Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To be annoyed that the teacher spelt Dd name wrong on school report

68 replies

WhereHas1999DissappearedToo · 20/12/2014 23:57

We have just finished our school year here in NZ so I have just received DD (year 10 - 15 yrs) school report and her economics teacher spelt her first name wrong on the report in the comments section. Someone has circled with pencil around the name.

DD name is a variation of a very popular name and their is only one letter difference, her name is not that unusual and now it is reasonbly popular but when she was born it was very uncommon. The teacher spelt her name the way the very popular name is spelt.

AIBU In thinking Dd teacher who has taught her for the whole year should have spelt her name right on the school report? I'm prepared to be told I'm overreacting.

OP posts:

DoubleValiumLattePlease · 21/12/2014 06:38

Quinn Me using the wrong spelling of a word on an internet forum is a bit different to the teacher spelling my DD name wrong on a formal document

Well no - not really. Wrong spelling is wrong spelling and you seem to have totally missed the irony of your wrongly spelled username as well as OP. As a matter of interest why DID you spell your DD's name differently? Doesn't that just set her up for a lifetime of this?

nooka · 21/12/2014 06:56

My name is very unusual but also similar to another very common name. It doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with it, it's just different. My parents liked the name they gave me and not the similar but different name.

The OP didn't say that she spelled her dd's name deliberately differently, just that she chose the form she liked and it was less commonly used. So Suzanna as opposed to Susanna or Suzannah.

My dd often has a similar issue. She is called Lilian/Lily but is always getting things, even official things from school for 'Lilly' despite correcting it all the time. Of course we know that the teachers are referring to her, and it's just a silly error but it's still quite annoying.

echt · 21/12/2014 06:58

Just reply thanking the teacher for the report, but the name is….

Sorted.

sugarman · 21/12/2014 07:00

Noooo don't do it, they'll laugh at you forever

echt · 21/12/2014 07:03

No, they won't laugh at you. I can't think of a singlet eacher ever ever ever who has not taken correction on the chin. As they should.

sugarman · 21/12/2014 07:10

I don't know any singlet teachers but I work in education in NZ and the English have a reputation for complaining about everything and yes, they will laugh.

Romeorodriguez · 21/12/2014 07:11

You can focus on the 'brilliant' report if it makes you feel better, but I would imagine it was just a generic cut and paste job!

ProudAS · 21/12/2014 07:18

I dont think the OP is BU - a name is part of a person's identity. If she had wanted her DD's name spelt wrong on the report she would have spelled it wrong on the enrollment paperwork.

PickledPorcupine · 21/12/2014 07:19

I once got shouted and screamed at by a parent for spelling their child's name wrong on their report. I had checked the spellings of all names from the school computer before sending reports out (lots of weird spellings of normal names in my school) and it was wrong (obviously I didn't know!) and when I checked back all communication to them must have gone with the wrong spelling. I had written it in the child's books all year and she'd never corrected me.

Kveta · 21/12/2014 07:23

Ds is in reception, and his surname is spelt incorrectly everywhere - on his peg, his school books, any forms we get from the school. I have spoken to both of his teachers numerous times, and they go 'oh yes, we will change that' then don't. His peg has the correct spelling now, but only after his teacher threw a mini strop at me asking again for it to be corrected, and she ripped the label off and left him without one for a fortnight.

Anyway, it drives me nuts, especially since a) he went to the school nursery last year and they spelled it correctly for the whole of that year, b) he is learning to read this year, and I want his name to be correct for him to learn it, and c) our surname is spelt phonetically, and the school is incredibly hot on phonics, so why not spell it correctly?!

Anyway, I think yanbu to be annoyed, but that there is no point in correcting the teacher at secondary school level - let your daughter correct them if it annoys her!

Kveta · 21/12/2014 07:24

I should add, I have spoken to his school office and our surname is spelt correctly there, so not sure how they keep losing a letter from it!

maras2 · 21/12/2014 07:27

wherehas You're quite right.

3bunnies · 21/12/2014 07:52

My dc have a tricky surname, the school often get it wrong. I have been in numerous times to correct it (for different children). I stop complaining once they can spell it correctly (around yr2) and tell them to complain themselves. I only had to go in once after that when a teacher tried to tell dd2 that it couldn't possibly be spelt like that and didn't bother to check the (now correct) class list. Unsurprisingly we continued to have problems with that teacher who hadn't learnt that wisdom lies in knowing that you know nothing.

