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

Aibu to think it’s poor if a Year 2 child can spell better than whoever send the school text messages?

75 replies

BlueMirror · 27/02/2018 11:29

Received a message from the school yesterday. Without being too outing it was about making sure the children have appropriate clothing for the cold weather. It was a very short message but they managed to use the incorrect ‘wear’ (they wrote were) and it’s was missing the apostrophe.
Now I’m not going to complain because it’s not going to be anyone who is teaching my child who has written it and I’ve no wish to have a member of office staff humiliated. But aibu to think they should check stuff like this as it does reflect on the school? The newsletters are littered with errors as well. Really bad ones.
My 7 yr old was able to spot the mistakes in the text message (I didn’t say it was from his school!).
Maybe some of the more able year 6’s proofreading the newsletters would be a valuable exercise?

OP posts:

WildwestWind · 27/02/2018 18:56

I'm one of the 'admin staff' who sends out messages to parents and yes, on occasions, I get things wrong. Studnets instead of students is a regular typo. I am cross with myself if I make an error but it's not the end of the world.

Fortunately as Dixie points out I'm not the one teaching the children. I'm the one looking after the school's £6m budget.

Turnocks34 · 27/02/2018 18:58

To be honest it just happens. I teach secondary Maths, and emailed a parent today to saying 'Their are revision sessions Thursday and Friday dinner time' 😳

doesthislookoddtoyou · 27/02/2018 19:02

Fortunately as Dixie points out I'm not the one teaching the children. I'm the one looking after the school's £6m budget

which would be worrying if you couldn't spell to the level of a 7 year old, wouldn't it?

TheFallenMadonna · 27/02/2018 19:06

At my previous school (secondary), everything was indeed checked by the Head before it went out. Absolutely everything.

Pemba · 27/02/2018 19:06

If not the head to check it, then a competent literate member of staff, could be a teacher but I don't seen why a clerical member of staff shouldn't be capable. Like I said, they should be careful who they employ. It's fairly basic.

You are obviously easily amused anxious. A lot of touchy school staff on here I see (as usual).

TheFallenMadonna · 27/02/2018 19:08

Oh, I lie. Replies to parents' emails, no. But all letters, SIMS in touch messages etc. Definitely. He was a stickler.

Chunkymonkey123 · 27/02/2018 19:12

If you know that a text is going out to hundreds of parents you should take a minute to double check it makes sense. I’m a teacher and I make sure any contact home is correct as it reflects badly on me and the school. How can I red pen students spellings when I make my own?

grasspigeons · 27/02/2018 19:13

well we got told to make sure the children remembered named willies
much more fun than a were/wear mix up.

It is better to get things right, but I have some sympathy as its the kind of thing I get wrong.

anxious2017 · 27/02/2018 19:14

You are obviously easily amused anxious. A lot of touchy school staff on here I see (as usual)

I'm not easily amused, nor am I touchy. If you've actually been inside a school you'll know a head couldn't possibly do this, but clearly you haven't. The thought of any head I've worked with checking every text, letter, Dojo message, email, newsletter etc. was so unrealistic it was laughable.

Pemba · 27/02/2018 19:19

Actually anxious some heads do do this, clearly, see The Fallen Madonna's messages above. I understand heads are busy, but they need to hire capable staff then, that would be the obvious thing to do. Of course I've been in a school! DH is a teacher too.

fabulousfrumpyfeet · 27/02/2018 19:19

In my dd's nursery they have 'high expections' of the children. And I got an email from a school I work with about 'them children'. They are both very good places in general but I do find it worrying.

VladmirsPoutine · 27/02/2018 19:25

Did you get your child to proof-read your post? No? Thought not. A typo here or there won't ruin a child's education.

oblada · 27/02/2018 19:28

At nursery the 'we was happy playing with the sand' makes me laugh. It's nursery after all. But yes at school I'd expect decent standards. I agree with you OP.

Strumpetpumpet · 27/02/2018 19:37

I work in a school office and I agree with you OP. In my experience the teachers are just as guilty of this as the support staff. Proof reading and spell checking takes seconds; there is no excuse for badly written communication from schools.

ThatsWotSheSaid · 27/02/2018 20:31

Some people care a lot about spelling. Some people don’t care at all. Meh.

thewhitechapelfatberg · 27/02/2018 20:43

I agree. It totally matters. I used to work in a very high-flying, heavily oversubscribed school and the spelling and grammatical errors on the website gave an awful impression and made me cringe with embarrassment. Anyone can make the odd typo, but this was very obviously someone who had no clue. I couldn’t believe the Head let it happen.

doesthislookoddtoyou · 27/02/2018 22:39

Some people care a lot about spelling. Some people don’t care at all. Meh

And people who work in schools need to be the former, not the latter.

WildwestWind · 27/02/2018 23:28

doesthislookoddtooyou I guess it would be worrying if my literacy level was lower than an average seven year old. But do you honestly think schools would appoint someone who clearly lacked the ability to spell?

Oh and sorry pemba for being so touchy, it's been a long day.
On balance I do agree with the OP but we all make silly mistakes occasionally.

arethereanyleftatall · 27/02/2018 23:41

I don't think this matters.
The job of the admin person here is to get the info out to parents quickly, then get on with their other jobs.
Someone checking it for spelling is a waste of time and money.
What do they pay school admin staff - minimum wage or just above I'd imagine)?
For that you're looking at basic qualifications, and a friendly, nice manner is more important. Some can spell, some can't, but I wouldn't put it too high up on the list if I were recruiting.

crimsonlake · 27/02/2018 23:43

How ironic that you make an error yourself in your post, you must feel quite a fool.

RatherBeRiding · 28/02/2018 09:35

And you crimsonlake must feel like a right smug fecker. Is there really any need?

SoupDragon · 28/02/2018 11:01

Is there really any need?

According to the OP, yes there is a need to complain about typos and autocorrect errors.

Blackteadrinker77 · 28/02/2018 11:07

My 7 yr old was able to spot the mistakes in the text message (I didn’t say it was from his school!)

Your 7 year old was able to spot the grammatical errors but not work out who the text was from? I find that hard to believe.

Uhuhhoney · 28/02/2018 22:02

because if the school admin staff have the spelling ability of a 7 year old , what else are they getting wrong?

You sound nice.

KittyVonCatsington · 28/02/2018 22:25

and it’s was missing the apostrophe.

Just like a previous poster requested, I too would like to see the context of the sentence this was written in. There are times when ‘its’ is correct.

Flip

1 2 3