...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.

I'd have done the same OP regarding the rolling of eyes and keeping schtum. Though I probably would have subsituted "tutting" for "under the breath muttering".

Also, where can I get one of these "Inner Sanctums"? B&Q? Wickes?

Inner Sancta, surely

Se I can forgive errors reports, or even newspapers. There's a deadline there. mistakes happen.

OTOH I find massive great spelling mistakes on signs (e.g. shop names) really galling - the person who commissioned the sign presumably got it wrong, and then the person whose job it is to write/print correctly, at great expense, using complicated methods, also got it wrong.

Reasonable to briefly roll your eyes in private.

Unreasonable to go any further than that.

Hahaha!

'Arse' is right and the arse is me. Hacked the sentence around too much before posting and didn't check. Free pass for the lovely teacher and I'll go and drink beer instead.

Huzzah!

It is a subtle difference, admittedly, but 50shades covers it pretty well.
Read 50 shades for lessons on grammatical accuracy?!

:o

Most definitely not! I have just read another book recently and there were horrific spelling mistakes - including loosing, medal (not meddle) too many to list TBH, I was quite shocked that it could be published with those errors, although it was on the kindle so that may be why!

50shadesofstress the poster, Kitty, not the book.

Anyway I admit to fucking up myself because I made a few edits then didn't check before posting. The field is yours.

I thought Kitty realised what you meant this is getting confusing!

:o I was wondering!

I have enjoyed this thread, I spent half of today explaining the difference between affects and effects to my colleagues which was quite amusing - they are still confused!

I worked at a school where the Head of English used 'ammend' instead of 'amend' and that's just one example.

Give her a break. Everyone makes the occasional mistake and affect/effect is one of those awkward ones, probably because there are verbs for both spellings and a noun for only one.

I have two degrees in linguistics, including a postgrad from Oxford, I worked as a freelance etymologist and proofreader and recently produced a document 120,000 words long with only a single spelling mistake which was down to a sticky keyboard. I can also spot minor grammatical errors at about a hundred paces.

I still have to stop and think about affect/effect and stationery/stationary.

Must admit I think affect and effect is a pretty forgiveable one. The blunt truth is it's highly likely the teacher was never taught the difference herself - I'm 40, private school, RG uni and only had the difference explained to me by my grammar schooled husband about 5 years ago. I think you should brace yourself for a LOT worse in the coming years. DS is 8 and we've already had sentances (in his spelling book, oh the irony), could OF (I did lose my SOH over that) and too many plurals written with meaningless apostrophes to recall.

I bite my tongue over typos and errors on things that are sent to parents. But where I draw the line is when there are errors on materials they have produced for the children - this might be on work sheets, on the class display boards or in ds's books.

God who cares, give the poor woman a break. My DH is a teacher, and has just spent every evening of the last month of his life writing reports until 10pm every night. On top of his work as SENCo. So cut the poor teacher some slack and remind yourself of what bloody hard work it is. Save your pedantic whinging for your dinner parties.

"What it god's name are you wittering about?"

Hmm...

You are not unreasonable to roll your eyes, sigh heavily and tut.

A friend showed me her son's report today littered with it's and its consistently misused. Apparently his target (I kid you not) is to work on his grammer.

This does not bode well.

'grammer'

Misuse of apostrophes on the other hand...

I made exactly this error in a text to my sister the other day and immediately read it back and thought oh horror! It's easily done, even when you know the rules, so I wouldn't panic and start thinking the teacher has no grasp of English grammar.

And every time I write principle or principal I have to google it! Does anyone have an easy way to remember the difference?

Easy rule for stationary/stationery:
StationAry as in cAr
StationEry as in pEn
Also, stationery is sold by stationers, not stationArs.
DS's school report errors included "He has an inquisitive and has a real passion for..."
I had to bite my lip at DS's pupil comment "I think I improved in litrecy"
Personally, I hope his literacy improves further next year .