So YABU to want to complain on behalf of a secondary school pupil who can complain herself if she wants to. At her age she needs to decide whether it is something which bothers her as she will often need to correct it in the future. YWNBU to complain if having complained herself the teacher persisted in using the wrong name.

Kveta is in the same position as I have been and I do think that people teaching my children to write their name should make sure that they are teaching it correctly otherwise they will get conflicting information at home and school. Happily all bar one teacher have graciously taken my or my dc's corrections and acknowledged the importance of teaching them to write their name correctly.

financialwizard · 21/12/2014 08:02

YANBU. My dd's teacher spells her surname wrong all the time and it drives me barmy. Even worse I have corrected her 3 times and she is a family friend ffs.

Pipbin · 21/12/2014 08:05

There are a couple of children in my class with made up unique names. The problem I have is that my computer autocorrects some of them so I have taught it the incorrect unique spellings now!

SunnaClausIsComingToTown · 21/12/2014 08:07

YABU. Reading between the lines, you spelt her name wrongly in the first place.

springlamb · 21/12/2014 08:09

We just had a school report which mentions something stupendously wonderful that my Yr8 DD did in a specific lesson which was only held on a specific day at a specific time. All of the class took part in this activity during the same period but apparently DD's contribution was over and above everyone else's and she should be considering basing her option choices around this.

DD was in the dentist's chair that day. She'd really wanted to attend the activity, but we'd waited 6 weeks for this appointment so she definitely wasn't even on school premises.

pippitysqueakity · 21/12/2014 08:11

It is fair to expect a name to be spelled correctly.
It is fair to expect reports to be proofread.
It was a mistake.
Mistakes happen, even in official documents etc. Have you never read a book which has a printing error, and their proofs are checked umpteen times?
Why do people find other people's mistakes so hard to forgive?

JapaneseMargaret · 21/12/2014 08:17

I would never normally pick someone up on their spelling, but I have to agree with others - your posts do have a lot of spelling errors in them, and even your user-name is misspelt, so you must understand how easy it is to happen.

It's not great that your DD's name has been spelt incorrectly in her report. I'd be annoyed, too. But it does happen.

rolypolydoll · 21/12/2014 08:21

My own husband spelt my name wrong the other day! Mistakes happen.

MrsTerryPratchett · 21/12/2014 08:22

I have a non-standard spelling (correct but Scottish rather than English) and I'm not very happy when it's wrong. However, I care about spelling. Your NN is wrong, OP is wrong and you chose a non-standard spelling for your DD. It screams, 'I don't care about spelling'. Is it because it is a name that you care this time?

whattheseithakasmean · 21/12/2014 08:24

YANBU - it would miff me. Yes, human error, but in my experience some teachers are more prone to these than others - because some teachers give more of a shit than others.

We all know the crappy teachers at school and getting kids names wrong is just a symptom of their general attitude. My DD has a name that is spelled how it is said, but changing one letter makes it a different name. My DD is also quiet & introverted (& clever). I have teachers call her by the 'wrong' name and I suspect they couldn't pick my girl out in a line up. She has given them no bother all year and then got a good mark. To me, that is the mark of a shit teacher - all attention has gone on the loud & difficult. By contrast, the excellent teachers know her name, who she is, and can explain how they have encouraged her to build confidence.

So yes, a symptom of not being good at your job, or not caring. It saddens me greatly that fantastic teachers are paid the same as the shitty ones. We can't pay good teachers enough and it should be far easier to get rid of the rubbish ones.

ThereIsAPartridgeInTheKitchen · 21/12/2014 08:29

Why are people assuming the OP has spelt her DD's name wrong ? It sounds to me like there are two spellings of her name, one just happens to be more common and her DD has the not so common one.

limitedperiodonly · 21/12/2014 08:34

After my mock English A level, my teacher read out a passage from one of my essays and praised it for its insight. I was so proud.

Trouble was, he thought I was another teacher's class. I know I sat at the back and didn't hand my homework in much, but really, I'd been there nearly two years.

limitedperiodonly · 21/12/2014 08:36

What I meant to say was, it could be worse.

Flip

1 2 3

Swipe left for the next trending thread