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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect my DD's teacher to be able to spell our surname?

48 replies

MateyMooo · 31/01/2012 09:24

Admittedly it is an unusal surname, but we are there is a city in England with the same name, which even has a cathederal.... so maybe that not that unusual after all.

I took DD to school this morning and noticed her name place had been spelt incorrectly. Of course I pointed this out, but I had also pointed out that the same teacher had made the same mistake in the first week of school (this time it was on a SPELLING book).

To be fair I had to make up a song so that DD could learn to spell her own surname, and she has known how to spell it for 3 years, but still. AIBU?

OP posts:
Pandemoniaa · 31/01/2012 09:26

cathederal?
The spelling problem of which you complain is clearly catching.

randommoment · 31/01/2012 09:27

Also unusal! Grin

Poledra · 31/01/2012 09:28

No. When I went in for DD2's Parent's Evening last term, I politely pointed out to her teacher that her first name was spelt wrong on everything. DD2's first name is not common in the area we live in. The teacher (new to the school this academic year) apologised, and said that the wrong spelling was how it had been given to her on her class lists but she would make sure it was all changed. Which it was.

A couple of weeks later, I was in school for DD2's assembly and one of the other teachers came to apolgise to me as she believed she was the one who had made the transcription error of DD2's name from the school records Smile

It's easy to make the mistake in the first place, but once it's been pointed out, it's easy to make sure it's right!

diddl · 31/01/2012 09:30

Well, if she has been given the correct spelling in the first place YANBU.

randommoment · 31/01/2012 09:31

To be serious... one of the TAs never did learn to spell DD1's first name properly, it's an ancient Greek one with an 'oe' in it and she always wrote it with 'eo' instead. The teachers could all manage it though. I wonder if the mis-spellings you've noticed have been actually done by the TAs, who often get delegated with that kind of job?

Groovee · 31/01/2012 09:31

My name is often spelled wrongly too as it can be spelled 2 ways. But when it's someone who should know better. I often arrive to do supply and have the wrong spelling up but I usually change it.

When I started working with children, one person told me to always check you were spelling names correctly and how to pronounce names.

My friends dd is Katharine and she regularly corrects the school as 4 years down the line they still don't spell it correctly

Original poster
MateyMooo · 31/01/2012 09:36

sorry for my spelling mistakes on the origninal post.... but then i'm not teaching a class of 8 year olds.

how unfair is it that the teacher cant spell our surname, but DD looses a sticker if she spells a word wrong?

OP posts:
Pandemoniaa · 31/01/2012 09:39

It's not unfair as such but it is irritating that your dd's surname isn't properly spelled. Perhaps you could send all future incidences of the error back to her marked, in red? With a little note to write it out correctly 10 times so that she learns from her mistake.

gallifrey · 31/01/2012 09:42

I had quite an unusual surname before I was married, on my first day at secondary school the teacher came up to me and told me I had spelt it wrong!! In all fairness it did look like it should have another letter in it but even so you would think a 12 year old would be able to spell their own name!!
Now I'm married and have a nice ordinary easy name that I don't have to constantly spell and correct, it's great!

startail · 31/01/2012 09:50

Much to her delight the HT (who was her class teacher and still teachers her one day a week) now spells DD2's name the right way. It's only taken 4 years.
Mind you, having been married 3 years I managed to miss spell my surname in big letters on a display at university. Caused much amusement.

Takver · 31/01/2012 10:02

Not very U, but its perhaps not worth worrying too much about. Even if teachers could spell my surname in school, none of them could ever say it right (Irish name but not that unusual nor a hard sound to say once you've had it said to you once).

Its maybe worth getting used to at an early age as undoubtedly once your dd reaches 2ndary and the wider world everyone will get it wrong!

These days the only times I bother making sure my name gets spelt right is for passports and the like Grin

Original poster
MateyMooo · 31/01/2012 10:04

i have to be honest when i was first married i was convinced i'd become
Mrs Mateymoodoyouwantmetospellit?

But still Teachers should have standards.

OP posts:
minimisschief · 31/01/2012 10:50

is it canterbury?

Original poster
MateyMooo · 31/01/2012 10:55

no

OP posts:
SooticaTheWitchesCat · 31/01/2012 11:08

YANBU, a teacher should certainly be spelling your child's name right and if it was me I would keep on until they got it right!

None of my DD's teachers seem to be able to pronounce our surname though as it has a foreign pronunciation even though it is very easy to spell...

jandymaccomesback · 31/01/2012 13:21

Happened to me when I was at Grammar school. When I pointed out to the teacher that my surname began with Mac, not Mc, she said "Does it really matter?". Clearly it did as it still rankles forty years on!
YANBU

trixie123 · 31/01/2012 14:05

I teach a lad whose surname is so long and complicated that when he was in Y7 HE couldn't spell it, it doesn't fit on the lines of my register / mark book and he still doesn't write it on his exercise books now he's in Y10. I have to go into the school records to get it! If its a basic English place name however, I would expect it to be spelt right!

trixie123 · 31/01/2012 14:05

spelt / spelled???

littlemonkeybix · 31/01/2012 14:28

When travelling in Oz, I went with a pal of mine to put some photos in the shop... "Davies with an e" she said... as was the norm.... as we walked out of the shop, she looked at her slip and we spent a good few mins chuckling at the divvy who'd put the photos under the name "Daves"

As much as it's a foreign country, it has a quite large British influence, and the name Davies should not really have posed that much of a trouble for the 20 something white chap behind the counter. Should it?

SomethingProfound · 31/01/2012 15:14

monkey why does it matter that he was a white chap?

littlemonkeybix · 31/01/2012 15:27

something I was just trying (and failing!!?) to point out that he wasn't of a different ethnic origin and therefore the surname should not have been unusual to him.

Maybe I could have worded it differently... I did not mean to offend anyone.

HexagonalQueenOfTheSummer · 31/01/2012 15:56

I had this with DD1's first name for years; her name has one D in it but her first school spelt it with 2 Ds on all her paperwork for her transfer to Juniors, hence she then spent 2 years in juniors with it being spelt incorrectly, and having her spelling of her own name corrected. I spoke to her teachers several times and even sent a letter in to the headteacher when nothing changed, but it still happened until we withdrew her from the school due to bullying.

accidentprawn · 31/01/2012 16:05

i have to spell mine out! its annoying.
DD`s first day at secondary school the receptionist your name is spelt ... DD goes no its spelt xyz The receptionist says your wrong!

its hilarious! it is unusual tbh but not that hard to spell.

MerryMarigold · 31/01/2012 16:08

DD's name was spellt wrong on her milk label at Nursery. Half the teachers call her Melissa, which isn't even her name!

Sandalwood · 31/01/2012 16:20

Lester Leicester?

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