Is it unreasonable to expect excellent grammar, punctuation and spelling from school?

[AJ65]

A year 5 play uses 'motive' as a verb, as in 'he knows how to motive his people', uses 'its' where it should be 'it's' and 'your' where it should be 'you're'!! Then they sent out an email about a 'sponsered walk'!! I'm appalled!!

Would our kids be allowed to get away with such poor performance?

I doubt they would in the new SPAG test

I can almost forgive the its/it's but not motive! that's really quite surprise... see what I did there

YANBU.

Ha ha ha - clunk I've got other fish to fry with the school, so don't want to make a fuss about this, but seriously!?

Cue (que) a load of "it dunt matter if yow can undersd it do it? comments"

sorry, what is a year 5 "play"?

I'm constantly amazed at errors like this in work life so I imagine they will occur among school staff too.

YADNBU but you'll get a load of responses saying you are. The best are those who advocate that it's fine even for people with dyslexia to be English teachers...

The Secretary of State for Education can't spell "sincerely". Whole system is fucked.

Teachers are heading for the exit whenever and wherever they can. The teaching 'profession' takes what it can get so unless conditions radically improve don't expect the crème de la crème.

Having said that, as a (retired) teacher, you are not being unreasonable to expect better. The dire standard of some of my former colleagues' written expression used to shock me on a regular basis. Some of them were fellow English teachers.

(Really hoping I haven't made any of my own mistakes in that post!)

debbiedidit - it's not really a play; it's a 'sharing assembly' where the kids get to demonstrate what they've been learning. I could forgive the error if the kids wrote it themselves, but I asked my daughter and she said they were just given the script.

Sorry the last one was for lorelei9here

debbiedidit - I don't have a problem with dyslexic teachers, as long as they use appropriate software / editing to ensure correct spelling and grammar etc. I had a good friend who was a dyslexic philosophy PhD; his handwriting and spelling were appalling, but he knew how to correct and check his work so it is possible!

And if the kids have to write perfectly, so should the teachers and other staff!

Thanks for clearing that up - I did wonder if the children had written it and got confused.

the other thing that strikes me about the specific errors here - I wonder if someone was using dictation software? If you try dictating to Siri, you come up with some interesting stuff - but "motive" for "motivate" could easily happen if you weren't enunciating clearly.

actually Siri comes up with some gripping stuff even if you do speak clearly

lorelei9here and it's fine to use that software, but then you need to edit it for errors!!

Siri comes up with some great stuff on dictate; that's why you have to read it through for sense!

oh I agree
I just have this vision of a hugely rushed person not checking it.

I think it sounds poor, and I'd be irritated.

More irritated by this though: The best are those who advocate that it's fine even for people with dyslexia to be English teachers.

debbie, why on earth shouldn't people with dyslexia be English teachers? I'm dyslexic; I teach English. It's fine.

I often correct my children's teacher's writing in their homework books. They can like it or lump it. Not knowing difference between it's and its drives me crazy.
My daughter once wrote 'raison', teacher corrected it in green pen to 'raisen' which I corrected in red pen to 'raisin'!

Of course it matters.

It just doesn't matter as much as some people think it does. People make mistakes.

In any case, most letters and emails are not written by teaching staff.

In any case, most letters and emails are not written by teaching staff.

Really? I'm not sure that was true of any of the schools I worked in.

You have to remember that many teachers are around my age now (30 ish) and we fell into the curriculum gap where grammar was not considered important.

Most of my English lessons at senior school thinking back quite hard now were about media and how to make the perfect radio advert or acting out Shakespeare.

At school years ago I was writing a story about horses and my English teacher crossed out reins and wrote 'reigns'.

BertrandRussell - it just seems a bit hypocritical to insist that children can't make mistakes while the teachers and admin staff can because 'It just doesn't matter as much as some people think it does. People make mistakes.'

dodobookends - mwah ah ah

Oh looly71 I just know I'm going to do that when the time comes!

I don't think hypocritical is the right word. Unless you belong to the " if teachers can wear long ear rings, why can't my child" persuasion. Obviously the school should get it right. And miscorrecting children's work is unforgivable. But I've been a school parent for 16 years- and the occasional mistake in a letter home no longer really bothers me. Although it certainly would have, 14 years ago!

I often correct my children's teacher's writing in their homework books. They can like it or lump it.

Or even your children's teachers' writing!

I don't think it is necessarily hypocritical either - because surely it is exactly what you would say to a child, too? It's important to get it right, but don't worry, it's not the be-all and end-all. I'm struggling to imagine any aspect of education where it would be a good idea to make a child feel they could never make a mistake, or that adults never get things wrong.