbreviations are fully defined on first use, either in-line or in a footnote. It's good manners but it's also vital from a business perspective to ensure that everyone understands what is being discussed.