To expect my DCs' teachers to send out school reports correctly punctuated?

[Peppin]

Was looking at last term's school reports this morning. They included the following statements:

"Its good to see X progressing so well"

"theres a good reason for..."

and a few other howlers.

I have also noticed when looking through the DCs' school workbooks at parents' evenings that various spelling mistakes/grammatical errors they have made have gone uncorrected.

AIBU to expect teachers to (a) know how to use apostrophes and (b) take sufficient pride in their own professional image to ensure they check the spelling and punctuation in school reports before they are sent out?

YANBU, but with the proviso that there is a big difference between poor grammar or use of english, and the occasional typo. The latter is IMO quite excusable when producing a pile of reports; I'd rather have meaningful content with some typos than absolutely correct meaningless blah.

Cory just look at where the UK is on the PISA results. Standards have slipped. Literacy is a huge issue here in Wales with a new programme to try and improve things on its way.

Teachers are not perfect. There is a lack of grammatical knowledge as well as maths knowledge especially amongst primary teachers. You only have to look at the TES forum to see how poor it can be.

I've seen teachers who I work with make obvious spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes. 5 mins of playtime? Not off playtime?

Correct use of plurals, adverbs, commas, sentence construction, the comma splice - the list goes on.

And don't get me started on maths or a knowledge of the wider world :(

But in reports and marking - well teachers are busy and tired so can make mistakes.

Nobody is perfect. Yet we expect people to be good at what they do.

Wow. There's a generalised statement if ever I heard one!
There is a lack of grammatical knowledge as well as maths knowledge especially amongst primary teachers

I'd say there is a generation of people who had very poor grammar and punctuation teaching during the 'topic-led' teaching of the 70s and 80s. Thank god my teacher Mrs Stephens was a stickler for the rules!

LeQueen it infuriates me when anyone takes pride in their own ignorance. Teaching should be reflective too so to laugh off poor skills is atrocious!

Basic Skills are important whichever profession you are in. My mortgage advisor was completely incompetent for example but there is always more of an element of moral outrage when a teacher is crap at something.

Now should it be god or God :)

Depends if the reader or author is an theist or athiest eminmead :)

If they missed the ' out of they're I could overlook it. If they put their instead, I would be unhappy.

Most comments come from a comment selector. Most teachers would like to write a proper report but do not have the time.

The comment selector needs to be correct, if it isn't then that is where the problems start, but mistakes do happen. It is the job of a teacher to write a report but NOT to proof read it. However most do, and attempt to rectify mistakes. However it is possible to miss mistakes when proof reading, so it is often easier if someone else checks it too. Unfortunately there is often no one else to check as this costs money

It is interesting to note complaints about incorrect spelling on here. Some teachers suffer from dyslexia as do students. Therefore they will mistake spelling mistakes. It would be considered discrimination not to employ a teacher with dyslexia.

LeQueen mostly because people with these qualifications can achieve much higher salaries in the private sector with less judgement.

I would argue that primary teachers are worse than secondary or anyone else. I've been in HE establishments and seen lecturers with appalling grammar and spelling. And I very often have to explain vocabulary and punctuation to a secondary English teacher friend!

Also should that be a question mark enimmead? We could keep doing this!

not worse!! Lol!!

orangesandlemons what about the teaching standards for reporting??

"Also should that be a question mark enimmead? We could keep doing this!"

Also should that be a question mark, enimmead? :)

Sorry - too much wine tonight

DFES: A teacher must
"communicate effectively with parents with regard to pupils? achievements and well-being."

Excuses, excuses! Haha! Luckily I pay more attention to my reports than hastily typed MN posts!

"Its good to see X progressing so well"

"theres a good reason for..."

Is it understandable without the apostrophe? Or is the general meaning there?

Is it effective communication?

It's not unreadable but it's not correct.

Effective communication means keeping info up to date on progress, through a variety of ways.This could be through open evenings, target settings, reports, emails or phone calls.

Minor trivial mistakes happen because there is no efficient proof reading in the system. Not because a teacher is thick

Let's eat, Grandad

Let's eat Grandad

Punctuation saves lives

It concerns me that pupils aren't correct for fear of demoralising them. This does go some way to explaining, however, why the university graduates who work for me submit reports (to go out to clients) which contain an incredibly high number of spelling/grammar mistakes and then are incensed/inconsolable/sulk when they see how many corrections I have made to their work.

Gnocchi I'm going to put that on my desk!

...and when writing a report (and I think most schools use the same system)
it works like this.

Enter comment banks, check visually for mistakes, although some spellings may be highlighted. Open comment banks in a word document so you can see it as a page. Unfortunately you cannot change anything on this, although you can still proof read (although you aren't supposed to). Close word document, and memorise mistakes and then alter on report.

They are then printed, and proof read by deputies/heads, then returned to teacher for any mistakes. Then as I work in secondary, students also read them too to check, and then they can be altered again.

So in my school, they go through 4 or 5 checks, before hitting the parents.