I have found 8 grammar and/or spelling mistakes in my 'Parent Information Sheet' for my son's new class.

[SilverBellsandCockleShells]

WIBU to mark them up in red and ask the teacher to see me after school?

Well obviously it does matter in high school. It will matter in the exams, and for a borderline candidate the difference in marks could mean the difference between passing and failing a GCSE.

RuleBritannia please tell me you're kidding that you believe the author of the letter should be disciplined

OP, YANBU. I hate it when I see spelling/punctuation errors, it drives me nuts! just not nuts enough to want someone disciplined for it

lol...I'm a teacher (Secondary) and still remember being in the midst of marking books when DD2 brought me form from her own school to sign. I absent-mindedly circled all the errors in red pen and wrote Sp! in the margin next to them before signing it. She was mortified!

How I agree with fait

I temped as a secretary for a month at a school changing things that were incorrect and was taken on straightaway as permanent because the Head saw my 'way of working'. I was there for 10 years after that with staff coming to get me to construct a CV, type in French, Latin, Spanish and German (which, luckily I could do) but I drew the line at being in their musical production of Oliver.

Will I have to name change now?

I can't spell either. But i know i can't spell and wouldn't dream of sending a piece of literature i'd written out to the parents of kids i was being paid to teach without checking my work over first.

Apart form anything else 'check your work before handing it in' is one of the basic teacher phrases

OP send it in anonymously?

If you correct it you have to expect that they WON'T LIKE IT!.
I was waiting for my turn at Parents' Evening in a classroom with another parent once when they got a red pen off the desk and drew circles around spelling and punctuation mistakes the teacher had made on her labelling of projects on display on the wall. I nearly pooed my pants! lol accomplice to crimes against sloppy spelling! Or as they might say nowadays,' I could OF died', LOL

How about correcting a copy and just anonymously pinning it up on the notice board?

My ds's reading book came home with his name spelt incorrectly. I crossed it out and spelt it correctly and sent it back.
I think letters home from school should be spelt correctly too. Sloppiness imo.

I dislike 'spelled' (American spelling), I know it's accepted but 'spelt' doesn't sound so much like my 5 year old trying to use past tense.

If you are going to correct it anonymously then that's just as bad......if it annoys you that much then make a stand and complain face to face......otherwise it;s a bit cowardly to be honest.

YANBU, I think that is really sloppy on the part of the school, OP. The plan of work for the school year is a document that I for one would refer to regularly, it's not just a newsletter about a non-school uniform day or something. I would definitely bring it to the attention of the school office.

Having said that though, at least the school gave you a plan of work for the year, when I asked for one for the new school year at DD's last school the Head didn't really understand what I was asking for .

Just for you NotGeoffVader

Betty some of us are pedants and cowards

When I was about 11 and really quite good at spelling, my mother (who was a Maths teacher) used to get me to check her reports for things that she'd got wrong because she didn't want to look like an idiot. She was a very good teacher and used to get great results with her classes but she was and is absolutely awful at spelling. I don't think being able to spell makes you a good teacher. The grammatical errors (the me/I one made me wince) would concern me much more as they are almost certainly not just an unspotted mistake but an actual misunderstanding of the basic principles of English.

I take your point Haber but a school should set standards and sloppy grammar on important paperwork diminishes its credibility.

This pisses me off too.

Am school shopping currently and read a document on one school's website that had an extraneous capital letter. I was immediately suspicious, and re-read it twice to check for further errors.

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack Fri 14-Sep-12 13:22:27
When I was on the parents committee ...some women ... said there were some spelling errors on the newsletter that week to which the headmistress replied we are a school and not a business

Your headmistress was obviously not keen on getting her pupils placed in work.

It's incompetence - not dyslexia, not inattention - to send out a public document without review for basics like spelling.

It makes the organisation look hapless, and would get your CV binned.

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack Fri 14-Sep-12 13:22:27
When I was on the parents committee ...some women ... said there were some spelling errors on the newsletter that week to which the headmistress replied we are a school and not a business

Sounds like a cop out to me. Why would a school not want to show good practice and spell things properly?

I think it was more of a case of that particular woman being a total pain in the arse who complained about absolutely everything. Maybe if someone more credible had complained she may have responded differently. This woman was one who is never pleased - in the end the committee folded, I think most of us got totally fed up with her!

SkippyYourFriendEverTrue I report problems on websites. If I don't get a response to them, and a correction, I know what their concern for detail is.

Alpes isn't necessarily wrong. That's how it's spelt in French. The teacher may be one step ahead of you.