To expect the school to not make spelling and grammar mistakes

[concernedforthefuture]

Maybe I'm being pedantic, but I'm getting a bit fed up with receiving letters & reports etc. from school with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. It's not just the odd one here and there; each week, the newsletter (written by the headteacher!) has multiple errors that make me cringe. The new sign on DS' classroom door announces 'Welcome to Eagle's Class'.
I really want to mention it but without coming across as wanky. I don't think it's acceptable that my children are being taught by teachers who aren't confidently applying the rules that they're trying to teach to their own work.

A letter about an outdoor trip expected to be muddy Don’t forget to bring your willies. Unfortunately we spotted that before the letter went out.

Odd typo’s are fine but not loads of grammatical errors. I used to do the newsletter and would always be the Office Manager to check it as she was old school and always picked up errors. Odd one did get through though.

—worries about errors in post—

I am with you on how frustrating it is OP, but in this house we have had to make it into a joke instead of a complaint - it’s very definitely a case of “laugh rather than cry” in our situation.

In DS’s school the head teacher’s Grammar is diabolical. He can’t string a sentence together properly let alone write a coherent newsletter/blog post. It’s genuinely awful - every single article/newsletter/blog post is littered with poor grammar, poor sentence structure, incorrect use of words, missing words and a hell of a lot of waffle.

In the primary school things are better and I do think it is generally more a case of typos than actual lack of understanding. Mistakes are fairly common, but not horrendous. (Although DTs did have a teacher once who wrote “we done...” on their school reports when sharing info about what they had studied that year. That one made me shrivel up inside a little.)

Aah be should be get. Typical

I think a polite and low-key word to the Head Teacher would be appropriate. It’s a simple teacher training issue.

DS had a bright young NQT in Reception. She was kind, full of energy and lovely in every way. She had no idea about apostrophes though. Scissor’s, did’nt, had’nt, sock’s, etc. I (along with some other parents, apparently) mentioned it to the Head.

She left unexpectedly at the end of her first year. Apparently one parent had taken it upon themselves to anonymously print her letters out, ‘mark’ them in red pen and post them back to her

It needed to be corrected, but there was a kinder way to do it.

t is called doing your job Green, many,many people do it. That type of reply is what irks people re:teaching.

Totally agree with this. Nothing you said excuses that error Green. It's basic and should be correct.

I absolutely think errors should be pointed out. We're meant to be teaching the children so of course we should accept correction when we've made mistakes.

Lol at the thought of the HT making door signs! The sign should say 'Welcome to Eagle Class' (or class) or just a sign saying 'Eagles'. We have the same problem in my school where the plural name is used all the time but when 'class' is added on, there is the usual apostrophe angst with half of us cringing and the other half saying I can't see a problem

There was a spelling mistake in DS's list of spellings to learn the other week!

It doesn't give a good impression when you're supposedly setting a good example.
I think you have to differentiate between typos when things are written under pressure of time and poorly checked, and underlying need to set matters straight.
I used to get a colleague to check reports for me, as sometimes your eye skims over mistakes, as you know what you meant, so miss slips of the finger, or missed letters. I'd rather be told kindly by a colleague than pulled up short by an eagle-eyed parent!
But it can be difficult to broach with a colleague; I once had to re-format a whole set of reports because the Art teacher could not see anything wrong with "looses concentration", thought spelling was interchangeable with "loses". My otherwise lovely head teacher got very shirty when I pointed out that "affect" and "effect" had subtly different meanings, stomped off to find grammar guide (and was even crosser to find I had been correct).
The story of the NQT leaving after one year is so sad; I think, in that instance, their mentor should have spotted the problem and given a steer before parents became exasperated.
I think part of the problem is over-reliance on spellcheckers; the computer will not spot incorrect homophones, and some of the grammar guidance it gives can be questionable. The other problem can be pressure of time; in an ideal world, if the communication is important, it helps to come back to the draft later, but if you're drowning in paperwork already......
In one of my previous posts, I had the dubious privilege of being sent around the building before Open Days and the like, as nit-picker in chief........
It needs to be flagged up, but kindly, preferably before general publication.

Every school I’ve worked in has had newsletters from the head teacher but they are actually written by office staff so - as much as they should still be correct - you can’t always blame the head.

Everybody makes mistakes but they can still be highlighted in a polite manner

OP, you have split an infinitive in your thread title.

I see it has already been mentioned. Not everyone failed to spot the lack of elegance, then.

Everyone knows the difference between typos and actual errors.

My son’s school has a problem with them and I generally ignore it but I did complain when a letter came home on the last day of term with incorrect start dates, contradictory information, incorrect times and the teacher’s name spelled incorrectly.

That was a particular low.

When I found mistakes in letters, homework, etc., [for example, enviroment and enviromental were two words on a spelling list] I used to casually mention it to that parent, who would inevitably storm into school.

Yes, I'm that brave .

I wonder if our children are at the same school as we are always picking errors out of letters and all classrooms are named after birds too

YANBU. I'm a teacher, and even though we are an overworked, exhausted profession, errors like that are unacceptable! I keep saying the wrong 'your/you're' on Facebook and incorrect apostrophes from people who are teachers. It's embarrassing.

Though strictly speaking there isn't anything technically wrong in splitting an infinitive. It's more stylistic and comes from people deciding to apply Latin rules (where it is impossible to split an infinitive as it's one word) to English. Generally it's best to avoid them in formal writing but otherwise it's not really an issue.

To be fair, I only learned about the correct use of apostrophes when I became an English teacher. For the previous 28 years of my life I didn't have much of a clue about the correct rules.

To take your example:

1. Eagles Classroom
2. Eagles' Classroom
3. Eagle's Classroom

Could all be correct, depending on the intended meaning:

1. This is the designated classroom for Eagles to be in, but does not belong to them
2. This classroom belongs to the Eagles, there is more than one Eagle.
3. This classroom belongs to the Eagle. There is only one Eagle.

Really no excuse for mistakes being made that would be picked up by a Word spellcheck though.

Word spellcheck seems rather too fond of apostrophes to me though!

I write a plural and get given an apostrophe for free. Is it like a special offer?

Ali1cedowntherabbithole
My android/Samsung likes to delete apostrophes.
Apparently they can never come at the end of a word and inverted commas aren't a thing. I've got to delete and edit the autocorrected version.