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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To expect school teachers to actually educate my child?

460 replies

ICancelledTheCheque · 27/01/2017 10:41

Maybe I'm being a bit PFB but this has really irked me.

DD is Y7 in a big academy secondary school. She showed me some work she had done - in three paragraphs there were six spelling errors and five grammatical errors. The teacher didn't mark up a single thing and just put big green ticks and irritating smiley faces on her work and wrote "excellent work" at the end.

But it wasn't excellent work. How is she going to learn if they don't flag this stuff up? Is this the norm these days? Doesn't bode well for GCSEs if so!!

OP posts:
morningconstitutional2017 · 27/01/2017 12:36

It's bad, isn't it? Ultimately it isn't doing the child any favours to ignore these errors. What happens when she goes out into the real world - maybe an office job and is told that her written English isn't up to scratch?

cingolimama · 27/01/2017 12:37

Seahorse, I totally agree!

5moreminutes · 27/01/2017 12:37

cantkeepawayforever a secondary English teacher is teaching 150 - 180 different children per day though. Potentially 180 pieces of writing produced in class per day, plus homwork for each of those children twice per week, some of which will be very long pieces of GCSE and A level course work needing very detailed feedback on content for re drafting.

SmileEachDay · 27/01/2017 12:37

morning - I'm sure you have read the reasons why this might have happened. What is your solution?

Anothermoomin · 27/01/2017 12:38

AIBU to expect parents with little knowledge of education to keep their stupid opinions to themselves?
One lesson plan all teachers can follow? Really?
Every error corrected in every piece of work? How? When?
All young people are illiterate!
All older people spell and punctuate accurately.
Brilliant spelling is essential for GCSE. No!
Why can't teachers change their lessons to suit me and my child?

Many teachers have provided information on many threads regarding government and school policies, the need to differentiate for children, different lesson objectives, the importance of building confidence etc and yet parents still talk absolute and total bollocks.

Judging from MN many parents are ignorant and then totally fail to read and take on board information offered to them. Most teenagers are really good at listening to criticism and working to improve, perhaps some parents could try it.

dataandspot · 27/01/2017 12:38

My child has just started in year7 and books are rarely marked. How do you know if they are working to the right standard if there is no feedback?!

This is an ofsted outstanding school.....

Bluntness100 · 27/01/2017 12:39

!This is of course very simply untrue.

SmileEachDay · 27/01/2017 12:42

blunt

Greater opportunities for high quality feedback is indeed one of the benefits of small classes.

Anothermoomin · 27/01/2017 12:44

a level etc poor punctuation, also A level should be capitalised.
Please do not start sentences with 'but'.
over 30 is two very different ball games - use are for plurals.

Good grief adults today! Anyone would think they haven't been educated properly.

MuteButtonisOn · 27/01/2017 12:45

That annoys me too 5. Comments like ' it's cringe ' make me cry inside. I'm also in my 40s.

brasty · 27/01/2017 12:47

I don't write here, in the way I do for work. I am sure those whose spelling and grammar you are correcting, also do not. Most of us are commenting here on the go, in between other things.

cantkeepawayforever · 27/01/2017 12:47

To al the secondary teachers - apologies.

As a teacher in 1 level of education, and simply a parent in the other, I appreciate that my viewpoint is different in each. I do also appreciate that the challenge in primary is the relentless fast turnaround, whereas in secondary it is the peaks and troughs of more substantial marking.

My DS is now in Y11, so I do now see more of the secondary marking workload, whereas for the previous 4 years I haven't.

Anothermoomin · 27/01/2017 12:48

Bluntness apologies for using you as an example, but it drives me to distraction when posters pile in to criticise teenagers when their posts contain errors.
Picking out every error is demoralising and can be humiliating.
Most older teenagers are as good as most adults in relation to SPaG.

SmileEachDay · 27/01/2017 12:49

brasty what is your solution? Given that your suggestion of a generic "there are some errors" is a bad one?

Anothermoomin · 27/01/2017 12:50

OK brasty so it fine for adults to make mistakes here but students focusing on one particular learning objective must make sure all their SPaG is accurate.

kesstrel · 27/01/2017 12:51

Moomin

Starting sentences with 'but' is perfectly acceptable in informal writing.

The subject of the verb 'is' is the phrase 'over 30', not 'two different ball games.' Are would be incorrect. And the comma you recommended earlier would be a matter of taste, not required.

brasty · 27/01/2017 12:54

When I am doing essays, or any work for my course, I check my spelling and grammar. Social media is different

MymbleClement · 27/01/2017 12:55

I'm quite surprised at this given that my 5 year old, who can just about read, has a spelling test every week Hmm

Useful to know however that it's pointless me worrying about it as no one will give a shit in 10 years.

MmmCuriouSir · 27/01/2017 12:55

It's the tale wagging the dog. Metrics driving policy. Rubbish.

SmileEachDay · 27/01/2017 12:56

Who has said they don't give a shit, Mymble?

d270r0 · 27/01/2017 12:57

Teachers cannot possibly mark in detail every single thing each child does. If a teacher has 7 classes, say 30 children per class. Thats 210 students in total. If each student has 3 lessons per week in that subject, thats 630 pieces of work to mark a week. Plus a homework for each student per week so 210 pieces of homework, plus end of term exams and reports etc. not to mention planning for each of those 21 lessons and meetings. So teachers cannot possibly mark everything a child does. They have to pick and choose which pieces are marked in depth and for the rest use techniques such as peer or self assessment, or 'tick and flick' which is obviously not ideal but is the only other solution.

Anothermoomin · 27/01/2017 12:59

Argghhhh the point is that marking language is often a matter of opinion and requires explanation - as you did.
Taken out of context it means nothing.
So if a science teacher (as has been suggested) should mark for SPaG complete with explanations + marking for science content exactly how long would that marking take for it to be useful to the pupil and not just to make parents happy?
kestrel you now need to mark everyone else on the thread to the same standard by Monday morning.

Ginmummy1 · 27/01/2017 13:00

Do pupils understand that some work is 'deep marked' but other work is not?

Otherwise, if a spelling error has not been indicated by the teacher, the pupil might assume they spelled the word correctly.

Bluntness100 · 27/01/2017 13:00

I'm not a fan of and personally don't pick up on errors on social media, as I do it myself, usually through sheer laziness.

However I spell and grammatically check everything for work and I absolutely expect a students spelling and grammar to be corrected as part of the learning process. I don't understand how they learn if they are never told and see it as detrimental to the learning process and don't buy into the "don't tell them in case it upsets them school of thought.".

It didn't upset my daughter and it's quite simple for teachers to write "excellent content, spelling and grammar needs more attention" on a piece of work. Not having time to mark it correctly is a wider issue, where the job is only being half done due to time constraints and marking over load.