...to roll my eyes and sigh heavily at this mistake in my son's school report?

[Tokamak]

Final Parents' Evening of the year last night. DS has done really well in Reception and has exceeded expectations in nearly all areas. This produced a warming glow of paternal pride in the old chest.

He also got a glowing report. However on reading it, I saw this is in the section on social development: "...he is aware of the way his behaviour effects others."

I did think about pointing this out to the teacher, but as she's really nice and DS has done so well and been so happy in her class, I bit my lip. I used to be a primary school teacher myself and am well aware how easy it is to make a typo in reports, so maybe I can give her a pass on that; but if she really doesn't know how to use 'affect' and 'effect' correctly, it's a bit saddening.

O Tempora, O Mores.

Nanny0gg never mind the colleagues, at senior school we used to proof-read our own reports before they were sent out in the post

I'd notice it. I'd think it was a bit of a shame of she didn't know the difference BUT I think it matters less for a Reception teacher than all the other things that Reception teachers have to know how to do

But it IS really bad. That is the whole point. Affect and effect do NOT mean the same thing.
These kinds of errors do matter.

"So to expand, the teacher could have said that DS "...was aware of the affect his behaviour had on others. The effect it had was to..."

That's wrong

In both of those sentences you write, it would be effect.

My last post was to the OP - was that a typo OP, or are you really ignorant?

Ha! typo in my post above "In both of those sentences you wrote" (not write)

Just a thought, at my last school we had report writing software with a comment bank that had '...[his/her] actions effects others' in it.

Mamma

It wasn't the only mistake Jamie

One of the Y1 teachers at DD2's school has a series of hand- drawn posters taped to her classroom windows. They are full of basic errors and some of them don't make sense. Guess whose class DD2 will be in in September
"Practice using these words"
"Practice halving numbers under 10, for example what is half of 12?" IT MAKES NO SENSE! NONE!!

dd got her report and it said .......takes great pride in everything she does and that is reflexes in all her work.

Was not the only mistake, can't remember the other one.

Oh and it said her attendance should have been excellent according to their scoring but it has been put as good.

I did tut but but i just couldn't be bothered tbh..you would expect them to be correct though.

Jamie is right but I forgive you for confusing yourself OP, because I enjoyed the phrase 'what in God's name are you wittering about?' so much

(I've corrected 'god's' to 'God's' for you)

Am enjoying this immensely.

So much scope for looking like an arse (or is it ass?)

Has anyone got a handy 'rule' for affect & effect?

I remember bear and bare because bears are strong (for example)

So is there an easy to remember one for other common mistakes.

My formal education ended at 15. My spelling and grammar are okish. I am doing a degree at the moment and I hate the fact my limitations cause me to look a bit thick.

Last week I received the reports from the class of children that will be coming up to my class,Y2, in September. The reports had unfortunately gone out to parents that day. One set of parents will no doubt be mulling over the fact that, in literacy, their son's attention can wonder from time to time.

This report had been peer proof read, then checked by the head (who admittedly has 200 reports to check so is probably not that thorough). I haven't said anything about it as it was too late this time. I'm now wondering (or maybe wandering!) how or whether to raise it before the next set of reports are due.

Other common mistakes: stationary and stationery. The latter is writing equipment and I remember it because it is the version with an 'e' which in my mind stands for envelope.

Mrs devere

One I use all the time is the Principal is your pal

Typos can and do happen, but "having to write 30" is not an excuse!

I have to write a lot of letters every day, and funnily enough my boss expects all of them to be without typos.

I am also quite shocked that some people think that poor spelling and/or grammar is ok for a teacher. Their job is to teach it, so it is really one of the basic requirements that they should meet!

None of my (foreign) school reports ever had spelling mistakes in them, and my parents would have had words with the HT as to whether this teacher was fit for teaching if this had ever happened, and rightly so, I think.

Mrs DeVere:
Remember
Affect
Verb
Effect
Noun

RAVEN

i bet these teachers know the difference but after writing so many errors occur. Nothing to sweat about. if they were that bad at teaching it would show.

My posts on forums are full of shitty grammar and spelling mstakes/typos because as long as its legible i do not give a hoot. They probably feel the same after pupil 30.

Thank you!

But the difference between writing a lot of letters a day and writing reports is time.

I work non stop evey day as a teacher from 8.00am to 5.00pm. Dinner time is spent with kids. I have no time to write reports so they are squeezed in willy nilly here and there, on top of a zillion other things. I HATE writing them like this, but just have no choice

The problem isn't the level of education of the teacher or their grasp of grammar, literacy or whatever (although agree that effect and affect, and practice/practise are awful), it is about the fact that they have no ringfenced time to write reports with as much accuracy and care as they would like. It is nearly always the system not the teacher

What I find interesting about the OP is that he chooses to assume the mistake was due to lack of understanding rather than a typo. A bit mean since he used to be a teacher (and then goes on to make the same mistake/typo himself).